Sermons & Tracts 1 part 13/37

we say that by this sevenfold number now, through the priests of God, not so much one city is destroyed, as the iniquity of the whole world is scattered. For as in the naming of a single city the state of the whole world is figured; so by the circuit of seven days the spaces of the whole world are marked out, throughout which the trumpets of the priestly preachings announce destruction to the age itself, and threaten judgment: as it is written, 'Because the world shall pass away, and all things that are in the world. But he who does the will of God abides forever' (1 John 2:16-17): by the gift of Him who lives and reigns through the ages. SERMON 36. On Gideon. 1. A foreshadowing of predestination.

Today, brethren, we heard that when Gideon the son of Joash was beating out the harvest of wheat with a rod under an oak tree, at the promise of the Angel he was counted worthy to hear that he should deliver God's people from the power of their enemies into the liberty of God. Nor is it wonderful, if he was chosen unto grace; since, even then set under the shadow of the holy cross and of venerable wisdom, in the predestined mystery of the future Incarnation, he was bringing forth the perceptible grain of the waxen crop from its hiding places, and separating the election of the saints from the refuse of empty chaff: they who, as though exercised by the rod of truth, laying aside the superfluous things of the old man together with his deeds, are gathered, as in a winepress, so in the Church.

For the Church is the winepress of the eternal fount, in which the fruit of the heavenly vine overflows. 2. A figure of our redemption. Christ the rock as referred to the flesh. Now when Gideon had heard that through him the Lord would deliver His people from the multitude of their enemies, he offered in sacrifice a kid of the goats, whose flesh, according to the angel's instructions, together with unleavened bread he set upon the rock, and poured the broth over it. As soon as the angel of God touched these with the tip of the staff he carried, fire burst forth from the rock; and thus the sacrifice that was being offered was consumed. By which sign it seems to be declared that this rock bore the type of the body of Christ: for it is written, 'And they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them;'

'and that Rock was Christ' (1 Cor. 10:4). This surely was referred not to His divinity, but to His flesh, which flooded the thirsting hearts of the peoples with the perennial stream of His own blood. Even then, therefore, it was declared in mystery that the Lord Jesus, crucified in His flesh, would blot out the sins of the whole world: not only the offences of deeds, but also the desires of souls. For the flesh of the kid is referred to the guilt of the deed, and the broth to the enticements of desires; as it is written, 'Because the people lusted an exceeding lust: and they said, Who shall give us flesh to eat' (Num. 11:4)?

Therefore that the angel stretched out his staff and touched the rock, from which fire came forth, shows that the flesh of the Lord, filled with the divine Spirit, would burn away all the sins of the human condition. Whence also the Lord says, 'I am come to send fire on the earth' (Luke 12:49). 3. The abolition of the old sacrifices revealed. Christ the kid, the sheep, the calf. The mystery of the Cross. The learned man, foreseeing things to come, therefore perceived the heavenly mysteries; and so according to the oracles he slew the calf that his father had dedicated to the idols, and offered up another, seven years old, to God. By this deed he most manifestly revealed that after the coming of the Lord all the sacrifices of heathenism were to be abolished, and that the one sacrifice of the Lord's Passion was to be offered to God for the religion of the people.

For that calf bore the type of Christ. And it was seven years old, because in Christ there dwelt the fulness of the seven spiritual virtues, as Isaiah said (Isa. 11:2). This calf also Abraham offered, when he saw the day of the Lord and was glad (John 8:56). This is He who was offered now in the type of a kid, now of a sheep, now of a calf: of a kid, because it is a sacrifice for sins; of a sheep, because it is a voluntary victim; of a calf, because it is an unspotted sacrifice. Holy Gideon therefore foresaw the mystery. Lastly, he chose three hundred for the battle, to show that the world was to be delivered from the assault of grievous enemies not by the number of a multitude, but by the sacrament of the Cross (Judg. 7:7). For three hundred, in the Greek T,

the tau, displays the likeness of the Cross. 4. The dew on the fleece, then on the threshing-floor; faith first in Judaea, thereafter among the Gentiles. And yet, although he was strong and confident, he still sought fuller proofs from the Lord of the future victory, saying: 'If Thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as Thou hast spoken, O Lord, behold I put a fleece of wool on the floor, and if the dew be upon the fleece only, and drought upon all the earth, I shall know that Thou wilt deliver the people by my hand according to Thy promises.' And so it came to pass. But afterward he added, that the dew should again flow over the whole earth, and the drought be upon the fleece (Judg. 6 and 7). For the dew on the fleece was faith in Judaea: because the words of God descend like dew. Whence Moses also says:

'Let my speech be awaited as the rain, and my words as the dew' (Deut. 32:2). Therefore when the whole world was parched with the fruitless heat of Gentile superstition, then the dew of that heavenly visitation was upon the fleece, that is, in Judaea. But afterward the sheep which were lost of the house of Israel—whence I think the figure of the Judaic fleece was foreshadowed—those sheep, I say, denied the fountain of living water, the dew of faith dried up in the breasts of the Jews, and that divine fountain turned its channels into the hearts of the Gentiles. Hence it is that now the whole world is moistened with the dew of faith. But the Jews lost their prophets and counsellors. Nor is it any wonder if they, whom the Lord God deprived of the abundance of the prophetic rain, undergo the drought of unbelief, when He said:

'I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon this vineyard' (Isa. 5:6). For there is a saving rain of the prophetic cloud, as David also said: 'He shall come down like rain upon the fleece, and as showers falling upon the earth' (Ps. 71:6). The divine Scriptures promised us this rain for the whole world, which with the dew of the divine Spirit should water the earth at the coming of the Lord and Saviour. Therefore now the dew has come, the rain also has come, the Lord has come bringing the heavenly showers with Him: and so now we drink, who before were thirsting, and we drink in that divine Spirit with an inward draught. This therefore holy Gideon foresaw: that the Gentiles and nations also would drink the true and spiritual dew by the reception of faith. 5.

For what purpose the fleece was on the threshing-floor. Yet not idly did Gideon place the fleece neither in a field nor in a meadow, but on the threshing-floor, where is the harvest of wheat (for the harvest indeed is plenteous, but the labourers are few [Matt. 9:37]): because through faith in the Lord there was to be in the Church a fruitful harvest of virtues. Nor is this idle either, that he dried out the Judaic fleece, and put its dew into a basin that it might be filled with water, yet did not himself wash his feet from that dew. To another was owed the prerogative of so great a mystery. Christ was awaited, who alone could wash away the filth of all. Gideon was not so great as to claim this mystery for himself. For it was not Gideon, but the Son of man that came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (Matt. 20:28). 6. Recapitulation.

I beseech you, brethren, that you take it not amiss that for the sake of the slower and simpler ones we sometimes briefly repeat the things that are said. For those who are lettered and learned, by God's favour understand without effort the things that are spoken; but for the rest, that is, for the unlearned and simple, unless a brief recapitulation be made, I fear they may grasp too little of what is said. Gideon, dearly beloved brethren, bore the type of the Lord and Saviour. And because three hundred, according to the Greek reckoning, make the Cross, so Gideon then, with three hundred men, snatched the people of the Jews from the most cruel nations; even as afterward Christ, through the mystery of the Cross, delivered the whole human race from the power of the devil.

For the winepress, where he was threshing the harvest because of continual tribulations, bore the type of the Church. The harvest that was being cut signified the Christian people, whom Christ at His coming separated from the chaff, that is, from all sins, by the rod of discipline or the staff of His Cross. For that angel also who came to him is taken as a type of the Lord and Saviour. It is manifest that the tree under which he stood, and the staff which he held, signified the Cross. That rock, upon which Gideon offered the burnt offering, was Christ: for so says the Apostle, 'And that Rock was Christ.' That kid which was offered designated the human race, liable to sins.

That the angel touched the rock with his staff, and fire came forth and consumed that kid: the Cross touched Christ, and from the rock, which was Christ, came forth the fire of love, which consumed the sins of the human race. For concerning Himself the true Gideon, Christ, says in the Gospel, 'I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled?' The bull that he slew also figured the Lord, who for the redemption of the human race was offered up. And that it was seven years old seems to signify the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, which came upon Christ. The fleece which he placed on the threshing-floor, and asked the Lord that the dew should be upon the fleece only, and drought upon all the earth, and it was so done;

and again he asked that the fleece should remain dry, and that the dew should be upon all the floor: the fleece signified the people of the Jews, but the floor signified the people of all the Gentiles throughout the whole world. And because in the first time the dew of the word of God was in Judaea alone, and the whole world had remained in drought; therefore first the dew came upon the fleece, and the floor was dry; but afterward, when the Jews killed Christ the Lord, the fleece was wrung out by the injury of the Passion, and the people of the Jews remained parched and dry, while onto the whole floor, that is, into the entire world, unto all the nations, came not only the dew, but also the rain of the word of God and the rivers of the Apostles. And so throughout the whole earth, as upon a floor, the Church is watered with the dew of spiritual grace;

and the unhappy Synagogue, deprived of all moisture or rain of the divine word, remained dry and parched. Therefore, that this spiritual rain and the dew of divine grace may endure in us, let us wholesomely ponder all that is preached, and, in conversing with one another, ruminate as clean animals do: that we may have the profitable juice by which our soul can live for ever, and, filled with such delights, may deserve to say with the prophet, 'How sweet are Thy words unto my throat, O Lord' (Ps. 118:103)! But then will the sweetness of the word of God be able to remain in us, if we are willing to instil it also into others by more frequently relating it with full and perfect love;

that we may be able to provide spiritual gains for ourselves not only from our own salvation, but also from that of others: by the help of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and dominion, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen. SERMON 37. Concerning David and Jesse his father, and concerning Goliath. 1. The same person can be a figure of different persons. Jesse a type of God the Father. In the divine Scriptures, dearly beloved brethren, one and the same person, according to the time and place, can have a different signification. For blessed Isaac (as your Holiness well knows), when he was offered up by his father, figured Christ the Lord;

but when he blessed his son Jacob, and sent him into Mesopotamia to take a wife, Jacob bore the type of Christ, and Isaac bore the image of God the Father. Again blessed Jacob bore the type of Christ, when he took a wife; he bore the figure of God the Father, when he loved blessed Joseph more than all his sons, and made him a coat of many colours, which signified the incarnation of the Lord and Saviour. As therefore it then came to pass, dearly beloved brethren, in the blessed patriarchs, namely Isaac and Jacob, so also we recognize it to be figured in Jesse the father of David. For when David sent his son to seek out his brothers, he seems to have borne the type of God the Father. Jesse sent David to seek out his brothers;

and God the Father sent His Only-begotten, in whose person it is written, 'I will declare Thy name unto my brethren' (Ps. 21:23). For Christ had come to seek out His brethren, when He said, 'I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel' (Matt. 15:24). David a figure of Christ. Jesse therefore said to David his son: 'Take an ephah of parched grain, and ten cheeses, and go, seek out thy brothers.' An ephah, my brethren, is a measure of three modii: and in the three measures let the mystery of the Trinity be understood. Blessed Abraham also well knew this mystery. For when he was found worthy to see the sacrament of the Trinity in three persons under the oak of Mamre, he commanded three measures of fine flour to be mingled.

Three seahs are three measures. This measure therefore Jesse also gave to his son. In the ten cheeses is understood the decalogue of the Old Testament. David therefore came with three measures and ten cheeses, to visit his brothers who were set in battle: because Christ was to come with the decalogue of the Law and the mystery of the Trinity, to deliver the human race from the power of the devil. 3. The brother rebuking David: the Jews or the devil envying the coming of Christ. But as David came, one of his brothers rebuked him, saying: 'Why hast thou left those few sheep, and art come to the battle' (1 Sam. 17)?

That elder brother, who out of malice rebuked David bearing the type of the Lord, signified the people of the Jews, who out of envy disparaged Christ the Lord, who had come for the salvation of the human race, and frequently afflicted Him with many injuries. 'Why,' he says, 'hast thou left those sheep, and art come to the battle?' As though the devil, envying the salvation of men, does not seem to you to speak through his mouth: as if he said to Christ, 'Why hast thou left the ninety and nine sheep that went not astray, and art come to seek the one that was lost (Matt. 18:12), and to call it back to its own fold, delivered from the hand of the spiritual Goliath, that is, from the power of the devil, by the staff of the Cross?'

'Why,' he says, 'hast thou left those few sheep?' With an evil and proud mind indeed, yet he spoke the truth: because Jesus, as has already been said, was to leave the ninety and nine sheep, to seek the one, and to call it back to its own fold, that is, to the fellowship of the Angels. 4. The lion and the bear slain by David, the devil despoiled by Christ. Before David came, when he had already been anointed by blessed Samuel, as he himself had also said to king Saul, he slew both the lion and the bear without weapons. But both the lion and the bear bear the type of the devil: who, because they dared to seize something of David's sheep, were choked by the very power of David.

All this, dearly beloved brethren, which we read to have been then figured in David, we recognize to have been fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ. For then He strangled the lion and the bear, when descending to the lower regions He delivered all from their jaws. Lastly, hear the prophet supplicating in the person of the Lord: 'Deliver my soul from the sword, and my darling from the power of the dog: save me from the lion's mouth' (Ps. 21:20-21). And because the bear has its strength in its paws, and the lion in its mouth: in these two beasts the same devil is figured. This therefore was said in the person of Christ, that His only one, the Church, might be taken from the hand, that is, from the power of the devil. 5. Before Christ there is neither courage nor strength to fight.

The devil bound after the coming of Christ. David therefore came, and found the people of the Jews set in the valley of Terebinth, to fight against the Philistines; because the true David, Christ, was to come, to raise up the human race from the valley of sins or of tears. But they stood in the valley against the Philistines. They were in the valley; because the weight of sins had oppressed them. For they stood, and dared not fight against their adversaries. Why did they not dare? Because David, who bore the type of Christ, had not yet come. It is true, dearly beloved brethren. For who could fight against the devil, before Christ the Lord delivered the human race from the power of the devil? For David is interpreted 'Strong in hand.'

What is stronger than He, brethren, who conquered the whole world, armed not with iron, but with wood? The children of Israel therefore stood against their adversaries forty days. Forty days, on account of the four seasons and the four quarters of the earth, signify the present life, in which against Goliath and his army, that is, against the devil and his angels, the Christian people does not cease to fight: yet could not conquer, unless the true David, Christ, had descended with the staff, that is, with the mystery of the Cross. For before the coming of Christ the devil was loosed; but Christ at His coming did concerning him what is said in the Gospel, 'No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man' (Matt.

12:29). Christ therefore came, and bound the devil. 6. He cannot bite except the willing. But someone says: 'If he is bound, why does he still prevail so greatly?' It is true, brethren, he prevails much; but he lords it over the lukewarm and negligent, and those who do not truly fear God. For he is bound like a dog tied with chains; and he can bite no one, except him who has joined himself to him of his own accord with deadly heedlessness. Now see, brethren, how foolish is that man whom a dog set on a chain bites. Do not thou join thyself to him through the desires and lusts of the world; and he will not presume to approach thee. He can bark, he can solicit; but he cannot bite, except the willing.

For he harms not by compelling, but by persuading: nor does he extort consent from us, but begs for it. 7. David with the staff against Goliath. Christ with the Cross against the devil. Goliath smitten by his own sword, the devil by his own iniquity. Our members the weapons of the devil, or the temples of God. David therefore came, and found the people of the Jews warring against the devil; and when there was no one who would presume to go to single combat, he who bore the figure of Christ went forth to battle, took a staff in his hand, and went out against Goliath. And in him indeed was then figured what was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.

For the true David, Christ, came, who against the spiritual Goliath, that is, against the devil, carried His own Cross to do battle. See, brethren, where blessed David smote Goliath: in the forehead surely, where he had not the sign of the Cross. For as the staff bore the type of the Cross, so also that stone by which he was smitten figured Christ the Lord. For He is the living stone, of whom it is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, this is become the head of the corner' (Ps. 117:22). And that David, having no sword, went up upon Goliath, and slew him with his own sword;

it was designated that at the coming of Christ the devil was conquered by his own sword, who through his own wickedness and the unjust persecution which he exercised against Christ, lost his dominion over all who believe in Him. And that David placed Goliath's weapons in his own tent; we were the devil's weapons. For thus says the Apostle, 'As ye have yielded your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin; so now yield your members as weapons of righteousness unto God': and again, 'Yield not,' he says, 'your members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin' (Rom. 6:19, 13). For Christ set the weapons of our enemy in His own tent, when we, who had been the house of the devil, deserved through His grace to become the temple of God.

For mutually we are known to dwell in Christ, and Christ in us. That Christ dwells in us, the Apostle proves, when he says that Christ dwells in the inner man by faith in our hearts (Eph. 3:17). And that in turn we dwell in Christ, the same apostle designated, saying: 'As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ' (Gal. 3:27). And the Lord in the Gospel to His disciples: 'I,' He says, 'am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you' (John 14:11, 20). 8. The smiting of the spiritual Goliath in the forehead. And that he was smitten not in another member, but in the forehead; this signifies what is now practised in our catechumens:

for when the catechumen is signed on the forehead, the spiritual Goliath is smitten, and the devil is put to flight. And because we recognize and likewise perceive that the devil has been put to flight from our hearts through the grace of Christ; let us labour as much as we can, with His help, lest by our evil works and impious or lustful thoughts we should wish to invite him again into us: lest perchance (which God forbid) there be fulfilled in us that which is written, 'When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none: then, having returned to the house from which he came out, he findeth it swept clean; and he taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself:'

'and the last state of that man is worse than the first' (Matt. 12:43-45). Because therefore we, with no preceding merits, have been emptied of all evils through the grace of Baptism, let us with God's help strive to be filled with spiritual goods: so that whenever the devil shall wish to tempt us, he may always find us full of God's Spirit and occupied with good works; that there may be fulfilled in us that which is written, 'He that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved' (Matt. 10:22). Which may He Himself deign to grant, who lives and reigns world without end. Amen. SERMON 38. Concerning the plague upon the people because of David, and concerning the building of the altar on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 4.

A figure of the reprobation of the Jews and the election of the Gentiles. Just now, when the lesson from the Books of Kingdoms was read, we heard that when God's plague was raging among the people of the Jews, the angel of the Lord who was smiting stood beside the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite: and the Lord said to the angel that smote the people, 'It is enough; now stay thy hand'; and the plague ceased from the people. Araunah, dearly beloved brethren, was king of the Jebusites, and seemed to possess some part in Jerusalem: for although all the surrounding nations were made subject to king David, yet God did not permit the Jebusites to be utterly destroyed: as He Himself also says elsewhere, 'And I will not destroy all the nations, that in them I may prove whether they fear Me' (Judg. 2:21-22).

The prophet therefore says to David: 'Go up, and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.' Now that pagan king figured the people of the Gentiles. Observe, brethren, that in the land of the Jews no place was found worthy where the altar of the Lord might be set; but in the land of the Gentiles a place is chosen, where both the angel is seen, and the altar of the Lord is built, and thus the wrath of the almighty Lord is appeased. Even then it was figured that in the hearts of the Jews no worthy place could be found for offering spiritual sacrifices; but the land of the Gentiles, that is, the conscience of Christians, is chosen, where the temple of the Lord may be placed. Which thing the Apostle plainly shows, when he rebukes the Jews, saying:

'It was necessary,' he says, 'that the word of God should first be spoken to you; but because ye judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles' (Acts 13:46). This is to say, Because ye have rejected Christ, and have not prepared a worthy place in which the altar of the Lord might be set, in the land of the Gentiles, that is, in the hearts of all peoples, we place the altar of the Lord. And hence it is that the same apostle cries out to us: 'The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are' (1 Cor. 3:17). And therefore attend, dearly beloved brethren, that then the land of the Gentile king is chosen, when the people of the Jews is smitten by God's plague: which we see to have been fulfilled in the Passion of the Lord.

For when the people of the Jews, crucifying the Lord, are reprobated, then on the threshing-floor of the Gentiles, that is, in all the earth, the altar is consecrated to the Lord. The angel of the Lord therefore stood on the threshing-floor of the Gentile king; and the true angel, that is, Christ, visited the people of the Gentiles. 2. The same argument is treated. The king himself therefore offered to blessed David the threshing-floor and the oxen for a burnt offering; but king David would not accept it, unless he first gave a price: and this was fulfilled in the coming of the Lord and Saviour. For because grace, with no preceding merits, is given freely; He was unwilling to take to Himself the hearts of the Gentiles, unless He first gave a price for them—His blood. What then did He give? 'Fifty,' he says, 'shekels of silver' (2 Sam. 24).

In the number fifty both the grace of the Holy Spirit is understood, and the remission of sins is designated. For on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit is sent to the Apostles; and in the Old Testament the fiftieth year is consecrated to remission and indulgence. David indeed gave that man silver; but our David, whose type he held, poured out His precious blood. Therefore, that David might buy the threshing-floor of the pagan king, he offered fifty shekels; and the true David, Christ, that He might establish for Himself an altar on the threshing-floor of the Gentiles, on the fiftieth day gave the grace of the Holy Spirit and the indulgence of sins. And therefore, brethren, because in us and of us He deigned to make Himself a temple, let Him not suffer injury in His own house: