people of Israel, and will have them to be so understood; he must in so doing take upon himself this task also; he must prove by sound and true arguments, that the temple which was built at Jerusalem, and the political economy of the people of Israel in the land of Canaan, have ever remained the same from the time of David unto this day, and that they remain so still: for the passage plainly declares, that the house of David shall remain" for ever," and that his Son the Messiah' shall reign in the house of God and in his kingdom eternally. We Christians must certainly confess that we cannot prove any such thing; because it is manifest, that that house of God, or temple of Jerusalem, has been destroyed for above five hundred years, and that the family of David and his kingdom, and the political economy of the people of Israel have ceased for nearly as many years, and that now there is nothing of them remaining.

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Wherefore, we are compelled to hold that opinion which I have declared above-that " my house" and my kingdom" signify that eternal kingdom of God, in which he himself has determined to dwell and to reign to all eternity, and which this Messiah, the Son of God himself and of David, should build by his eternal and divine power and wisdom.

BUT, as a confirmation of this, let us hear David himself, not by any means obscurely signifying how he understood these words: when, in answer to these words of the prophet, he thus speaks, ver. 18,

Then went King David in and sat before the Lord: and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast created me to this?

Here David himself clearly signifies, that he fully understood what those words meant, when God promised him by the prophet Nathan, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son:" and also, "I will establish him in my house and in my kingdom for ever." For, being now as it were astonished at the thought of

a thing so great and marvellous, he answers, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that thou hast exalted me to this?" It is too great, it is too high, it is too glorious, that I should receive this promise of God! that my house should be exalted to that height so far above all human things, that my Son, one born of my own loins, should sit as King and Lord in that thine own eternal kingdom; that is, with divine power and majesty! What shall I say! How shall I wonder enough! What is this! O Lord God, to what height dost thou exalt me!-That is, overcome by so great, so wonderful, and so infinite a blessing, he signifies that he cannot find words whereby to express himself in such a case, and that he is wholly overcome by the greatness of such incomparable favour and incomprehensible glory, the measure or end of which no human mind can imagine. And therefore, as he cannot express himself, he utters all his feelings, and as it were swallows them up in one word, when he says, What to this! What so high as this! To what height am I raised! To what wilt thou exalt me, O Lord God! What! Dost thou declare this!--that I, that is, one born from my loins shall be equal with thee, be in the same place, and be Lord and the Ruler of thy eternal kingdom! Yes, it is to be so! This is declared to me that this same my Son is to be also thine, and truly and naturally God, who shall rule with a power and majesty equal to thyself! O marvel! To what, thou good God, dost thou raise me!-It now follows,

Thou hast looked upon me as in the form of man who, on high, is the Lord God.*

I know that nearly all Hebraists translate this passage far differently. But yet there are some, and among those Bernardus Ziglerus, a man most deeply acquainted with the Hebrew, who testify that these words, according to their grammatical construction, may

*This is Luther's translation of 2 Sam. vii. 19, literally rendered from the Latin of Rorary.-See Luther's own reasons in the text, and in pages 219 and 232,

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be rightly and properly rendered as I have translated them. Here therefore David clearly confesses, that this Messiah who should be born of him would be truly man" in the very same nature, form, gesture, and habit or manner of life as other men: just as Paul also speaks, Philip. ii. 7, "Being found in fashion as a man.” And yet he adds, that this "man," "on high," or above, (where the whole is ordered, not in a human manner or fashion, but in a divine, that is, where he is truly God himself, and rules in his eternal majesty and power), "is the LORD God."

This, I say, is the meaning of this saying of David expressed in clear words. And this forms the reason why he said just before, being overcome with astonishment, 'To what, O Lord God, to what height dost thou exalt me!' and so also here he says, 'What is the reason why thou lookest thus upon me!'' In what light dost thou look upon me a poor, miserable, unworthy man, that thou shouldest will, that my Son should be the Lord and King of thy eternal Kingdom. That is, David understood that such a power and glory as to be King of the divine and eternal kingdom, could be applied to no one, but to him who is truly and naturally God.

Since, therefore, this Son of David is without doubt truly Man, and (with respect to his Person), distinct from the Father by whom he was appointed King of the Eternal Kingdom; and since, nevertheless, there cannot be two Gods, nor more than One God; David himself here, by an incontrovertible conclusion affirms, that the Messiah, the Son promised unto him, is truly and naturally God; but so, that he is not a different God from the Father, but a distinct Person in the one same indivisible essence of Godhead.-And to these are added the Holy Ghost, a true God proceeding from the Father and the Son, who speaks these things by the prophets Nathan and David; a Third Person of the one same essence; because, no other could reveal these secret things concerning the essential God.

And this is, properly, that doctrine and faith which are delivered in the New Testament.-That Jesus Christ

of Nazareth, the Son of David, who was born of his mother the Virgin Mary, that is, was truly Man, is truly the co-equal co-eternal Son of God, and of the one same divine essence with God the Father and the Holy Ghost, though their Persons are distinct.

Since, therefore, the words of David in this place, plainly, and without offending against any grammatical propriety, but according to the nature of the Hebrew manner of expression, give this meaning; the same ought, without doubt, to be received by us who confess Christ, nor ought we to seek after or listen to any other that may be set before us.-Let us then receive this as the sure and genuine meaning as revealed from heaven, and let us reject all other interpretations as searched out, obscurely forced, and wrested by human reason. For the doctrine of the New Testament, which is the interpreter of the prophets, is certain, and by no means fallacious. Therefore, the interpretation of the Books of the Old Testament which accords with the New, cannot at all be doubtful.

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AND HERE, if any one should ask,-If then these words of David and also of the prophet Nathan set forth the doctrine of the article concerning the divinity of Christ, what is the reason that no one of the old writers, nor of the recent translators, saw this to be the meaning of the words, nor eyer referred to them as bearing such a testimony? And how is it that you Hebraists that have recently risen up, have been the first that saw things so acutely? Or, how is it that the Jewish Rabbins, who must be allowed to have been well acquainted with their own language, gave no such interpretation?—I answer: It is evident that the Hebrew language and its Books were known very little, and by very few, in those ages that immediately followed the times of the Apostles: and that, as I imagine, arose from the obstinate malice of the Jews, because they would not that their Books should be read, or the Hebrew language known, by our brethren; and would have no intercourse with us, on account of our blasphemies (as they would have them to be.) Wherefore, godly writers were content with the

testimonies of the books of the New Testament, in which they abound. But the same doctrines were by no means obscure to the prophets and apostles themselves; as will appear sufficiently plain from what will hereafter follow.

But that the Rabbins of the Jews saw nothing of these things, and that they purposely corrupted and miserably perverted and tore that meaning that was delivered in the clearest manner, was the punishment that was justly inflicted on them, that they might not see, when they chose rather to be blind: as Isaiah prophesied of them long before, saying, that it should come to pass,

that those who should see, should not see nor understand.' And hence it follows, that our modern Rabbins, their disciples, by following their own masters, must be blind also. Nor should we ourselves have seen these things, had not the light of the New Testament moved before us; so that the veil being removed, we might look steadfastly on the face of the Old; but without the New, the scripture of the Old Testament has still a veil over it, as Paul saith, 2 Cor. 3.

And look even at the men of our age, when the doctrine of the Gospel concerning grace and the benefits of Christ is so clearly delivered to us against that impious and presumptuous confidence in our own works and righteousness;-how few are there who understand this and seriously embrace it! And whose vice and fault is this? What is there wanting unto the all-clear light of the doctrine? These things are certainly so clearly preached, taught, read, written, and even proclaimed openly, set before our eyes in sculpture and painting, and so assiduously enforced, that they might have become known almost to stones and stocks, so continually have they sounded in the ears of all. And And yet, the popes, the kings, the princes, the bishops, the doctors, the great, the nobles, the citizens, and the peasants, cannot be induced to embrace them; but with open eyes and seeing, they pass by them blind, and with open ears they remain deaf to them; that is, their minds and understandings wander as far from them as if they were in another world, and attending to things the most diverse.