Psalms 79:3

"They have poured forth their blood like water," that is, abundantly and wantonly, "in the circuit of Jerusalem" [Psalm 79:3]. If we herein understand the earthly city Jerusalem, we perceive the shedding of their blood in the circuit thereof, whom the enemy could find outside the walls. But if we understand it of that Jerusalem, concerning whom has been said, "many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband," [Isaiah 54:1] the circuit thereof is throughout the universal earth. For in that lesson of the Prophet, wherein is written, "many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that has the husband:" a little after unto the same is said, "and He that has delivered you, shall be called the God of Israel of the universal earth." [Isaiah 54:5] The circuit then of this Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as follows: so far as at that time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the great gain of the celestial treasuries. But as to that which has been added, "and there was no one to bury:" it either ought not to seem to be an incredible thing that there should have been so great a panic in some places, that not any buriers at all of holy bodies came forward: or certes that unburied corpses in many places might lie long time, until being by the religious in a manner stolen they were buried.

"They have defiled Your holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples." "They have made the dead bodies of Your servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Your saints for the beasts of the earth" [Psalm 79:2]. "They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them" [Psalm 79:3]. If in this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection and Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it does not occur to me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him, and even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even the Lord Himself says, "I am not sent but to the sheep which have been lost of the house of Israel," [Matthew 15:24] the same are they that out of them are the sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed; [Romans 9:8] the same do belong to the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin Mary who bore Christ: [Matthew 1:16] hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom, and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth: [Luke 1:5] hence Symeon the old, [Luke 2:25] and Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not: [John 1:47] hence the other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God: hence that so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying, "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord:" [Matthew 21:9] among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, "Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise." Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized, welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common. [Acts 4:32] Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles. [Acts 7:59] Hence so many Churches of Judæa, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face, [Galatians 1:22] but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ's most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, "a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the evening dividing morsels;" [Genesis 49:27] that is, first as persecutor carrying off unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that are out of that people the inheritance of God....So then even at this time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out of that nation does belong to the inheritance of God: not those concerning whom a little below he says, "But the rest have been blinded." For thus he says. "What then? That which Israel sought, this he has not obtained: but the election has obtained it: but the rest have been blinded." [Romans 11:7] This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which God has not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which has not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the time of Titus the Emperor, "O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Your inheritance," and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been foretold co

Further still, we are reminded that in such a carnage as then occurred, the bodies could not even be buried. But godly confidence is not appalled by so ill-omened a circumstance; for the faithful bear in mind that assurance has been given that not a hair of their head shall perish, and that, therefore, though they even be devoured by beasts, their blessed resurrection will not hereby be hindered. The Truth would nowise have said, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul," if anything whatever that an enemy could do to the body of the slain could be detrimental to the future life. Or will some one perhaps take so absurd a position as to contend that those who kill the body are not to be feared before death, and lest they kill the body, but after death, lest they deprive it of burial? If this be so, then that is false which Christ says, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do;" for it seems they can do great injury to the dead body. Far be it from us to suppose that the Truth can be thus false. They who kill the body are said "to do something," because the deathblow is felt, the body still having sensation; but after that, they have no more that they can do, for in the slain body there is no sensation.And so there are indeed many bodies of Christians lying unburied; but no one has separated them from heaven, nor from that earth which is all filled with the presence of him who knows whence he will raise again what he created. It is said, indeed, in the Psalm: "The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them." But this was said rather to exhibit the cruelty of those who did these things, than the misery of those who suffered them. To the eyes of men this appears a harsh and doleful lot, yet "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Wherefore all these last offices and ceremonies that concern the dead, the careful funeral arrangements, and the equipment of the tomb, and the pomp of obsequies, are rather the solace of the living than the comfort of the dead. If a costly burial does any good to a wicked man, a squalid burial, or none at all, may harm the godly. His crowd of domestics furnished the purple-clad Dives with a funeral gorgeous in the eye of man; but in the sight of God that was a more sumptuous funeral which the ulcerous pauper received at the hands of the angels, who did not carry him out to a marble tomb, but bore him aloft to Abraham's bosom.