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The prophet Isaiah says, "The dead shall rise again, and all who
were in the graves shall rise again; and all who are in the earth shall
rejoice: for the dew which is from Thee is their health, and the
earth of the wicked shall fall." All the former part of this passage
relates to the resurrection of the blessed; but the words, "the earth
of the wicked shall fall," is rightly understood as meaning that the
bodies of the wicked shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we
would more exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which refer to the
resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first resurrection the
words, "the dead shall rise again," and to the second the following
words, "and all who were in the graves shall rise again." And if we
ask what relates to those saints whom the Lord at His coming shall
find alive upon earth, the following clause may suitably be referred to
them; "All who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew which is
from Thee is their health." By "health" in this place it is best
to understand immortality. For that is the most perfect health which
is not repaired by nourishment as by a daily remedy. In like manner
the same prophet, affording hope to the good and terrifying the wicked
regarding the day of judgment, says, "Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will flow down upon them as a river of peace, and upon the
glory of the Gentiles as a rushing torrent; their sons shall be
carried on the shoulders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As one
whom his mother comforteth, so shall I comfort you; and ye shall be
comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and your heart shall
rejoice, and your bones shall rise up like a herb; and the hand of the
Lord shall be known by His worshippers, and He shall threaten the
contumacious. For, behold, the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a
whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and
wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the
earth be judged, and all flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded
by the Lord." In His promise to the good he says that He will flow
down as a river of peace, that is to say, in the greatest possible
abundance of peace. With this peace we shall in the end be refreshed;
but of this we have spoken abundantly in the preceding book. It is
this river in which he says He shall flow down upon those to whom He
promises so great happiness, that we may understand that in the region
of that felicity, which is in heaven, all things are satisfied from
this river. But because there shall thence flow, even upon earthly
bodies, the peace of incorruption and immortality, therefore he says
that He shall flow down as this river, that He may as it were pour
Himself from things above to things beneath, and make men the equals
of the angels. By "Jerusalem," too, we should understand not that
which serves with her children, but that which, according to the
apostle, is our free mother, eternal in the heavens. In her we shall
be comforted as we pass toilworn from earth's cards and calamities,
and be taken up as her children on her knees and shoulders.
Inexperienced and new to such blandishments, we shall be received into
unwonted bliss. There we shall see, and our heart shall rejoice. He
does not say what we shall see; but what but God, that the promise in
the Gospel may be fulfilled in us, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God?" What shall we see but all those things
which now we see not, but believe in, and of which the idea we form,
according to our feeble capacity, is incomparably less than the
reality? "And ye shall see," he says, "and your heart shall
rejoice." Here ye believe, there ye shall see.
But because he said, "Your heart shall rejoice," lest we should
suppose that the blessings of that Jerusalem are only spiritual, he
adds, "And your bones shall rise up like a herb," alluding to the
resurrection of the body, and as it were supplying an omission he had
made. For it will not take place when we have seen; but we shall see
when it has taken place. For he had already spoken of the new heavens
and the new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures, of
the things promised to the saints, and saying, "There shall be new
heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor
come into mind; but they shall find in it gladness and exultation.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a joy.
And I will exult in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice
of weeping shall be no more heard in her;" and other promises, which
some endeavor to refer to carnal enjoyment during the thousand years.
For, in the manner of prophecy, figurative and literal expressions
are mingled, so that a serious mind may, by useful and salutary
effort, reach the spiritual sense; but carnal sluggishness, or the
slowness of an uneducated and undisciplined mind, rests in the
superficial letter, and thinks there is nothing beneath to be looked
for. But let this be enough regarding the style of those prophetic
expressions just quoted. And now, to return to their interpretation.
When he had said, "And your bones shall rise up like a herb," in
order to show that it was the resurrection of the good, though a bodily
resurrection, to which he alluded, he added, "And the hand of the
Lord shall be known by His worshippers." What is this but the hand
of Him who distinguishes those who worship from those who despise
Him? Regarding these the context immediately adds, "And He shall
threaten the contumacious," or, as another translator has it, "the
unbelieving." He shall not actually threaten then, but the threats
which are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in effect.
"For behold," he says, "the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a
whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and
wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the
earth be judged, and all flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded
by the Lord." By fire, whirlwind, sword, he means the judicial
punishment of God. For he says that the Lord Himself shall come as
a fire, to those, that is to say, to whom His coming shall be
penal. By His chariots (for the word is plural)we suitably
understand the ministration of angels. And when he says that all flesh
and all the earth shall be judged with His fire and sword, we do not
understand the spiritual and holy to be included, but the earthly and
carnal, of whom it is said that they "mind earthly things," and "to
be carnally minded is death," and whom the Lord calls simply flesh
when He says, "My Spirit shall not always remain in these men, for
they are flesh." As to the words, "Many shall be wounded by the
Lord," this wounding shall produce the second death. It is
possible, indeed, to understand fire, sword, and wound in a good
sense. For the Lord said that He wished to send fire on the earth.
And the cloven tongues appeared to them as fire when the Holy Spirit
came. And our Lord says, "I am not come to send peace on earth,
but a sword." And Scripture says that the word of God is a doubly
sharp sword, on account of the two edges, the two Testaments. And
in the Song of Songs the holy Church says that she is wounded with
love,, pierced, as it were, with the arrow of love. But here,
where we read or hear that the Lord shall come to execute vengeance,
it is obvious in what sense we are to understand these expressions.
After briefly mentioning those who shall be consumed in this judgment,
speaking of the wicked and sinners under the figure of the meats
forbidden by the old law, from which they had not abstained, he
summarily recounts the grace of the new testament, from the first
coming of the Saviour to the last judgment, of which we now speak;
and herewith he concludes his prophecy. For he relates that the Lord
declares that He is coming to gather all nations, that they may come
and witness His glory. For, as the apostle says, "All have sinned
and are in want of the glory of God." And he says that He will do
wonders among them, at which they shall marvel and believe in Him;
and that from them He will send forth those that are saved into various
nations, and distant islands which have not heard His name nor seen
His glory, and that they shall declare His glory among the nations,
and shall bring the brethren of those to whom the prophet was speaking,
i.e., shall bring to the faith under God the Father the brethren of
the elect Israelites; and that they shall bring from all nations an
offering to the Lord on beasts of burden and waggons (which are
understood to mean the aids furnished by God in the shape of angelic or
human ministry), to the holy city Jerusalem, which at present is
scattered over the earth, in the faithful saints. For where divine
aid is given, men believe, and where they believe, they come. And
the Lord compared them, in a figure, to the children of Israel
offering sacrifice to Him in His house with psalms, which is already
everywhere done by the Church; and He promised that from among them
He would choose for Himself priests and Levites, which also we see
already accomplished. For we see that priests and Levites are now
chosen, not from a certain family and blood, as was originally the
rule in the priesthood according to the order of Aaron, but as befits
the new testament, under which Christ is the High Priest after the
order of Melchisedec, in consideration of the merit which is bestowed
upon each man by divine grace. And these priests are not to be judged
by their mere title, which is often borne by unworthy men, but by that
holiness which is not common to good men and bad.
After having thus spoken of this mercy of God which is now experienced
by the Church, and is very evident and familiar to us, he foretells
also the ends to which men shall come when the last judgment has
separated the good and the bad, saying by the prophet, or the prophet
himself speaking for God, "For as the new heavens and the new earth
shall remain before me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your
name remain, and there shall be to them month after month, and
Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before me in
Jerusalem, said the Lord. And they shall go out, and shall see the
members of the men who have sinned against me: their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be for a
spectacle to all flesh." At this point the prophet closed his book,
as at this point the world shall come to an end. Some, indeed, have
translated "carcass" instead of "members of the men," meaning by
carcases the manifest punishment of the body, although carcase is
commonly used only of dead flesh, while the bodies here spoken of shall
be animated, else they could not be sensible of any pain; but perhaps
they may, without absurdity, be called carcases, as being the bodies
of those who are to fall into the second death. And for the same
reason it is said, as I have already quoted, by this same prophet,
"The earth of the wicked shall fall." It is obvious that those
translators who use a different word for men do not mean to include only
males, for no one will say that the women who sinned shall not appear
in that judgment; but the male sex, being the more worthy, and that
from which the woman was derived, is intended to include both sexes.
But that which is especially pertinent to our subject is this, that
since the words "All flesh shall come," apply to the good, for the
people of God shall be composed of every race of men, for all men
shall not be present, since the greater part shall be in punishment,
but, as I was saying, since flesh is used of the good, and members
or carcases of the bad, certainly it is thus put beyond a doubt that
that judgment in which the good and the bad shall be allotted to their
destinies shall take place after the resurrection of the body, our
faith in which is thoroughly established by the use of these words.
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