For example, your teachers have dared to expound the words: The Lord saith to my Lord, Sit thou on My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool, as having been said of Hezekiah, as though he was bidden be seated on the right side of the temple, when the king of Assyria sent to him with threats, and it was signified to him by Isaiah that he should not be afraid of him. And indeed Isaiah’s words were so fulfilled, and the King of Assyria was turned back that he should not wage war against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, and an angel of the Lord slew of the camp of the Assyrians up to a hundred and eighty-five thousand men, as we know and acknowledge.
But it is clear that the Psalm was not spoken of Hezekiah. For it runs thus: The Lord saith to my Lord, Sit thou on My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. A rod of power shall he send forth over Jerusalem, and he shall rule in the midst of thine enemies. In the splendour of the saints, before the morning star, did I beget thee. The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Who does not acknowledge that Hezekiah is not priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek? And who does not know that he is not the redeemer of Jerusalem? And that he himself did not send a rod of power into Jerusalem, and rule in the midst of his enemies, but that it was God who turned his enemies away from him as he wept and wailed?
But our Jesus, though He has not come in glory, sent forth a rod of power into Jerusalem, the word of calling and of repentance unto all the nations, where the demons used to bear rule over them, as David says: The gods of the heathen are demons. And with might has His word persuaded many to forsake the demons whom they were serving, and by Him to believe on God the All-ruler, because the gods of the heathen are demons. And the phrase in the splendour of the saints, of the womb before the morning star did I beget thee,Psalms 110:3 was spoken to Christ, as we said before.