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[Passage quoted, Micah i. 2-5.] (271) | [Passage quoted, Micah i. 2-5.] (271) | ||
- | HERE, too, in this passage the Descent of the Lord coming forth from His place is proclaimed plainly. This must mean (b) the Word of God, Whom I have proved in the previous books to be alone God and Lord after the Supreme and Almighty God. His place you would rightly understand to be the kingdom of heaven, and the glorious throne of His Divinity, of which the prophet sang in praise of God, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,'' | + | HERE, too, in this passage the Descent of the Lord coming forth from His place is proclaimed plainly. This must mean (b) the Word of God, Whom I have proved in the previous books to be alone God and Lord after the Supreme and Almighty God. His place you would rightly understand to be the kingdom of heaven, and the glorious throne of His Divinity, of which the prophet sang in praise of God, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," |
"5. For the impiety of the House of Jacob is all this done, and for the transgression of the House of Israel. What is the impiety of the House of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6. And I will make Samaria a lodge of the field, and a plantation of a vineyard, and I will draw down to chaos the stones thereof, and will hide the foundations thereof." | "5. For the impiety of the House of Jacob is all this done, and for the transgression of the House of Israel. What is the impiety of the House of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the sin of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem? 6. And I will make Samaria a lodge of the field, and a plantation of a vineyard, and I will draw down to chaos the stones thereof, and will hide the foundations thereof." | ||
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sake of which the Heavenly Word has come forth from His own place. | sake of which the Heavenly Word has come forth from His own place. | ||
- | And I have already said that the Word of God came down from heaven and descended on the high places of the earth for other reasons, both that the mountains which of old lifted themselves up and exalted | + | And I have already said that the Word of God came down from heaven and descended on the high places of the earth for other reasons, both that the mountains which of old lifted themselves up and exalted the |
- | + | ||
- | "And in the last days the Mount of the Lord shall be glorious, prepared upon the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall haste unto it, and many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the Mount of the Lord, and the house of the God of Jacob, and they will shew us his way, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Sion shall come forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he will judge in the midst of the nations." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | One can learn at one's leisure in what sense such prophecies of the Call of the Gentiles are to be understood, and that they were only fulfilled after the coining of our Saviour. And the opening of the prophecy is in full agreement with I the truth that the Lord descended not only for the salvation of the Jewish race, but for that of all nations, in proclaiming to all peoples and all the inhabitants of the earth, saying, "Hear all peoples, and let the earth attend, and all that are |17 therein." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And after this the same prophet, having prepared the way by telling of what related to the fact of the Descent of God the Word from heaven, and foretold what should be the causes of His coining, proceeds to relate His birth among men, and to name the place where He should be born, in the following words: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "2. And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratha, art the least to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall come forth for me a leader, to be for a ruler in Israel, and his goings-forth are from the beginning from the days of eternity." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Note with care how he says that the goings forth of Him that shall appear at Bethlehem are from above and from eternity, by which he shews the pre-existence and essential origin of Him that is to come forth from Bethlehem. Now if any person can apply the oracle to any one but Jesus, let him shew who it is; but if it is impossible to find any one but our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Person after the date of this prophecy Who came forth thence and attained to fame, what should hinder us from acknowledging the truth of the prophecy, which directs its prediction on Him only? For He alone of all men is known to have come forth from the before-named Bethlehem after the date of the prophecy, putting on a human shape, and what had been foretold was fulfilled at His coming. For at once and not after a long time the woes that were foretold fell on the Jewish nation, and blessings in accordance with the prophecies on the nations as well, and He Himself, our Lord and Saviour Who came from Bethlehem, was shewn to be the ruler of the spiritual Israel, such being the name of all people of vision and piety. Note too that it is said that the goings-forth of His Divine Pre-existence are from the beginning and from the days of eternity, which would not agree with mere humanity. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Then the word of the prophet, a little further on, suggests again the curtailing and abolition of the ancient ritual of the Law, speaking in the person of the people: |18 | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "6. Wherewithal shall I reach the Lord, and lay hold of my God most high?. Shall I reach him by whole burnt-offerings, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And he makes this answer to them in the person of God: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "8. Has it not been told thee, O man, what is good? And what does the Lord require of thee, but to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to be ready to walk after thy God? " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | You have then in this prophecy of the Descent of the Lord among men from heaven, many other things foretold at the same time, the rejection of the Jews, the judgment on their impiety, the destruction of their royal city, the abolition of the worship practised by them of old according to the Law of Moses; and on the other hand, promises of good for the nations, the knowledge of God, a new ideal of holiness, a new law and teaching coming forth from the land of the Jews. I leave you to see, how wonderful a fulfilment, how wonderful a completion, the prophecy has reached after the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 14 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From Habakkuk. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | That it was prophesied that the Word of God that cometh will come and will not tarry. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Hab. ii. 2.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | AND here it is clearly foretold that the subject of the prophecy who is coming will come. Who could this be but he who is referred to above in the words, " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "Cast not away then your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, doing the will of God, ye may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that cometh will come, and will not tarry. And the just shall live by my faith. And if he draw back, my soul hath no pleasure in him." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And note how clearly the Epistle arranges what was obscure in the prophetic writing, because of the inversion of the clauses. For the prophecy says," He that cometh will come and will not tarry, and adds, "If he draw back, my soul hath no pleasure in him," and this addition would seem to refer to him that cometh and doth not tarry, which is absurd. For how could it be said of him that God takes no pleasure in him? But the placing side by side of the divided clauses by a change in the arrangement of them preserves the sense. For after, "Yet a little while and he that cometh will come and shall not tarry," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 15 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | That the Heating about the Descent of the Lord from Heaven is Terrible, and His Works Wonderful, and at His Coming the Whole Earth shall be filed with His Praise, when the Word of His New Covenant shall pervade all Men. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Hab. iii. 2-5.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | (d) LISTENING to himself, or rather to the divine prophetic spirit within him, which said of the subject of the prophecy, "He that cometh will come, and will not tarry, and the just shall live by my faith," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And who could this be who was known of old, and was to be known afterwards when the time drew near, and (279) was to be shewn forth at the date predicted, but that same Being before shewn to be the second Lord of the Universe, who agreeably to the prophecy at the end of the ages has |21 been proclaimed for all to hear? It was surely His works that are written in the Holy Gospels, and it was clearly His Birth from the Virgin Tabernacle whence he sprang, and how "being in the form of God, he thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Our Lord and Saviour, too, the Word of God Himself, "was known between two lives." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | To this the prophet adds: "When my soul is troubled thou wilt in wrath remember mercy," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | To this is added: "God will come from Thaeman." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | But perhaps he foretells also His Second Coming in glory, in which case a fresh beginning is made at' "God will come from Thaeman," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "8. I saw the night, and behold a man sitting on a bay horse, and he stood in the midst of the shady mountains." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | I believe this rider on the bay horse who stands in the midst of the shady mountains to be the same person mentioned in the prophecy before us, which says that the Holy One will come from a thick and shady mountain. |23 | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In each passage shady mountains are mentioned, and I believe they refer to the Paradise of God, which He planted eastward in Eden, or perhaps to the Heavenly Jerusalem. For "there are mountains around it, and the Lord is in the midst of his people." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 16 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From Zechariah. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | That the Almighty Lord states that He is sent by Another Almighty Lord for the Destruction of the Wicked. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Zech. ii. 8.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | IN these words the Almighty Lord Himself says that He has been sent, and teaches who it was that sent Him, saying, "And ye shall know that the Almighty Lord has sent me." Here, then, you have clearly two Persons using one Name, the Almighty Lord that sent, and Him that is sent having the same Name as the Sender. And whom else could you suppose Him that is sent to be, but Him that we have so often called God the Word, Who states that He is sent by the Father, and says clearly, "After his glory he has sent me," shewing that though pre-existing in the glory of the Father He was sent afterwards unto the nations that spoiled you? For the Word of God was sent unto the nations, who before were hostile to the people of God, and subjected them to Himself, making a spoil of them by His disciples, who belonged to the Jewish nation, which the Gentiles had long spoiled enslaving it to their own idolatry. This, then, He says that the nations will suffer, as He ordained. For as they perverted the people of God from their ancestral religion, and made them a spoil for their own daemons, so some day shall they be made spoils from their fathers' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 17 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | How the Lord foretells that He will come from Heaven and dwell among Men, and that the Nations will flee to Him, and He states that the was sent by Another Almighty Lord stronger than Himself. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Zech. ii. 10.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As it is now my object to unfold from the prophets the second cause of our Lord's living our life on earth, the prophecy before us appears to state it so clearly that it hardly needs any elaboration. You will notice that He gives the cause of His coming, where He says, "And many nations shall flee unto the Lord in that day, and they shall be to me for a people." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | So, then, this prophecy rightly announces the presence of the Lord to those who had rejected their mother (calling them) the daughter of the Lord. And it is the Church of the Gentiles that is reckoned by the apostles of our Saviour to have taken the place of her that before was daughter. |26 | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 18 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Of the Coming of the Lord, and of the Events of His Passion. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Zech. xiv. 1-10.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | AFTER the first siege of Jerusalem, and its total destruction and desolation by the Babylonians, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | For such is the meaning of " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And after the siege of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the Jews which succeeds it, he next adds a prophecy of good things for all: "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | But who would not be surprised at the fulfilment of a prophecy which revealed that the Jewish people would undergo these sufferings in the days of the Lord? For as soon as Jesus our Lord and Saviour had come and the Jews had outraged Him, everything that had been predicted was fulfilled against them without exception 500 years after the prediction: from the time of Pontius Pilate to the sieges under Nero, Titus and Vespasian they were never free from all kinds of successive calamities, as you may gather from the history of Flavius Josephus. It is probable that half the city at that time perished in the siege, as the prophecy says. And not long after, in the reign of Hadrian, there was another Jewish revolution, and the remaining half of the city was again besieged and driven out, so that from that day to this the whole place has not been trodden by them. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Now if any one supposes that this was fulfilled in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, let him inquire if the rest of the prophecy can be referred to the times of Antiochus —I mean the captivity undergone by the people, the standing of the Lord's feet on the Mount of Olives, and whether the Lord became King of all the earth in that day, and whether the name of the Lord encircled the whole earth and the desert during the reign of Antiochus. And how can the fulfilment of the remainder of the prophecy in the days of Antiochus be asserted? But, according to my interpretation, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And the words, "And his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem to the eastward," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And this Mount of Olives is said to be over against Jerusalem, because it was established by God after the fall of Jerusalem, instead of the old earthly Jerusalem and its worship. For as Scripture said above with reference to Jerusalem: "The city shall be taken, and the nations that are her enemies and foes shall be gathered together against her, and her spoils shall be divided," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "22. And the Cherubim lifted their wings, and the wheels beside them, 23. and the glory of the God of Israel was on them above them, and he stood on the mount which was opposite to the city." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Which it is possible for us to see literally fulfilled in another way even to-day, since believers in Christ all congregate from all parts of the world, not as of old time because of the glory of Jerusalem, nor that they may worship in the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, but they rest there that they may learn both about the city being taken and devastated as the prophets foretold, and that they may worship at the Mount of Olives opposite to the city, whither the glory of the Lord migrated when it left the former city. There |30 stood in truth according to the common and received account the feet of our Lord and Saviour, Himself the Word of God, through that tabernacle of humanity He had borne up the Mount of Olives to the cave that is shewn there; there He prayed and delivered to His disciples on the summit of the Mount of Olives the mysteries of His end, and thence He made His Ascension into heaven, as Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles, saying that while the apostles were with Him on the Mount of Olives: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "While they beheld he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And as they gazed steadfastly into heaven while he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This same Jesus that is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | To which he adds: "Then they returned from the mount called the Mount of Olives, which is opposite to Jerusalem." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And if it says next: "That the Mount of Olives shall be divided, half of it to the east and towards the sea, a very great chasm, and half of it shall lean towards the north, and half of it towards the south," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | To this he adds afterwards: "And the valley of my mountains shall be closed up, and the cleft of my mountains shall be joined unto Asael, and shall be closed up as it was blocked up in the days of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Judah." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | What can God's " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And so, he says, the ancient valley coming near to the mountains, and to the Christian Church, and to the work of God, will be closed up and shut off, as it was closed up before the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Judah. Though I have set myself to the task of inquiring, and gone through the Holy Scripture to discover if the valley mentioned here was " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | But Ozias is described as at first having been righteous, and then it is related that he was lifted up in mind, and dared to offer sacrifice to God Himself, and that his face (b) became leprous in consequence. This is what the Book |33 of Kings establishes. But Josephus carefully studied the additional comments of the expounders as well, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews as he was, hear his description of the events of those times. He tells how: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | This I take from the work of Josephus on Jewish Antiquities. And I found in the beginning of the Prophet Amos the statement that he began to prophesy "in the days of Ozias, king of Judah, two years before the earthquake." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Here I understand a prediction of the earthquake, and of the destruction of the ancient solemnities of the Jewish race, and of the worship practised by them in Jerusalem, the ruin that should overtake them after the coming of our Saviour, when, since they rejected the Christ of God, the true High Priest, leprosy infected their souls, as in the days of Ozias, when the Lord Himself standing on the altar gave leave to him that struck, saying: " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And so we see how at this time the valley of the mountains of God was closed up, as was done in the days of Ozias. Actually and literally in the siege by the Romans, in the course of which I believe such things happened, and figuratively, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | After this the prophecy recurring to the Coming of the Lord announces it more clearly, saying: "And the Lord my God shall come, and all His holy ones with Him," referring either to His apostles and disciples as holy ones, or certain invisible powers and ministering spirits, of whom it was said: "And angels came and ministered to him." And then of the Corning of the Lord, he says: "It shall be day, and it shall not be light, and cold and frost shall I be for one day." Instead of which Symmachus translated: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "And in that day there shall be no light, but frost and cold shall be for one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night, but at eventide it shall be light." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | See how clearly this description of the day of our Saviour' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "They led Jesus to the palace of the high priest. And Peter followed afar off. And while they kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, he sat clown, according to Mark, with the others to warm himself. And John, too, especially mentions the cold, saying, The servants and the ministers stood, having made a fire of coals, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves.'' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And this day, he says, was known to the Lord, and was not |35 night. It was not day, because, as has been said already, "there shall be no light"; | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And in that day it says: " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "If thou knewest who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | This was the living water, then, that came forth from Jerusalem? For it was thence that its Gospel went forth, and its heralds filled the world, which is meant by the words: "The living water shall go forth to the first sea and the last sea," by which is meant the bounds of the whole world, that toward the Eastern Ocean being called "the first sea," that toward the West being meant by "the last sea," which, indeed, the living water of saving Gospel teaching has filled. Of which He also taught, when He said: " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Then after the refreshing saving spiritual blood has fallen on every race of mankind from Jerusalem, which is more clearly described in another place in the words: "A law shall go forth from Sion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and it shall judge in the midst of the nations," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | It is also quite clear that the name " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 19 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From Baruch. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | It is prophesied that the God of the Prophets, having laid down the Complete Way of Knowledge by the Mosaic Law to the Jews, will some Day afterwards be seen on Earth, and mingle among Men. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Baruch iii. 29-37.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | I NEED add nothing to these inspired words, which so (295) clearly support my argument. (c) | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 20 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From Isaiah. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | It is prophesied that the Christ will come into Egypt, and What Things will come to pass at His Coming. (d) | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Isa. xix. 1-4 and the context.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | HERE the prophecy before us states that the Second after (296) the God and Lord of the Universe, I mean the Word of God, will come into Egypt, and will come not imperceptibly nor invisibly, nor without any bodily vesture, but riding on a light cloud, or better "on light thickness": | + | |
- | + | ||
- | " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And again: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "Think not that I came to give peace on earth. I say not so unto you, but division. For there shall be from this time five in one house divided, three against two and two against three: For the father shall be divided from his son, and the son from his father, the mother against her daughter, and the daughter against her mother, the mother-in-law against the bride, and the bride against her mother-in-law." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | (d) How do those words differ from the prophet' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And the law of the new Covenant of Christ was raised against the law of polytheistic superstition, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And they who make many inquiries and ask endless questions against us of the oracles and diviners of their gods, and of the daemons that haunt the idols, and the familiar spirits who were of old so powerful among them, get no more profit of them. For Scripture says: | + | |
- | + | ||
- | "And they will inquire of their gods, and their idols, (b) and the familiar spirits." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | But when they flee, it says, to them that falsely appear to be gods, they will receive no help, for then will God chiefly deliver them to cruel kings and rulers, when under the influence of their daemons, and in their power, they arouse persecutions against the Churches of Christ. And, please, notice the fact, that until the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ all Egypt had its own kings, as a separate (c) and responsible state, and the Egyptians were autonomous and free, and their dynasty was great and famous through long ages, and it was after that date, when Augustus, in whose time our Lord was born, being the first Roman to subjugate Egypt, captured Cleopatra the last of the Ptolemies, that they came under the Roman power, laws, and enactments, losing their former autonomy and freedom. So that here also the prophecy is true, regarding first the governors (d) and rulers sent out to those places, and the other officials in their several positions, saying, "And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel rulers," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Instead of which Aquila says, "And a mighty king shall reign over them." And Symmachus, "And a strong king shall reign over them." Thus the kingdom of Rome seems to be meant, which has bound with bridle and bond not only the Egyptians, the most superstitious of men, but all other men as well, so that they dare no longer to blaspheme against the Church of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And after (300) |42 this the prophecy proceeds to darker and disguised sayings, which require longer and more profound allegorical interpretation, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 21 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | A Promise of Good Things to the Church of the Gentiles, that before was deserted, and to Sick Souls the Manifest (c) Presence of God, and Marvellous Saving Acts. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv. 1-7.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | HERE also the Coming of God for salvation, bringing many blessings, is precisely foretold. The prophet says that there will be a cure for the deaf, sight for the blind, yea, even healing for the lame and tongue-tied, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 22 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | How the First and Everlasting Word of God, the Creator of (302) the Universe, confesses that He is even now sent by the (b) Lord His Father. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Isa. xlviii. 12 and 16.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | You have here the Lord sent and the Lord sending, that is to say the Father and God of the Universe, entitled Lord twice as was usual. |44 | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 23 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | How the Lord rebukes the Jewish People, because They will not receive Him when He comes, nor hear His Call, and what He will suffer at Their Hands. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passages quoted, Isa. 1. 1, 2 a, b.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | HERE the Lord Himself recording plainly His Coming among (303) men rebukes the Jewish people, because they will not receive Him when He comes, nor hear Him when He calls. And He teaches, as if by way of apology, that this is the cause of their own rejection. "For when I came," He says, "I was not among you as a man: I called, and there was none that heard: therefore," | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ===== CHAPTER 24 ===== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | From the same. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | How the Same Lord that spake in the Prophets will come Among Men and be seen by Their Eyes, and be known to the Gentiles. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | [Passage quoted, Isa. lii. 5-10.] | + | |
- | + | ||
- | THE prophecy of Christ' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Then, as though having another people besides them, he adds, " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And Symmachus says, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him that preacheth the gospel, making peace known, publishing good things, making salvation known, saying to Sion, Thy God reigneth": | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Nor would you be wrong in calling Sion the soul of every holy and godly man, so far as it is lifted above this life, having its city in heaven, seeing the things beyond the world. For it means "a watch-tower." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | After this the call of the Gentiles to the worship of God is very clearly shown in the words, "And the Lord God will reveal His holy arm before all nations; and the high places of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." And consider that the arm of the Lord is nothing else but the Word and Wisdom, and the Lord Himself, Who is the Christ of God. | + | |
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- | It is easy to shew this from many instances. In the Exodus you have Israel saved by the arm of God from (c) slavery to the Egyptians. While the prophecy before us says that that same arm of the Lord, which of old appeared to save His people will be revealed to all nations, as if it formerly were hidden from them. And "the salvation, which "he says "all the high places of the earth shall see," and which he mentioned before when he said, "I will make my salvation known," | + | |
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- | ===== CHAPTER 25 ===== | + | |
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- | From the same. | + | |
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- | How, again, the Coming of God the Word and the Gathering of All Nations is foretold. | + | |
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- | [Passage quoted, Isa. lxvi. 18, 19.] | + | |
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- | HERE also the Coming of the Lord to men is exactly foretold. And as it said, "He will come as fire," our Saviour rightly says, "I came to cast fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?" | + | |
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- | We see in part, indeed, now with our own eyes the fulfilment of the holy oracles as to the first Epiphany of our Saviour to man. May it be seen completely as well in His second glorious Advent, when all nations shall see His glory, and when He comes in the heavens with power and great glory. | + | |
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- | To that day the remainder of the prophecy must be referred, as I shall show in my own argument. | + | |
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- | As I have in this Book collected so many passages concerning the prophecies of the coming of God, my next task should be to connect with them an account of what was foretold as to the nature of His entry into human life. | + | |
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- | [Note to the online text: volume 2 commences with book 6, so the page numbering starts again at 1] | + |
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