The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^8. There were twelve tribes of the people of Israel: but there were good, and there were bad among them. For how evil were those tribes which crucified our Lord! How good those who recognised the Lord! Those tribes then who crucified the Lord, were tribes of the devil. When therefore he here said, “For there the tribes go up;” that you might not understand all the tribes, he added, “even the tribes of the Lord.”...What are the tribes of the Lord? “A testimony unto Israel.” Hear, brethren, what this means. “A testimony to Israel:” that is, whereby it may be known that it is truly Israel...He is such in whom there is no guile. And what did the Lord say, when He saw Nathanael? “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” If therefore he is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile, those tribes go up to Jerusalem, in whom there is no guile....Wherefore do they go up? “To confess unto Your Name, O Lord.” It could not be more nobly expressed. As pride presumes, so does humility confess. As he is a presumer, who wishes to appear what he is not, so is he a confessor, who does not wish that to be seen which himself is, and loves That which He is. To this therefore do Israelites go up, in whom is no guile, because they are truly Israelites, because in them is the testimony of Israel.

9. “For there were seated seats for judgment”. This is a wonderful riddle, a wonderful question, if it be not understood. He calls those seats, which the Greeks call thrones. The Greeks call chairs thrones, as a term of honour. Therefore, my brethren, it is not wonderful if even we should sit on seats, or chairs; but that these seats themselves should sit, when shall we be able to understand this? As if some one should say: let stools or chairs sit here. We sit on chairs, we sit on seats, we sit on stools; the seats themselves sit not. What then means this, “For there were seated seats for judgment”?...If therefore heaven be the seat of God, and the Apostles are heaven; they themselves have become the seat of God, the throne of God. It is said in another passage: “The soul of the righteous is the throne of wisdom.” A great truth, a great truth, is declared; the throne of wisdom is the soul of the righteous; that is, wisdom sits in the soul of the righteous as it were in her chair, in her throne, and thence judges whatsoever she judges. There were therefore thrones of wisdom, and therefore the Lord said unto them, “You shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” So they also shall sit upon twelve seats, and they are themselves the seats of God; for of them it is said, “For there were seated seats.” Who sat? “Seats.” And who are the seats? They of whom it is said, “The soul of the righteous is the seat of wisdom.” Who are the seats? The heavens. Who are the heavens? Heaven. What is heaven? That of which the Lord says, “Heaven is My seat.” The righteous then themselves are the seats; and have seats; and seats shall be seated in that Jerusalem. For what purpose? “For judgment.” You shall sit, He says, on twelve thrones, O you thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Judging whom? Those who are below on earth. Who will judge? They who have become heaven. But they who shall be judged, will be divided into two bodies: one will be on the right hand, the other on the left...