Thomas Aquinas

Here he takes his argument from the former love for the people: and concerning this there are three things. First he wonders at the rejection of the beloved people, marveling at the hatred: "Have you utterly cast off Judah?" As if he were to say, it seems astonishing. Lamentations, last chapter: "But rejecting, you have repulsed us; you have been exceedingly angry against us." So that there is no soundness. Isaiah 14: "with an incurable blow, subjecting the nations in fury." Second, he sets down the acknowledgment of the punishment, "we have waited." Above, chapter 8: "We have waited for peace, and there was no good; for a time of healing, and behold, terror." And of guilt, "we have acknowledged." Psalm 50: "I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always against me." Third, the petition is set down: "do not give us." Psalm 43: "You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and a derision to those who are round about us." Fourth, the reason for the petition, from the holiness of the temple. "The throne of glory" — namely the mercy-seat and the ark, in which you showed yourself glorious through miracles and revelations. Below, chapter 17: "A throne of glory, of loftiness from the beginning, the place of our sanctification, the expectation of Israel." And from the powerlessness of idols: "Are there among the graven images of the nations any that give rain, or can the heavens give showers," by themselves, as though they were first causes? Job 3: "Who is the father of rain, or who has begotten the drops of dew?" From the power of God: "Are you not the Lord our God? You have made these things" — the rains, and everything of this kind. Above, chapter 10: "At his voice he gives a multitude of waters in the heavens, and raises clouds from the ends of the earth."

It must be noted that a certain peace is false. Wisdom 14: "living in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace." A certain peace is deceitful. Psalm 27: "who speak peace with their neighbor, but evils are in their hearts." A certain peace is transitory. 1 Thessalonians, last chapter: "For when they shall say, peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them."

Likewise it must be noted that mystically the throne is threefold. One is the throne of glory; and this in four ways: namely, by the loftiness of nature. Isaiah 6: "Behold the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the whole earth was full of his majesty." By the tranquility of peace. Above, chapter 3: "They shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, etc." By the depth of knowledge. Ezekiel 10: "And I saw, and behold, in the firmament that was over the head of the Cherubim, as it were a sapphire stone, and as the appearance of the likeness of a throne appeared over it." By the eternity of duration. Lamentations, last chapter: "But you, O Lord, shall remain forever; your throne unto generation and generation."

Another is the throne of clemency, which prepares one to obedience toward God. Isaiah 22: "I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall become a throne of glory to his father's house; and I will hang upon him all the glory of his father." Toward the sentence of justice. Proverbs 16: "By justice the king's throne is established." Toward mercy for one's neighbors. Isaiah 16: "And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David." Toward the grace of humility. Ezekiel 43: "The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever."

But another is the throne of justice, which prepares for judgment. Job 13: "Who will grant me that I may know, and find him, and come even to his throne?" Toward the correcting of evil. Proverbs 20: "The king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his gaze." Toward the condemning of the incorrigible. 3 Kings, last chapter: "I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on the right hand and on the left." Toward the defending of the good. Isaiah 9: "Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom he shall sit, to establish it and strengthen it in judgment and justice, from henceforth and forever."