But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
Ver. 20. But Judah shall dwell for ever] Perpetuitas Ecclesiae declaratur, saith Mercer, the perpetuity of the Church is declared and assured. The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Christ is with his to the end of the world; and those Roman persecutors who sought to root out Christian religion, and erected pillars in memory of what they had done, or rather attempted, that way, what got they thereby but perpetual ignominy, besides the irreparable loss of their souls, bodies, and fortunes?
“ Tu vero, Herodes sanguinolente, time. ”
The Church, as the palm tree, spreadeth and springeth up the more it is oppressed, as the bottle or bladder that may be dipped, not drowned; as the oak, that taketh heart to grace from the maims and wounds given it, and sprouts out thicker, Duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus (Horat.); as fenugreek, which the worse it is handled the better it grows, as Pliny. saith. No fowl is more preyed upon than the pigeon; no creature more killed up than sheep; yet are there more pigeons than birds of prey, more sheep than slaughtermen.