BOOK SEVENTEENTH.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF GOD IS TRACED DURING THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS AND PROPHETS FROM SAMUEL TO DAVID, EVEN TO CHRIST; AND THE PROPHECIES WHICH ARE RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF KINGS, PSALMS, AND THOSE OF SOLOMON, ARE INTERPRETED OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.
- 1. Of the prophetic age.
- 2. At what time the promise of God was fulfilled concerning the land of Canaan, which even carnal Israel got in possession.
- 3. Of the threefold meaning of the prophecies, which are to be referred now to the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and now again to both.
- 4. About the prefigured change of the Israelitic kingdom and priesthood, and about the things Hannah the mother of Samuel prophesied, personating the Church.
- 5. Of those things which a man of God spake by the Spirit to Eli the priest, signifying that the priesthood which had been appointed according to Aaron was to be taken away.
- 6. Of the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although promised to be established for ever, did not continue; so that other things are to be understood to which eternity is assured.
- 7. Of the disruption of the kingdom of Israel, by which the perpetual division of the spiritual from the carnal Israel was prefigured.
- 8. Of the promises made to David in his son, which are in no wise fulfilled in Solomon, but most fully in Christ.
- 9. How like the prophecy about Christ in the 89th Psalm is to the things promised in Nathan's prophecy in the Books of Samuel.
- 10. How different the acts in the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem are from those which God had promised, so that the truth of the promise should be understood to pertain to the glory of the other King and kingdom.
- 11. Of the substance of the people of God, which through His assumption of flesh is in Christ, who alone had power to deliver His own soul from hell.
- 12. To whose person the entreaty for the promises is to be understood to belong, when he says in the psalm, "Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord?" etc.
- 13. Whether the truth of this promised peace can be ascribed to those times passed away under Solomon.
- 14. Of David's concern in the writing of the Psalms.
- 15. Whether all the things prophesied in the Psalms concerning Christ and His Church should be taken up in the text of this work.
- 16. Of the things pertaining to Christ and the Church, said either openly or tropically in the 45th Psalm.
- 17. Of those things in the 110th Psalm which relate to the priesthood of Christ, and in the 22d to His passion.
- 18. Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in which the death and resurrection of the Lord are prophesied.
- 19. Of the 69th Psalm, in which the obstinate unbelief of the Jews is declared.
- 20. Of David's reign and merit; and of his son Solomon, and that prophecy relating to Christ which is found either in those books which are joined to those written by him, or in those which are indubitably his.
- 21. Of the kings after Solomon, both in Judah and Israel.
- 22. Of Jeroboam, who profaned the people put under him by the impiety of idolatry, amid which, however, God did not cease to inspire the prophets, and to guard many from the crime of idolatry.
- 23. Of the varying condition of both the Hebrew kingdoms, until the people of both were at different times led into captivity, Judah being afterwards recalled into his kingdom, which finally passed into the power of the Romans.
- 24. Of the prophets, who either were the last among the Jews, or whom the gospel history reports about the time of Christ's nativity.
