THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE two capital points which we now proceed to examine, viz. the Christian church, and the captivity of Babylon, do not deserve so much the name of Phenomena, as of Antiphenomena, or veils, clouds, and impediments, to the observation of the true Phenomena. They are those two great and ancient fortresses, which have served, and do serve, as a refuge and asylum against every class of enemies. To which the interpreters of scripture most frequently betake themselves, and in them find security, as appears to me, for all their ideas of the second coming of Christ; thence directing such a fire, or more truly to speak, such an uproar, to frighten every hostile idea, as that the passage, if not absolutely shut, becomes at the least highly difficult, and almost impracticable.

You have already perceived, throughout all the preceding phenomena, the great labour and difficulty with which we made our way; it being necessary, almost at every step, for us to open the passage by force of arms, and long to dispute upon the same spot of ground, now with the one fortress, now with the other, now with both at once: but as the passage between these two fortresses is not to be avoided, by reason of their being situated on either side of the king’s highway, which we intend to follow, it truly becomes necessary for a time to lay aside every other occupation, and direct our attention to the fortresses themselves, in order to examine them one by one, and ascertain whether or not they are capable of defending the contrary ideas; that we may either prudently yield and retire from the contest, or follow some other road without any fear. These two fortresses are; the first, the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and their return to Jerusalem; the second, which supplies what the other cannot reach, is the Christian church. Let us begin with this, which is the more laborious.

Certain things necessary to be premised.

§ 1. BEFORE coming into close quarters with this sacred fortress, which is worthy of our most profound respect, it is indispensable to premise these two things; first, the notion, or clear idea, of all which is signified or comprehended under this name, The Christian Church: that is to say, what is certain and of divine faith upon this point; and what ought to be regarded as a brief, sincere, and religious confession of our faith. Secondly, the notion or idea, equally clear, of the sense and terms in which alone we design to speak. Without these two notions, it seems morally impossible to shut every door against subtleties, equivocations, and sophisms, which may easily incommode us.

First Notion.

THE Christian church, founded by Messiah himself, watered by his blood, and fertilized by his Spirit, is the true and only church of the living God on this our earth. It is, as saith the Apostle, the pillar and ground of the truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15. The faithful depositary of verity, to whom pertaineth to teach it as she received it; to whom consequently pertaineth judgment and final sentence upon the real and true sense of the Holy Scriptures: and that which she has resolved, taught, and commanded on these subjects, and that which she may henceforth resolve, teach, or command, as a verity of faith, ought to be received of all without contradiction or dispute. This church is holy, and with propriety entitled to that name, not only on account of the holiness of God, by whom she was consecrated, but likewise on account of the Holy Spirit which unites her; on account of the holiness of her head, which is Christ himself; on account of the holiness of her worship, her sacraments, her morality, and her laws; and, in short, because in her alone is to be found that justice and holiness, which converteth men into the sons of God.

This church is catholic, or universal, because, being essentially one, it comprehendeth within itself all peoples, tribes, and languages, which have sought and may henceforth seek to enter into and unite themselves with her. “Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision, nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all,” Col. iii. 11.

This church is, at the same time, apostolic, and may likewise with propriety be termed Roman, forasmuch as it posesseth all the authority, jurisdiction, and spiritual power, which the Son of God himself constituted in his apostles, and, above all the rest, in the chief of the apostles, St. Peter, that is, the bishop of Rome. Consequently, we acknowledge this bishop of Rome as the true centre of unity, in whom should terminate all the lines which proceed from the circumference of the whole Christian world; and those which will not terminate in this centre, do not pertain to the essential unity of the body of Christ, or to the true Christian church.

Second Notion,

THIS Christian church, this catholic church, this only spouse of the true God, notwithstanding that she is essentially one, and indivisible, is necessarily made up of two parts, differing from one another, and without which all in it were disorder and confusion, it is composed of two parts, active and passive; to wit, Mother and children, Mistress and disciples, Governess and governed, Directress and directed. By this clear and palpable notion, the difference is easily recognized between the truth signified by these two words, church of God, and the spouse of God. The first is a general word which comprehends all the faithful, great and small, learned and ignorant, polished and rustic, clergy and laity. The second seems manifestly to apply only to the active part of the same church, which is the priesthood, or, speaking with greater propriety, to the body of pastors. This active part is what we truly denominate our mother the church, and of this only we speak, when we say, the church teaches so; the church decides so; the church commands so. And if this be properly our mother, she is likewise spouse in the house of the Lord, to whom it pertains to bring forth children to God, to whom it pertains to nurse them, to sustain, to teach, to govern, and correct them.

Whence follows another notion of great importance, for the clearing of my ideas, and rectifying the understanding of those passages, in which it is said to the Jews, that the kingdom should be taken from them, and the vineyard which they cultivated should be entrusted to other husbandmen. It is a truth that though so many terrible sentences have been verified upon the Jews, since the death of Messiah, there has never been taken from them, nor is there taken from them, ingress into the Christian church; but, on the other hand, they were the first called into it, they have entered, and do enter, as many as desired it, and the church doth receive them into her bosom with the utmost affection. What then is it which was taken from the Jews by that sentence of Christ, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof?” and that other which they said themselves, “He will take away the vineyard and give it to other husbandmen?” It is, my friend, nothing else, and can be nothing else, than the active kingdom, the active church, the dignity of spouse, of mother, of governess of the family; the administration of the vineyard of God; they being husbandmen and labourers of that vineyard, which office we came into when it was taken from them, which they had held and would have held, had it not been taken away. I desire that all these notions may be had in remembrance, in order that when I speak of the Christian church, there may be no mistake from confounding the principal part with the whole; the active with the passive; the general ideas of the church with the particular ideas of the spouse.

§ 2. All these things being supposed and well understood, hear me now, my friend, with the less scruple and with the more attention. The first proposition to which I hasten, will doubtless appear to you incredible and almost absurd. Nevertheless, with your leave, I dare to advance it, and even to prove it.

Proposition.

THIS word, The Christian Church, in the mouth and from the pen of the Christian doctors, is not unfrequently, in certain particular points, a word very equivocal; which contains much of sophism, though hidden and much disguised.

I desire to explain myself with all clearness, in such a way as any one may understand. You see then, in the first place, that the proposition is not universal, but limited to certain particular points. If now you ask me what these are, I reply to you briefly that they are all those passages of Divine Scripture, which are confessedly favourable to the Jews; wherein are clearly and manifestly seen joyful annunciations, magnificent, extraordinary, new, and admirable promises which God himself hath made to Zion, to Jerusalem, to the house of Jacob: and this not at random —but to Zion, desolate and captive, and removing to and fro, alone, and having lost her children; to Zion, considered as a woman forsaken and sorrowful in spirit, and a wife of youth cast out; to Jerusalem, destroyed and trodden under foot of the Gentiles; to the house of Jacob, scattered to all the winds, and made the derision of all nations: which promises we know with all certainty have never yet been fulfilled.

All such passages of scripture, which are innumerable, they are at pains to accommodate as far as they can to the Christian church in its present state; in which state are comprehended all the eighteen centuries that have passed from the apostolic times until this day. Accordingly Zion, whenever she is spoken to for good, that is to say, as healed of her wounds, called of her God, reclaimed, caressed, lifted up and exalted, signifies the present Christian church; —Jerusalem, re-edified and honoured of all nations, means the present Christian church; —and the house of Israel, or of Jacob, gathered out of all nations by the omnipotent hand of their God, in the multitude of his mercies, can signify nothing but the Christian church in its present state.

Nevertheless it happens, and that with the utmost frequency, that in the middle of this accommodation which is made of the holy text to the present Christian church, some, or many embarrassments are met with, which shut the way and absolutely hinder our progress. And in this case, what remedy is there? The remedy is very easy and quite at hand. What so easy as to take a mental flight to heaven, and represent that as accommodated there, which it is impossible to accommodate here? So accordingly is it actually done, or endeavoured as far as is possible: for the triumphant and the militant church (they add with emphasis) is one church, with no other difference, than that the one is in harbour and the other out at sea. Well: but if that which the text declares should be as little applicable to the triumphant church, and be as repugnant thereto as it is to the visible church, what then is to be done? The embarrassment, though great and continual, is not therefore without its remedy. It must, in that case, be explained in any way possible. —If it cannot be conveniently explained in this sense, or in that, or in many conjoined; either it should be omitted wholly, as a thing of little moment, or barely touched upon the surface, which is almost the same as to omit it; every thing is allowed in practice, so that you do not understand, as they strike the ear, and as their natural proper sense would bear, such words as these: Zion, Jerusalem, Israel, Judah, the house of Jacob, the tribes of Israel, the tabernacle of David, &c. these being things great out of all proportion to the puny, vile, and faithless Jews.

§ 3. THE only foundation on which they rest all this their method of thinking and interpreting prophecy is the doctrine of the apostle St. Paul (as they pretend); who in various parts of his writings assures us, that the true children of Abraham, to whom the promises are addressed, are not his descendants according to the flesh, but according to the spirit; that is, all believers, of every nation whatever: “because those who are of faith are the children of faithful Abraham; amongst whom there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, of Barbarian and Scythian, of bond and free, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.” This doctrine of the apostle and master of the Gentiles being supposed, they argue thus: — The promises which are found in scripture, with a view to times posterior to Messiah’s coming, are spoken, according to St. Paul, only to the true children of Abraham; that is, not to the children according to the flesh, but the children according to the spirit: for “they are not all Israel who are of Israel, neither are they all children who are of the seed of Abraham.” Those true children of Abraham, according to the same apostle, are all the believers of every nation, without any difference of Jew or Greek, of free or bond. Therefore the said promises are directed to all the faithful of all nations; therefore they are spoken to the present church, which is composed of all these; therefore the Christian doctors do no wrong in accommodating, by every possible way, to the Christian church (now militant, now triumphant) the promises which are found in scripture for times posterior to Messiah; even though they should be spoken by name to the children of Abraham, to the Israelites, to Zion, to Jerusalem, to Judah, to Israel, and to the relics of that unhappy people.

This reasoning, in appearance just, has been as it were a double veil, which has not permitted the light to reach our eyes. St. Paul says, that the true children of Abraham, to whom the promises were spoken, are not the children according to the flesh, or according to nature, but the children according to the spirit; that is, believers of whatever nation they may be. Well: this is a clear truth. But when St. Paul teaches this truth to all believers, and with it comforts and animates them, of what promises speaketh he? Is it, peradventure, of all which are to be met with in the scriptures, relating to the times subsequent to the incarnation of the Son of God? This is false by St. Paul’s own testimony; who, when he is speaking particularly and on purpose of the conversion (still future) of the children of Israel, according to the flesh, unto Christ, doth cite other promises peculiar to them only, and which cannot be accommodated to believers of all nations, as we shall see forthwith, and as the doctors themselves acknowledge.

So that, according to him, there are in the scriptures particular as well as general promises; some which are spoken generally to all the sons of Abraham, according to the spirit; that is, to all believers, of every tribe and language and people and nation, without excluding the Jews who may desire to enter into the number of the same: others, peculiar to the same Jews, or to the children of Abraham according to nature; and these for times in which, from being children according to the flesh, they may be still more so also according to the spirit, as doubtless they shall yet become. The general promises, which embrace all believers of all nations, are the remission of sins, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the adoption of sons, and whatever shall result thence; which is what St. Paul saith: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. viii. 17. Doubtless all this is spoken of all the children of Abraham according to the spirit; of all true believers, of every people, tribe, and language of the whole world. All these may say with truth, we then are the children of the promises: all these are estimated among the seed; and all these shall be blessed with the father of all believers; therefore they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Gal iii. 9. And doth all this, my friend, seem to you little? Ought not all believers to be content with promises so great and of such dignity?

But besides these general propositions, there be others of a special kind, directed only to the miserable children of Abraham by the line of Isaac and Jacob according to the flesh, or according to nature, to be fulfilled against a time when they shall be so likewise according to the spirit; when the heart of stone shall be taken from them, and there shall be given to them a heart of flesh, and that circumcised; when they shall be gathered again, and collected into one by the omnipotent hand of the living God in the multitude of his mercies; when they shall be healed of their wounds and washed from their iniquities; in short, when they shall be the believers, in the room of the nations of the whole world, who for the greater and the greatest part shall have ceased to be believers according to the scripture: of all which we have spoken sufficiently in the preceding phenomena.

Those promises which are specially directed to the children of Abraham, according to nature, and to them alone, are their calling unto Christ, their sincere and true conversion, with all the circumstances announced thereof; —the mission of Elias for this single end, for the scripture mentions no other; their re-placing and re-establishment in the land promised to their fathers; their contrition, and their inward most bitter sorrow; their righteousness, their holiness, their fulness, which are the terms St. Paul himself useth, Rom. xi.: these promises, I say, with all these consequences, there is not any reason whatever for desiring to accommodate to the present church, or to extend them to all gentile believers, who should be content with what they have received, which is not small. They ought to praise God, and to acknowledge incessantly the great mercy which he hath exercised towards them. They should labour to make themselves worthy children of Abraham, imitating his probity and his justice: “If ye be the children of Abraham,” saith Christ, “do the works of Abraham,” John viii. 39. But to appropriate to themselves, in order to increase their riches, what is promised against a future time to other poor creatures who are found at present in extreme misery, doth not appear a work proper to the religious Abraham. —This Abraham did not.

§ 4. With the distinction which we have just made between the general and particular prophecies, you will already begin to perceive with ease the equivocation of which we speak, and upon which alone resteth the ordinary mode of thinking in respect to the greater part of the prophecies. In order that this equivocation may be the more apparent, it seems good to me to propose in this place a hypothesis, —neglecting, for the present, whether it be true or false, sweet or bitter, credible or incredible. This hypothesis may be proposed in the following terms.

“The Christian church (speaking of the active portion thereof as explained above) doth certainly now stand with the nations who were called into the place of the Jews, to whom the kingdom was entrusted, or the administration of his vineyard according to those sentences fulminated against the Jewish people: “the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof: he will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen.” This Christian church, regarded chiefly in its active part, this executive kingdom of God, this administration of the vineyard of God, shall one day return back to the Jews, from whom it was taken; who shall be called in mercy to occupy that place which they lost by their unbelief. In like manner, the centre of unity of the Christian catholic and universal church (which then shall be truly worthy of those names, embracing within itself all the inhabitants of the earth), this centre of unity which now standeth in Rome and the nations, shall then stand in Zion, in Jerusalem, and in the sons of Abraham according to the flesh, who shall then in the most perfect sense be likewise his children according to the spirit. We do not thus early set ourselves to the tedious examination of this supposition, which will go on to manifest itself without either much of labour or of noise: at present it will be sufficient to know that it is not an impossible supposition, and as little is it contrary to any truth of faith.”

This hypothesis being for a moment admitted, the innumerable prophecies whereof we speak may be understood and explained with the utmost ease and propriety. It is seen at once how all those great benefits and mercies, so often promised by name to Zion in the state of solitude and misery, where for so many ages she hath been found; to Jerusalem, destroyed and trodden under foot; to the house of Jacob and the posterity of Abraham, captive among all nations; —it is at once seen, I say, how all these promises, which till now have not been accomplished, whose very magnitude hath made them incredible, may come to be accomplished. And if this supposition, though a little harsh and unpalatable, should yet prove to be a clear and undeniable truth, —in this case, could we still refuse to understand the prophecies in their proper sense? Now, then, behold the equivocation laid bare to the very root. —Zion, Jerusalem, and the house of Jacob, when they are spoken to for good; that is to say, when very great, new, and extraordinary things are announced to them; can signify, they tell us, nothing but the Christian church. Well; I, likewise, say so: —I believe it, also. But when? in what state? and in what circumstances?

Not now, surely, in their present state; but in another time and another state, widely different from the present. Not now, when Zion and Jerusalem stand destroyed both in a physical and a moral sense; and the house of Jacob is found, according to the scriptures, scattered to all the winds and captive amongst all nations. Not now, when the whole house of Israel, by the just judgment of God, is found dark, deaf, and dumb, without one sign of true life, because it wanteth the principle of life, which is faith. Not now, when the whole house of Jacob is found like a mouldering carcase, whose parched and withering bones are beheld with horror by all the nations amongst whom they are scattered. Not now, in fine, when the whole house of Jacob lieth prostrate in that kind of lethargy, madness, and frenzy, which abhorreth and detesteth the very person whom, in other respects, they love, hope, desire, and sigh for, night and day, as their greatest, their only good. If then not now, when?

When the same house of Jacob, to whom the promises of which we speak are made, “who,” saith St. Paul, “are my kinsmen according to the flesh; who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came,” Rom. ix. 3-5, —when this house of Jacob, according to the flesh, shall be called of God, gathered by his almighty arm out of all the countries of the world whither they are dispersed. When they shall be introduced and as it were planted anew in that land which we call the land of promise, because it was promised to them and their fathers: And I will build them and not pull them down; and I will plant them and not pluck them up, saith he, by Jeremiah, xxiv. 6. And I will no more drive my people of Israel out of the land which I have given them, saith he, by Baruch, ii. 35. And I will plant them upon the land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of the land, he saith, by Amos ix. 16. When he shall have taken away the heart of stone, and given them a heart of flesh. When the dry and parched bones shall have united, been clothed with sinews, flesh, and skin, and breathed into of the spirit of life. When they shall be awakened from their profound sleep —when they shall open their eyes full of tears —when they shall acknowledge their Messiah, whom for so many ages they have been at once loving and abhorring, desiring and detesting.

But when shall these things be? (I hear thee say with an air of derision,) When shall these things be? Is it credible that such things should ever be accomplished in the vile, dark, blind, and obstinate Jews? it cannot be denied, friend, that thou thinkest like a prudent man. It is most certain that “with men this is impossible:” but darest thou now also to say, ‘that it is impossible with God.’ If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it be marvellous in my eyes? Zech. viii. 6. And in case that God should have declared and promised all which our hypothesis containeth, would it be a sufficient reason for doubting it, that with men it was impossible?

The doctors lay it down to us as a thing certain and indubitable, that the active part of the Christian church whereof we speak, which at present is with the Gentiles, shall continue to stand in this form even until the end of the world, without any change or novelty being possible to it; God being beholden, as it were, to keep things for ever in the state they are in at present. But, upon what foundation resteth this? May we not examine it closely? May we not propose our doubts to the learned —the great or the small reasons which we may have for doubting it? And in case that these do not deign to hear us, or to give us any other reply than the outcry ‘he blasphemeth;’ may it not be permitted us to examine this most grave and important point by the light of the scriptures, which the church itself placeth in our hands?

Examination of the Hypothesis as laid down above.

§ 5. I proceed to present, my friend, in the way of a proposal submitted to deliberation and judgment, this point of so great interest: I shall propose to you my doubts, and the grounds of them: but first permit me to anticipate these five points, which, unless I deceive myself, I see to be five very manifest truths.

1. Jesus Christ founded his church in Jerusalem, and for the time being, of Jews only: but as he, according to the orders of his divine Father, had to depart immediately into a far country, in order to receive a kingdom to himself and return, (Luke xix. 12.) he chose in his stead one of the twelve apostles, St. Peter, whom he appointed his vicar upon earth, leaving with him all the keys of the house, and commending to his care, fidelity, and vigilance, the preservation, the enlargement, the instruction, and good government of the whole family, for himself and for his lawful successors till he should return.

    

2. All the active administration of the church of Christ; that is to say, all the authority, jurisdiction, and spiritual power, necessary for the conservation, increase, and good government of this church, the Son of God himself placed in the apostles, giving to one of them the pre-eminency over the rest. Among these apostles of Christ, and even among his other disciples of an inferior class, it is a thing ascertained and certain, that there was not one who was not a Jew, pertaining according to the flesh to the house of Jacob and the posterity of Abraham. So also it is a thing ascertained and certain, that among all the seventy-two books of scripture, there is not one whereof the writer was called of the Holy Spirit from any other nation or people than that of Israel and the house of Jacob.

    

3. The Lord might very well, if so it had pleased him, have preserved and perpetuated in Jerusalem the court, the primacy, and the centre of unity of his whole church, and left to the Jews the supreme power, —appointing that they only should be the successors of St. Peter, and inherit all his pre-eminence and prerogatives. And perhaps so it would also have been done to Jerusalem and Judea, if they had listened to the preaching of the apostles and received the word of God.

    

4. In this case (neither impossible nor difficult) of his leaving in Jerusalem, and with the Jews only, the apostolic see, or the centre of unity of the whole church of Christ, it would have been as catholic, as universal, as now it is, with out any difference whatever: seeing that, before St. Peter had received orders to pass to Rome and plant his seat therein, (and perhaps before knowing and understanding the great mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles,) that truth of the catholic and universal church had been already defined in Jerusalem, and embodied in the public symbol of faith; for no one is ignorant of the Lord’s intimation unto all, before ascending up to heaven, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

    

5. God, desiring to chastise Jerusalem and the Jews with their last and greatest chastisement, for having persisted in their incredulity, took in hand to execute that terrible sentence which was already announced in the gospel: “Therefore I say unto you, that the kingdom shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Matt. xxi. 43.

    

In order to make way for the execution of this sentence, and withal to show unto the Gentiles the greatest and most inestimable mercy, the first thing which God did was to take from Jerusalem the candlestick, the great and original lamp of light, which had been placed there; to take, I say, from Jerusalem his vicariate; to take away the see apostolical; to take away the centre of unity of the true Christian church, and to transfer it all to Rome, for the greater benefit and convenience of the nations called in the room of Israel: determining, at least tacitly, that thenceforth the Gentiles should succeed to St. Peter and the other apostles, and that the children of the kingdom should be disinherited and cast out for a time into outer darkness: “But I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.” Matt. viii. 11,12. And, in order to take from these children of the kingdom every occasion of dispute, and to cast them entirely into the street, according as it had been announced, the second thing which the Lord did was to send his armies against them, and utterly to destroy their temple and their city “he will send his armies and destroy those wicked murderers: and burn up their city:” Matt xxii 7. which was executed forthwith by means of Vespasian and Titus, and was entirely completed by Adrian,

thus accomplishing with all fulness that other prophecy of the Lord: “For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Luke xxi. 23,24.

Supposing now these five points to be well understood, and in the good faith that nothing but truth has been found in them, I do now proceed with my deliberation. When God for the most righteous causes abandoned Jerusalem, and transferred to Rome the court and centre of his church, did he peradventure so tie up his hands as not to be able to exchange those lots without denying himself; and that in no time in no case, and on no account? Could God without denying himself, take from Jerusalem not only the candle, but likewise the candlestick, and place it in Rome, —and shall he not be able without denying himself, in any time, in any case, and on any account, to take it from Rome and replace it in Jerusalem? Could he deprive the Jews of the administration of the vineyard, or which is the same of the active kingdom of God, and give it to the Gentiles, for reasons which are pointed out in the parable, Matt. xxi. 33. and shall he not be able for the same reasons, or for others of the same kind, to take it from the Gentiles and again restore it to the Jews? Could he cut out of the good olive its proper and natural branches, and in their place graft in against nature other strange and wild branches, and shall he not be able in any time, or on any account, even though those engrafted should have become corrupt, shall he not be able, I say, to cut those out, to return and graft in those which are according to nature?

I am aware of the more than ordinary embarrassment this supposition submitted to you will occasion you. The answer considered apparently so easy and plain, is yet not so much so as not to require some study. Besides the ordinary doctors whom you may consult according to your taste, I believe that the doctor of the Gentiles himself, who treats this point fully, and even to the foundation, will give you much insight. I find amongst his writings an admirable discourse addressed to the Christian nations, so clear, so circumstantial, so solidly founded, that nothing is left to be desired by any one who searcheth for the pure truth, by any one who resteth in that alone, be it sweet or be it bitter; therefore, my friend, deign thou to hear this discourse with patience, and to consider it with attention. We shall divide it into four parts for our greater convenience.

Discourse of the Apostle of the Gentiles.

§ 6. Part first. —“IT is commonly thought amongst Christians, that the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who delighteth so greatly in the innocence and righteousness of these three patriarchs, that he desireth to be for ever called by their name, saying, ‘This is my name for ever, and my memorial to all generations,’ Exod. iii. 15; that this God infinitely true and faithful in all his words, has for ever abandoned the posterity of these righteous men. It is thought that he cut them off from himself for ever for that great crime which they committed when they cried out, ‘Crucify him, crucify him, his blood be upon us and our children.’ It is thought that this crime is irremediable, and not to be atoned for by the severest chastisement and penance of so many ages, nor even by that very blood of infinite value which they shed, not knowing what they did. It is thought that this great and infinite God, whose judgments, though inscrutable, are yet true and justified in themselves, holdeth no longer any purpose becoming his greatness towards these unhappy, ungrateful, and rebellious children; save only that at the end of the world those who remain till then shall be converted. Now, upon what foundation does this manner of thinking rest? Is it, peradventure, upon some revelation contained in the sacred books, or upon some good and solid reason? I say, then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.”

“We ought first to call to memory all that happened to this grateful people in the first years after the death of Messiah. So far was God from avenging the death of his Son, or the Son from avenging himself by the total rejection of the children of Abraham, that, on the contrary, they were the first waited upon, they were the first who were called, and earnestly invited to the great supper; to them, with infinite generosity, was offered in the first instance all the precious fruit of that death, whereof they themselves had all the blame. The servants who were forthwith sent into the whole world, to invite the whole human race, had express order to begin with Jerusalem, with the children of Israel, and to labour amongst them with the greatest pains, until they should either accept the invitation, or until their hardness and obstinacy should arrive at the extreme of leaving them neither free-will nor hope. In the Acts of the Apostles, is to be seen, what the Lord, by means of his envoys, did to subdue their obstinacy. There it is to be seen that he passed not altogether to the Gentiles, till after they had repelled the word and invitation of the Load, and were infuriated against his messengers, as the Lord had announced it all in the parable of the marriage supper, Matt xxii: whereby they rendered themselves unworthy of the benefit which was offered to them, and filled up all the measures of endurance. ‘It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us,’ Acts xiii. 46,47. Notwithstanding this obstinacy of the whole nation, there did not fail to be saved, a ‘remnant according to the election of grace, and the rest were blinded according as it is written:’ God in punishment of their iniquity, giving them ‘eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day.’”

Secondly. —“Not to speak longer of those primitive ages of the church, nor of the few Jews who then believed, let us now turn all our attention to those who did not believe, but persisted in their obstinacy, who were almost the whole of them, for these alone come into consideration in this place, seeing they only are believed to be entirely abandoned of God. It is undeniable that these unhappy men were blinded as it hath been written, they set themselves against the foundation stone and stumbled upon it, as was likewise written; and through their blindness it became to them ‘a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.’ But think you that they stumbled in such a way as to fall. That they should fall, I say, with all their posterity into the eternal oblivion of the God of Abraham? ‘I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid:’ the truth is, that God in his most high judgment, always full of wisdom, of goodness, of rectitude and justice, so permitted and so disposed it with great deliberation, and with designs worthy of his greatness, in order by that evil visitation, to take away from her innumerable benefits, as he has effectually taken them away. You need not ask what benefits these are, for you are not ignorant of them, enjoying them as you do without perceiving it; for in short, her crime, her incredulity, her obstinacy hath proved your salvation; seeing there has passed over to you what they did not estimate by reason of their grossness, and by reason of their ignorance did depreciate. ‘By their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.’”

“If then the fall of the Jews has proved the salvation of the world: if their unbelief, their blindness, their chastisements, their humiliation, their diminishing, has been the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? ‘But if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?’” From these words of the apostle, it follows naturally and legitimately, that at some future time we should look for that fulness of Israel, which shall bring to the world so many more excellent benefits than came to them from her fall, her incredulity, her obstinacy, her chastisement, her humiliation; from which may be drawn other consequences, not less legitimate, not less important. The discourse of this doctor thus proceedeth.

“With you I speak, Oh Christian Gentiles, of every nation, tribe, and tongue. Being your preacher and master, to whom has been committed the ministry of the word, I ought to honour this sacred ministry by declaring to all, and instructing all in that ‘which I received from the Lord,’ that is, the pure truth, therefore hear me brethren.”

“If the blindness of the Jews, if their unbelief, if their obstinacy, if the casting away which God has made of them, has been the reconciliation of the world, what think you shall be their resumption?’ What think you shall come to pass, when the most merciful God of their fathers shall take them by the hand and raise them from the earth? When he opens their eyes, when he calls them, when he draws them to himself, when he receives them to his arms, as that good Father did the Prodigal Son? What think you shall that resumption and fulness of the Jews be, but life from the dead? Then shall the world with admiration and astonishment, behold not only those living whom they had supposed to be dead but they shall see life issuing from the dead who shall communicate true life to the dead world!

“Why regard you this as marvellous? “If the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy so also are the branches.” All those fruits having been to God so holy and acceptable, which at different times the house of Jacob hath offered to him from the whole lump, to wit, the patriarchs, so many prophets and just men, the apostles of Christ, the disciples, the believers of the primitive church, the holy mother of Messiah, and above all, Messiah himself; the whole house of Jacob, which is the lump from which all these precious fruits taken, ought to be regarded as holy, as consecrated to God, and his inheritance. In the same manner the root of a tree being holy, the whole tree with all its branches is holy. And what shall we say to this, that some or many branches of this tree so holy, have been broken off. Hear me once more, oh Gentiles, and forget not this great truth.”

“What else was the whole Gentile world, from which you have been elected and drawn out with so much mercy, than a mountain of wild olives which did yield no fruit worthy of God, and would never have yielded any, being left to its own natural rusticity? You then to whom God held no obligation, neither by covenant nor by promise, nor by your righteousness, nor the righteousness of your fathers were taken from your thickets in the pure goodness of the God of Israel; were planted by his own wise and omnipotent hand in that same holy tree, in that same good olive, whose natural branches had been broken off, and thou enteredst to occupy their place. Thereby partaking of the proper fatness of the root, you came into the condition of yielding those fruits which your natural estate could not attain unto. “And thou being a wild olive tree wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” Thou hast therefore no reason to boast thyself, to grow vain, to depreciate and insult over the natural branches, though broken off, dry, and sterile to their own misery; and if haply there should enter into you any elation of mind, any vain glory, or security, know, brethren, that you do not bear the root, but the root beareth you. Your sustenance, your verdure, your fecundity, your life, come all to you from the root of the tree into which you were graffed, and not the contrary; ‘boast not against the branches: but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.’

“Perhaps you will say, the branches were broken off that I might be graffed in.” The natural branches of that good olive were broken off and cast away for their unprofitableness, that we might be inserted in their stead. Well: praise the God of Israel for that, and render acknowledgements to his very great mercy; but be not this the occasion to thee of undervaluing the branches that were broken off. These had become dry and profitless through their unbelief: you who are now graffed into the same tree by faith, presume not upon yourselves. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling:” for there is no reason to persuade yourselves that God will look with more complacency upon the strange branches which have been inserted into the good olive tree, than he did upon the natural branches thereof: “thou standest by faith, be not high minded but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee.” It is not therefore impossible that the same calamity should befall the inserted branches, as befell the natural ones.”

“In this admirable and inscrutable counsel of God we ought to consider on one hand, the mercy and the goodness of the Lord; and on the other, his justice and severity. The severity towards the ungrateful Jews who were faithless to their calling, the goodness towards the Gentiles who were called in their stead; but this goodness to the Gentiles, not less than that severity to the Jews, should be well understood, for it is easy to abuse the one as well as the other. For as this severity in respect of the Jews must indispensably endure so long as their unbelief endureth, and no longer; so the goodness as concerning the Gentiles shall endure as long as they shall abide in that faith and goodness which God has extended to them, and no longer. If this period should ever be accomplished, as also the period of the unbelief of the Jews, what other thing, what better lot can the branches graffed in expect, but the same severity which the natural branches have experienced, and still more severe. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graft them in again.” Rom. xi. 22,23.

“If this occasion you any great surprize, turn your eyes upon yourselves, and make this short reflection. I was taken, by the goodness of God from my profitless wild olive: I was inserted into the good olive, by the wise, omnipotent, and beneficent hand of the heavenly Father: by that benefit I remain in the state of being able to taste the fatness of the root of the olive, and consequently to bring forth fruits worthy of God. Then, when the proper and, natural branches of the same tree shall be wholly restored (as it is certain they shall be); when they shall be as it were inserted anew, according to nature, by the same wise, omnipotent, and beneficent hand of the God of Abraham, what fruits will it not be in their power to give, and what fruits will they not give. “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive-tree?” Verse 24.

Thirdly. —“The present unbelief of the Jews, their obstinacy, their hardness, their blindness in the midst of such great light, is a mystery more worthy of our attentive consideration, than of an inconsiderate indignation. For the knowledge of this great mystery, from its beginning to its end, may prove very useful to all believers of the Gentiles. I, who desire nothing but your true well-being, desire to discover and reveal to you that secret, that “ye be not wise in your own conceit;” that you may moderate your too great confidence, which might easily pass into presumption; and that you may give way to a holy and religious fear. Know, brethren, that the present blindness of the Jews, with all its consequences, is a great mystery, closely connected with the mystery, not less great, of your vocation; so that the former of these two things depends upon the latter, and shall endure so long as this shall endure; that is, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; not certainly all the Gentiles, but those who are to enter in according to the foreknowledge and election of God, until there is no longer found among the Gentiles one who wisheth to enter; until those who were within are going out, and those who remain are cooling in their love; until, finally, the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

“This time being arrived, this mystery concluded, the merciful and just God hath determined to call the Jews, and to gather all the remnant of them with great mercy, according as it is written, announced, and promised in their scriptures. Already hath he spoken by Isaiah, “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” Rom. xi. 26,27. Wherefore if God treat them as enemies, that enmity is not only just with respect to them, but it is likewise full of goodness with respect to you: or, to speak more correctly, that enmity against the Jews is properly on your account, for the sake of your love, for your contemplation, for your greater benefit; but if in this respect they are now enemies, in another respect they are not so, but very dear unto God, who cannot deny them wholly, without denying himself, seeing he has pledged to them his royal word. “As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” Rom. xi. 28. If they are now worthy of wrath for their unbelief, for their obstinacy, and for your sakes; likewise are they worthy of mercy for the righteousness of their fathers, for the promises made to their fathers, for the merits of their fathers.”

Fourthly. —“And as you “sometime were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise [of the Old and New Testaments], having no hope, and without God in the world,” Eph. ii. 12; as you did not know the true God, and have now found him without seeking, and have obtained mercy by the unbelief of the Jews; so these now do not believe, nor will hear that mercy spoken of, which you have found by believing in him whom they rejected and crucified. And think you there is not in this some great mystery worthy the greatness, the wisdom, and the goodness of God?” God forbid; “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.” [Vulg. ita et isti non crediderunt in vestram misericordiam, ut et ipsi misericordiam consequantur, i.e. so have they now not believed in your mercy, that they may obtain mercy.] The great mystery is that God willeth, and hath so determined, that the Jews should find mercy in that same manner, and by that same way, by which the Gentiles found it. The latter have found mercy, without seeking it, through the unbelief of the Jews, “yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief.” Apply then the similitude, and faithfully draw the good and legitimate consequence; “for God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” God, of his infinite greatness, and in his incomprehensible judgments, hath shut up the whole of this great mystery of the Gentiles and of the Jews, in the unbelief of the one and of the other, “that he may have mercy upon all.” In the unbelief of the Jews to call the Gentiles in their stead, and to bestow upon them great mercies; and in the unbelief of the Gentiles, when that comes to pass, and it is foreshown, to return and call the Jews, and to bestow upon them all those mercies which were written before. Mystery truly great and incomprehensible, while it is certain and undeniable, whereof all the scriptures give us a clear enough conception.”

The author of this discourse, being himself one of the most learned men, and most highly enlightened of heaven, being arrived at this point, gives demonstrations of being wholly overwhelmed, and as it were lost in the unfathomable depth of the judgments of God, and not being able to pass beyond, he concludes with that celebrated exclamation, as full of piety as of truth: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Rom. xi.

§ 7. If this discourse should seem to be harsh, bitter, and irreconcilable to thine ideas, thou canst utter thy complaints to thine apostle; who, inspired of the Spirit of God, thus foretold to all believers of the Gentiles, and not without a mysterious meaning sent it directly to the Romans; protesting upon this particular point, that although the proper apostle of the Gentiles, he could not do less than honour his ministry. I have done no more than to translate this discourse into my own idiom, with that sort of extension or explanation which we call paraphrase, tying myself scrupulously, not so much to the words and syllables, as to the foundation of the doctrine, and the mind which the author expresseth. Which course hath appeared to me the more necessary and important, as I see the great obscurity and darkness in which interpreters leave us upon this passage of St. Paul, and upon so many others, which hold with it not only a strict relation, but a real identity. The point which the apostle here treats, is the great and wonderful mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, taking this mystery in its completeness from its beginning to its ending; that is, from the time that the kingdom of God was taken from the Jews, and given to the Gentiles, until the vocation, resumption, and future fulness of the same Jews, or rather, until the consummation of the mystery of God, to which all the prophecies direct their course, and at which they are to find their resting place. The apostle speaketh here with all frankness, saying, that as a faithful minister of God, he cannot do otherwise than speak the simple truth, and in speaking it magnify his office: “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.”

From all this, it appeareth undeniable, that this mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, as it is found in scripture, and as the apostle here sets it forth in a compendious way, hath not been understood till now, and hath not been examined with the desire of perfectly understanding it. The christian nations, it is true, have taken, have believed, have embraced, have exaggerated every thing in this wonderful mystery of their vocation which favoured themselves. Well believing that the faithless Jews were therein reproved and absolutely abandoned of their God; piously believing that the whole mystery is directed to the vocation of the Gentiles, and terminates there; it was impossible that they should permit entrance to other ideas not so agreeable, though essential parts of the mystery. Whence proceed the great efforts made by the doctors, the subtleties and refinements which they put in requisition, especially upon this passage of St. Paul, in order to separate the bitter from the sweet, and to escape happily out of the embarrassment into which they are brought by their own apostle. Insomuch that many of them, not daring to hide all that is here written in favour of the Jews, have, notwithstanding, believed that it was permitted them to deny what St. Paul declareth and the prophets announce, as being irreconcilable to the honour of the Gentile christians, and to allow them in exchange for the same, other ordinary things, which neither the prophets nor St. Paul insinuate.

If you will indulge yourself, my friend, in the least reflection, you will not fail to recollect, that this same thing anciently happened to the Jewish doctors, when they came to the explanation of those passages which were contrary to their people and favourable to the nations. They granted liberally what did not inconvenience them, while at the same time they denied or hid that which might prejudice the holy people —which was one of the chief causes of their destruction.

I could wish, my friend, if it were possible, that all these things might be considered with the greatest exactness; not despising nor losing sight of a certain light which already beginneth to clear up the whole of this mystery; showing to us the smooth and easy way, which leads to the full verification of all the prophecies, and giving us insight from the beginning to the end, into the great mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles and blindness of the Jews. The light of which I speak, is no other than the present system of the world, and the state in which the church of Christ is, for the most part, at present found amongst the nations, that is, neither cold nor hot.

In order now that thou mayest be able to compare with the very text of St. Paul, the translation and paraphrase which thou hast just read, I present thee here with the very original text, divided likewise into its four parts, which are as four rays of light that unite in the same point.

First Part. —“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for: but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (according as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.” Rom. xi. 1-8.

Second Part. —“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. If by any means, I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they bide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?” Rom. xi. 11-24.

Third Part. —“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Rom. xi. 25-29.

Fourth Part. —“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. xi. 25-33.

Reflections.

§ 8. THIS fourth part of the discourse of St. Paul, (we begin by this) containeth nothing more than a proposition and an exclamation. The proposition revealeth a secret mystery which no one could know but by express revelation of God.

This mystery must, without doubt, be very great, being set fourth by four words only; and it hath produced two effects, very great and remarkable, though widely differing from each other. One effect it produced upon the mind of the apostle himself, the instant he revealed the mystery made known to him by the Holy Ghost. Another effect, but infinitely different from this, hath it produced upon the doctors who have meditated the same proposition. The effect which it produced upon St. Paul, was to make him burst forth immediately into that exclamation, which is one of the most sublime, and most expressive, and most religious pieces to be met with in all the scriptures: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and goodness of God.” But what is the effect it has produced upon the doctors? I confess, my friend, that my heart fails me to tell: and yet constrained by the circumstances I must speak with frankness: the effect which it has wrought in them, has been not to admit the said proposition, nor the mystery contained therein, as it lies before them, and not until they have taken from it whatever might disturb their own ideas.

In fact, a proposition so full of energy, a comparison so full of animation, as that contained in these words, “For as ye (Gentiles) in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also not now believed on your mercy, [this is the true translation of the Greek and the Vulgate translation, upon which our author’s argument proceedeth,] that they may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Rom. xi. 30-32. To what doth all this reduce itself in the mouth of the doctors? You shall hear. As you Gentiles knew not the true God, neither believed on him, yet have now obtained mercy without seeking it, through the unbelief of the Jews, so have these not now believed in your mercy; and notwithstanding this their present incredulity and obstinacy, they shall likewise find mercy against a certain time, that is, at the end of the world: for provoked by your good example, and ashamed of having believed Antichrist, they shall at length open their eyes, believe in Christ, and the church shall receive them into her bosom. You already perceive that the proposition of which we are speaking, is not at all deduced by them: there wanteth a little clause, very short, yet full of substance, which of itself doth wholly clear up the proposition, and at once produce the exclamation of the apostle: it is this, “For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” What meaneth this? To St. Paul it appeared a mystery so profound, that silently confessing his littleness he exclaimed thus, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?” Rom. xi. 33,34.

But in the eyes of the doctors this little clause containeth a thing so insignificant as in truth not to merit the exclamation of the apostle; “for God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” God hath permitted, they say, that all men, both Gentiles and Jews, should fall into the most grievous crime of infidelity and incredulity, and therein all remain shut up, in order to make the shew of his mercy towards all, pardoning successively the one and the other, and receiving them into his favour and friendship. The Gentiles accordingly have gone on believing the gospel and uniting themselves to the church of Christ; and the Jews, when they shall likewise believe and join themselves to the same church, which will happen one day, that is, at the end of the world. And do the doctors find no more mystery than this in the clause which we are considering? No, friend: this is the whole which it contains, according to the interpreters whom we have seen. Then how, with reference to a thing comparatively so insignificant, should there be an exclamation so sublime, and so full of religious enthusiasm, in the mouth and in the pen of the teacher of the Gentiles? Might we not say, that he should have reserved for some greater mystery a piece which hath hardly its equal in the whole scripture? And why not admit all which this little clause offers at first sight to every reader. Wouldst thou know the reason? Because in that case there would follow obviously and naturally certain harsh consequences; which, while they could not be avoided, will not harmonize with their system.

It would follow, first, that as the Gentiles have found mercy without seeking it; “I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” Isa. lxv. 1. and this by the unbelief of the Jews, on account of their unbelief, —so the Jews are to find mercy without seeking it, through the unbelief of these very Gentiles; consequently, that this general unbelief of the Gentiles shall one day be verified. It would follow, in the second place, that as because of the incredulity of the Jews God called the Gentiles, made them to enter to his supper and occupy the place of the incredulous; (accomplishing punctually what Moses had already said, and what St. Paul observeth: “I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation will I anger you.” Rom. x. 19.) so a time being arrived in which the Gentiles have ceased to believe, God shall return and call the Jews, and make them with great advantages to reoccupy that same place which they had lost; exchanging lots, making the sad emulation to pass from one to the other, and handing the cup from this to that. It would follow, thirdly, that as the Gentiles entered and became the people of God, through the unbelief of the Jews; so these, vice versa, shall on the same account one day enter, and once more become the people of God, the Israel of God, the spouse of God; “for God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he may have mercy upon all.” It will follow…

Well: and what difficulty is there in all this —what repugnancy —what contradiction? Is this not the very thing which the apostle saith in the text, and which the whole context beareth? And do not many scriptures of which we have been speaking announce the very same? Is not this the very thing which made the apostle burst forth into that religious exclamation, “Oh, the depth,” &c.? Why should we not receive it? Is it merely because it favoureth us not? It seems a harsh thing to utter, but the truth is, that it all reduces itself to that single reason. And yet I fear that you will still wish to propose to me that argument which we insinuate on the other side of the question. If (you say) the proposition of St. Paul be admitted, as it lies, in all its crudeness, harshness, and bitterness, it will be necessary, to save consequences, that we should likewise admit two or three hundred propositions of the same kind, which are frequently found in the prophets, in the psalms, and even in the scriptures of the New Testament. And in that case what would follow? It would follow (you say) that the very great and unconditional promises which Jesus Christ made to his church would not be able to keep their ground. What! promises of the Lord not be able to be fulfilled? And believest thou, Sir, that the Son of God is capable of promising any thing contrary to that which the prophets had announced? Doth he not himself declare the very contrary? —“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” Matt. v. 17. And do you believe that St. Paul the apostle was capable of inconsiderately advancing any proposition incompatible with the promises of the Son of God, whereof he could not be ignorant?

Let us, however, come to the examination of the promises, and we shall see that there is nothing contrary to them in that which hath been said. The first, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matt. xvi.

18. The second, “But I have prayed for thee, Simon, that thy faith fail not.” Luke xxii. 32. The third, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. xxviii. 20. If there be any other promise to the same effect it occurreth not to me; and I hold it certain that it will not be better than these three. And from all of these what is to be inferred? Nothing, friend, in your favour; and less than nothing, for they are manifestly very wide of the purpose. In here alleging these promises, you give me to understand that you have not yet adverted well to the great equivocation (explained above) which hath caused it. You appear still to think that the whole mystery of God whereof the scriptures speak, is shut up, concluded, and perfected in the vocation of the Gentiles. You appear still to think that the branches graffed into the good olive against nature, shall continue for ever to yield good fruit, worthy of God: and though the time should come when they will not, as it is written, that yet they shall be much more respected and privileged than were the natural branches. It would appear, finally, that the promises which Christ made to his church have caused you wholly to forget that threatening of the apostle directed to those very persons who were graffed in; “If thou continue in goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”

Imagine, now, that I, imitating your way of reasoning, and alleging the same promise of the Son of God, should propound to you this difficulty. Jesus Christ founded his church in Jerusalem and with Jews only; because both St. Peter, to whom he entrusted the keys, and the rest of the apostles and disciples, with whom he left his instructions, were all Jews, there not being a single one amongst them who was not so. Jesus Christ himself, speaking with those holy Jews, without at all naming the Gentiles, made unto them those promises of which we speak, and pledged to them his royal word; saying to them amongst other things in taking leave of them, that he would be with them till the consummation of the age. Notwithstanding those promises, it is certain that a few years thereafter he quitted the Jews, casting them into outer darkness, and passed over entirely to the Gentiles, took from Jerusalem the great candlestick, and planted it in Rome. It is asked, now, how can this conduct of the Lord be made to comport with his infallible promises? How can we preserve inviolate the royal word of the Son of God?

I doubt not you will smile at my difficulty, believing the resolution of it to be very easy. And to me likewise it appeareth easy, speaking unconditionally; but if you would save consequences, it presents itself to me as very difficult; Jesus Christ, without failing in his promises, takes away the great candlestick from Jerusalem and planteth it at Rome.

And thinkest thou he will fail in his promises should he at some future time, for the same reasons, lift that very candle stick from its seat in Rome, and having purified it, return and plant it in Jerusalem again? Jesus Christ, without failing in his promises, casts away the Jews from himself, deprives them of the kingdom of God, that is, chiefly of the active function in it, and gives it entirely to the Gentiles; and believest thou he would fail in his promises, if at some time, for the same reasons, and perhaps for greater, he should cast the ungrateful Gentiles away from him, deprive them of the kingdom of God, which he had committed to them, return and give it to the Jews again? If you should happen to believe so, you ought to produce to us some authentic and clear scripture, from which this your privilege appeareth; which it will be so difficult for you to find, that you shall find, instead thereof, not a few, which expressly prove the contrary as we have hitherto observed, and shall have occasion to observe further as we proceed. And although there were no other than the discourse of St. Paul, ought not that of itself to be sufficient to make you open your eyes, and sincerely confess your equivocation.

Besides this first reflection we can easily make many others, by attending well to several very notable expressions of the same apostle. For example, these four. First: If their fall be the riches of the world, and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness. Second, verse 15: For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Third, verse 25: I would not have you be ignorant of this mystery, brethren, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. Fourth, verse 28: Enemies for your sakes, beloved for their fathers’ sakes. All these expressions in the mouth of the proper apostle of the Gentiles, ought to have a signification proportionate to their own greatness, and to the context of the whole discourse. But if these expressions be believed, according to the explanation of the doctors, there is found in them nothing but dissonance and impropriety. Those words, which in the text of St. Paul, appear so full of substance: for example, the fulness of Israel, the receiving of Israel, life from the dead, &c. after having passed through the that is, are found to have lost their vigour, and to have nothing left in them but air, sound, and pomp.

What fulness of Israel! what receiving of Israel! what life from the dead! is the conversion of the Jews to Christ, who shall survive Antichrist? The being admitted as of pity into the church of the Gentiles, on the eve of the end of the world, doth this deserve the name of the fulness of Israel? Doth St. Paul call this the receiving of Israel? Can this receiving be in any sense life from the dead? Doth this deserve the name of the mystery which St. Paul giveth it? Is this the great mystery which he reveals to the Gentiles, saying that he would not have them to be ignorant of it, in order that they might not vaunt, in order that they might not be lifted up “that ye may not be wise in your own conceits?” Certainly it appears difficult, not to say impossible, to reconcile some ideas with others, so that they should not annihilate each other.

“Who does not tremble (said a few years ago, one of the most learned and most zealous prelates of France, when considering this very discourse of Paul, which we are now considering), who does not tremble to hear these words of the apostle and teacher of the Gentiles! Can we look with indifference upon that vengeance, that terrible chastisement, which so many ages ago was manifested against the Jews, when the same apostle announceth to us from God, that our ingratitude and unbelief shall one day draw down upon us a similar treatment!”¹

LAST OBSERVATION.

The Text of Isaiah quoted by St. Paul.

§ 9. THE learned and judicious author whom we have just cited, gives, in that same place, great demonstration of having perfectly comprehended the whole discourse of St. Paul the apostle, makes use of almost all his expressions, and in all their force and propriety. He speaks of the future state of the Jews (though shortly) as one of the most jealous among the circumcised might have spoken. He represents, among other things, with the most lively eloquence, that great miracle, which all the world had under its observation without giving it the attention which it deserved; to wit, that the Jews, scattered so many ages ago among all peoples, still unmingled with, still not lost amongst them may even say (he adds, with great truth and propriety), that they have survived all the nations who have at various time oppressed and sought to exterminate them.

Who can point out the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Greeks, or even the Romans? And he might have added, or all the barbarous nations who subverted the Roman empire? These races of nations are no longer discernible, they have all mingled and become confounded with one another. The posterity of the just Abraham alone, the house of Jacob alone, in the midst of so many persecutions, in the midst of such extreme depression and contempt, subsist till this day, and subsist not in any corner of the earth, but in the midst of the nations, in the sight of them, and to their grief, without its being possible to exterminate them, or to confound them so as not to know them. All this doth this great man in substance set forth in his reflections, and certainly with great reason. To which he might have added another very short and useful reflection, that this, and a thousand other things more minute, were already, from ancient time, entered and announced to the whole house of Jacob

¹ Bossuet, in his Discourse upon Universal History. c. 20.

in the Holy Scriptures. In short, M. Bossuet concedes here to the Jews (accommodating himself to the text of St. Paul) somewhat more than the general system will admit, and much more than the other doctors allow. And, at the same time, he gives great and manifest signs of having penetrated the entire mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, from its beginning to the end; and says and confesses, though very incidentally, what no other, whom I know of, hath ever confessed. That is, that the Apostle threatens from the hand of God upon the Christian Gentiles, that same treatment and extreme severity with which we have seen the Jews treated.

Notwithstanding all this, M. Bossuet, being come to the substantial part of the mysteries here revealed by the Apostle, is seen at once to change his tone; and caught away, as it were, by the general system and favourite stile of discoursing, leaves us at last in the same perplexity, and in the same confusion of ideas, passing with so much haste over the most essential part of St. Paul’s discourse, that now it seems impossible here to understand that writer, whose proper character is clearness. Doubtless it appeared to this great man that the time was not yet come for explaining his own sentiments. Although here several other particular things, not a little interesting, might be remarked, that which at present demands all my attention is the understanding given by other interpreters of that passage of Isaiah, which St. Paul quotes, when speaking to these Gentile Christians: “I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written,” Rom. xi. 25,26; in order to prove that what he declareth was written in the scriptures, among many other passages he chooses this from the fifty-ninth of Isaiah, which let us now consider entire.

“For he put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompense. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord.” Isa. lix. 17-21.

Upon this text cited by St. Paul, M. de Maux hath these very words: “Thus the Jews shall one day enter, and shall enter never more to go astray; but they shall not enter till after the east and the west (that is the whole universe) shall be full of the fear and the knowledge of the Lord.”

Any one who should read this opinion from so learned a man, would doubtless think that the Prophet, as well as the Apostle who quotes him, desire to tell us nothing else than that Israel shall remain blind, as she now is, until the east and the west, that is all the nations of the universe, shall be in the bosom of the church, full of religion, of piety, and that holy fear of God which is the proper characteristic of true righteousness. But is not this an understanding infinitely foreign from the text, still more from the context, and even from all the scriptures? “So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.” These words taken by themselves, without attending to those which precede or to those which follow them, it were most easy to accommodate to any thing you please; but not so if they be read in connexion with the context. How should it be possible not to recognize in all these verses the coming of the Lord in glory and majesty, at which the east and the west shall be afraid? Not certainly with that religious and holy fear which is the beginning of wisdom, and the characteristic of righteousness (for that idea is diametrically opposed to all those which the scriptures give us thereupon, as we have so often remarked); but with that other kind of fear, proper to the guilty in the presence of their King, whom they have offended and aggrieved. “They shall be scattered from before his face,” it is said in the sixty-eighth Psalm, “from the face of the Father of the fatherless and the Judge of the widows:” and in the Gospel, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear,” Luke xxi. 26. And in the Apocalypse, vi. 15. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains…from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.”

Take now the text of Isaiah along with the whole context, and you shall at once understand what the prophet declared as well as that which St. Paul intends by quoting it, “So they fear the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun.” This is the first half, but let not the second be forgotten: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a banner against him, and the Redeemer shall come to Zion,” &c. [Vulg. com venerit quasi fluvius violentus, quem Spiritus domini cogit, et venerit Sion Redemptor, &c. when like a powerful stream he whom the Spirit of God impelleth shall come, the Redeemer also shall come to Zion.] So that those of the east and of the west shall fear when the Lord cometh like an impetuous river, impelled by the Spirit of God, and her Redeemer shall come to Zion. The whole text being read, that which is spoken is clearly seen, as well as that which is not spoken. It does not say that her Redeemer shall come to Zion, when the east and the west feareth; much less, when all the universe is in a state full of the fear and knowledge of the Lord: but, on the contrary, it saith, that those of the east and of the west shall fear, when her Redeemer shall come; and they shall fear, he says, when he shall come: he does not say, he shall come when they have feared.

The same which is here spoken by Isaiah, and for which he is quoted by St. Paul, David had already said, in various parts of his Psalms. In the 102^nd, for example, among other things very worthy of remark, he saith to God these words: “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come…So the heathen shall fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” Verses 13.15. And, for the greater clearness, he adds immediately the cause of this fear: When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer. This shall be written for the generation to come.” Verses 16-18. This same fear is to be found in the ninth Psalm, and in the forty-eighth, and frequently in almost all the prophets, as you may have remarked in the passages which we have already noticed.

Moreover, if Isaiah, in the passage quoted, spake of that holy fear of God, which implies true faith; if with that faith and holy fear of God the west and the east, that is the whole universe, were to be filled; when the Jews shall be converted to Christ, and their Redeemer shall come; to what purpose is that Redeemer represented as clothed with the garment of vengeance, and with zeal as a cloak? To what purpose is it said, that he comes clothed with a vesture of revenge? “According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies,” Isa. lix. 18. To what purpose is it added, to the islands he will pay recompense? Against whom can this indignation, this vengeance be directed? Against Zion? No: because on the contrary, her Redeemer cometh to deliver her from her captivity. Against the east and the west, or against all the nations of the universe? This can as little be the case, for they are supposed already to be full of fear and the knowledge of the Lord; which is the same as to be full of faith and of wisdom. Then, against whom so much wrath and array of vengeance? If you, Sir, can conceive against whom, I frankly confess my insufficiency. In this case, I find no sense or significance in all the text of Isaiah: his expressions, though most vivid, turn into impropriety itself: nor, on the other part, do I find for what end St. Paul should quote this passage of Isaiah.

It would seem that these inconveniences have been well thought upon by many other doctors, who, to avoid them, have taken to a different course, which appeared to them less embarrassing and much shorter; saying, that the prophet is here speaking, not of the second, but of the first coming of the Lord, and its admirable effects; and that the true sense of the prophecy is, that as various nations, to wit, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Greeks, and Romans, had at various times subjected, afflicted, and oppressed the people of God; so, vice versa, all those nations should be subjected to Messiah, and ruled over by him: when, believing on him, they should receive his gentle yoke, and observe his laws in goodness and faithfulness. See if you can reconcile this interpretation with the garb of vengence and the aspect of wrath, with which the prophet presents him, as coming to inflict their deserts upon his enemies.

It appears now the time to deduce the ultimate consequence, from all which we have observed upon this Phenomenon, without looking for other notices, or detaining ourselves, unnecessarily with more observations. And let the consequence stand thus: That there being yet another time for the Jews, their time of mercy being infallibly to arrive, oppose it what will; the fullness of Israel, the receiving of Israel, &c. being in that time to come to pass, in that very time shall be fulfilled most fully according to the letter, all the prophecies which stand in their behalf, however great or incredible they may appear. Consequently that so frequent refuge of the doctors to the first fortress, to wit, the present Christian church, in the allegorical sense, in order to explain these prophecies (depriving the Jews of them as if they were not spoken to them), is a very insecure refuge, wherein it is impossible for the favourite ideas long to hold out, or the contrary ones to be long hindered in their progress. Let us reply, nevertheless, to two objections, which may be brought to what we have advanced.

₁st

. The ideas which are proposed in this Phenomenon, as the great mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, as upon the not less great mystery of the future vocation of the Jews, although they appear very agreeable to the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, are not found in the sacred interpreters, nor in the theologians, nor in the ancient fathers of the church: therefore they are, or may be, false ideas, with a certain appearance of truth, seeing it does not seem probable that if they were true and just, they should have been hidden from so many learned men, who passed all their life in the study and meditation of the same scriptures and still less, that they should have concealed them, if known.

I frankly confess, that in other times, this reflection would have made me tremble; but now my soul at once resents it as an injury to God, and a want of respect to his veracity. Nevertheless, as this argument, although purely negative, may occasion some scruple, it is necessary that we examine narrowly and say a few words upon it.

Two things ought here to be considered. The first is a fact which cannot be doubted. The second is the true cause or origin of this fact. The fact is, that neither the ancient fathers of the church, nor the ecclesiastical doctors, who have written since, have treated the particular point in question, on purpose and to the bottom. No one that I know, has viewed the entire mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles from the beginning to the end, taking into account all which the scriptures of the Old and New Testament say with respect to it: explaining them in a clear and natural manner, comparing them one with another, attending to the whole context, and answering the difficulties which present themselves.

By a natural consequence, they have applied themselves as little to examine narrowly those passages of scripture, which speak of the future estate of the Jews, and of the great designs which God hath yet towards them, a point which is inseparable from the entire and complete mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles. It is true that many touch the point of the conversion of the Jews, and some give unequivocal signs of having had a glance of the whole mystery; but they hardly touch it upon the surface, and in haste. They confess in general, when they examine any of the most celebrated passages, that therein great mysteries are shut up; but they do not say what these mysteries are, nor of what persons, nor for what times they are spoken.

Ofttimes certain suppositions are laid down, whereon without examination or proof they build propositions, whose soundness faileth the moment the hypothesis faileth. Thus, for example, they suppose that the Christian church is infallibly to endure to the end, or till there be no more living men and sojourners upon this our earth. They suppose that the Christian church shall always stand and remain with the Gentiles in the state in which it now is, without any innovation: they suppose that the Jews, by so admirable a providence preserved by God among the nations without being confounded amongst them, shall once more be called by the same God, and with all their heart converted unto Messiah: but they detain themselves not in the tedious examination of these suppositions, nor do they undertake to try to the bottom what in them may be reasonably called in question.

The fact being so certain, some legitimate cause must have brought it about, whereby the doctors may be able to justify themselves. For to think that men so discreet, so pious, so holy, should have proceeded in such matters, either by passion, or any other inordinate affection, I regard as sentiment at once rash and unjust. What then may have been the true cause of the silence of the ecclesiastical doctors especially of the ancient fathers, upon the entire and complete mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, as likewise upon the great mystery of the future vocation of the Jews, This is that which I am now to set forth: and not to detain myself with useless preambles, it appears to me that this cause is not to he sought elsewhere than in the very vocation of the holy doctors, or in the ministry to which they were called.

The ancient fathers, were in their time that tongue of which after the apostles the Lord gave to the new people in order to instruct and cherish them: the proper office or ministry of these holy doctors, was no other than to serve with all their efforts, and with all their talents, that new spouse, to attend in every thing to her greater usefulness, and to watch with true zeal and continued vigilance over all her interests. They were in the first place to give her just ideas of the true God, at the same time to take away and endeavour wholly to blot out all those miserable ideas in which she had been nursed concerning the deities of wood and of stone. They had to make known to her the infinitely wonderful and amiable person of her husband, making her well to understand that he was true God, as the proper son of the very God, and true man, as the proper son of the most Holy Virgin Mary, and this with out the confusion of the two natures human and divine. Which single point kept the doctors of the first ages well occupied of itself.

Besides this, they had to make her to understand the purity and sanctity of life to which she was called, explaining clearly and distinctly all the morality of the scriptures. They had to embolden her with the sure hope of an eternal reward, and to withdraw her from all the vain glory of the world, and from all its venomous pleasures, by the fear of an eternal and terrible punishment. They had to exhort her to the practice of all virtues, as the only ornament with which she could appear gracious and acceptable in the eyes of her husband. They had, in fine, to be zealous with the utmost care and watchfulness, that she did not learn from false masters any error contrary or foreign to her holy doctrines whether in respect to points of faith or morality. You see here a summary of the calling of the holy doctors, or of the ministry to which they were appointed. For this ministry, talents, gifts, and graces were given them by the Holy Spirit, to some more, to others less, according to the measure of the gift of Christ: and they on their parts kept on faithfully labouring with them, having ever in view as the object of their labour, the greater glory of God in the usefulness of the church.

It is true, that many of these faithful and zealous ministers were not content with this merely. Having, carefully taken the account of all the precious attire and jewels which were found in the treasures of the first spouse, it appeared to them good to deck the second with them all; well believing that the other being cast out for her grievous faults, ought now to be regarded as really dead and buried in the land of forgetfulness. Consequently that those ornaments did all pertain to the new spouse, who, might serve herself of them according to her pleasure. There is no doubt they found some which did fit her well, and rightly become her; and that others which it was not so easy to adjust, might with a little labour and industry be made of service to her. The great difficulty was with that portion which being brought to trial, were visibly found disproportionate, and on that account useless. What then was to be done with these? To leave them in the fold without any use, might not be, since truly they were not made without great deliberation, nor were they preserved for no use. It is necessary then to make them all of service in some possible way. This which some few of the ancients (the most ingenious and eloquent) aimed at, has been pursued with greater pains by many other doctors actuated with the same zeal, for the glory and usefulness of the new spouse. But after so many and such ingenious cares, it has appeared that those ornaments were not really made for the use to which they have sought to put them.

But to return to our undertaking, it is most certain that the ancient fathers, as the masters and ministers of the present church, called by God to the work of the ministry, did regard nothing but her greater service and usefulness; they are frequently and indeed commonly seen in all their writings, when taking under consideration, various passages of scripture (whether of prophecy or of history) and speaking upon them, to quit the historical and literal sense, and decline at once into moral and purely mystical sense, in order to find therein some greater profit and edification to believers. Thus, let St. Augustine speak for them; (serm. 101. de temp.) “For if we will understand only so much as speaks in the letter, we shall derive little or almost no edification in our reading of the holy books.”²

The case standing thus, how was it possible that the zealous and most prudent fathers should speak a single word in favour of the first spouse of God? How was it possible that they should descend to other things which might have been prejudicial to those times? How was it possible that they should dare to announce prosperities to the first spouse, in presence of her who occupied her place? How was it possible that they should not fear to afflict her, to distrust and dishearten her? How was it possible that they should not consequently endeavour to interpret every thing in her favour, for her edification and usefulness? The contrary would have been a very high imprudence, because in the circumstances in which the ancient doctors found themselves, there was not any reason to expect from it any utility, and they would have had loss rather than profit. In those primitive times the spouse was in her youth, and like one that is young, in her first love and fervour. So was it necessary to confirm her therein, not to

² Si enim hoc tantum volumus intelligere quod sonat in litera, aut parvam, aut prope mullam ædificationem in divinis lectionibus caoiemus.

alarm her with unseasonable threatenings, it was necessary to make her joyful in the Lord, and to dilate her heart that she might daily increase in numbers and fervour, not to trouble and dishearten her with sad and bitter announcements, which at that time could be attended only with the worst consequences.

So doubtless thought the holy doctors, and so they practiced. They were so far from speaking a favourable word to the ancient spouse of God, that on the other hand it is to be remarked in all their writings, whenever occasion offered they spoke ill of her, and spake, without abating of the truth, all the evil possible; yea, exaggerating her ancient crimes, her acts of infidelity, her adulteries: and bringing under review the wicked reception which she gave to her Messiah, and the barbarous cruelty with which she treated him: and blaming her ingratitude, her hardness of heart, and obsinacy. And all this for what end? To serve for a lesson, for a warning, and for edification to the existing spouse. For this reason the most prudent fathers did not explain themselves, nor even so much as touch upon many truly delicate and critical points, regarding the consequences which must naturally follow, which for the time then being could not answer any profitable end. For this reason they spoke so little, and in such general terms of the second coming of the Lord, without descending to the particulars which under that head are contained in the scriptures. For this reason, the Antichrist, with whom we stand threatened against the last time, it appeared to them, could not possibly be produced by the Gentiles without great dishonour to them, and for that very reason they supposed him a Jew, who should make the most bloody war upon the church. For that reason the fourth kingdom of the great statue, they said was the Roman, and that the stone which descended from the mountain and destroyed the statue, formed another and a new empire, that is, the present church, or the new spouse. For this reason, in short, it is, that until his day we know not well, what we ask of the Lord in these words, Thy kingdom come.

Why then do I not observe the same silence and proceed with the same prudence and circumspection which the ancient fathers observed, interpreting the texts of scripture in favour of the present church? I have two reasons, my Christophilus, for not doing so, which you shall now briefly hear.

The first: I am a Christian and a catholic by the grace and mercy of God; but have not therefore ceased to be a Jew; and though I pertain to the actual spouse, and acknowledge and venerate her as my lady and mother, I have not therefore ceased to pertain in a certain way to the ancient spouse of God, nor can therefore forget her, nor cease to love her with tenderness (fearing not to be called on that account a judaizers); nor therefore can I deny, without impiety this my mother, though at present so dishonoured and vilified. Taking this into consideration, is it much that I should not keep the same silence, which for the most just reasons other writers may have preserved? Is it much that I should have an eye to the comfort and true well being of that unhappy mother, presently afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted? Is it much that I should undertake to turn to her account so many clear and authentic writings, which are wont, for the most part, to be all the widow’s wealth? Should I not moreover, fear to be comprehended in that bitterest complaint of Messiah, who in the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah, regarding this very poor one in the state of widowhood, solitude, and distress, wherein she is now found, extendeth to her his hand, and full of compassion and tenderness saith, “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.” Ver. 17. Then, as if looking into all quarters, and wondering at the indifference and coldness of so many children to their proper mother, he laments over them, blames and reproves them, saying, “There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.” Ver. 18.

The second reason which I have for not holding my peace, is this very time in which we stand, so widely different from the time of the old fathers, and in a degree also with respect to that of the other ecclesiastical writers. I, though a Jew, of the seed of Abraham, am by the goodness of God a catholic, a son, a subject of the spouse of God who actually reigneth; and therefore I ought to serve her with all my efforts, and with all my talents; not with vain courtesies and sterile words, but with real and seasonable services according to the circumstances of the times; therefore according to the circumstances of these times, I ought not vainly to flatter her, but with all reverence speak to her the unadulterated truth; therefore I ought in my obsequies and services to attend, not verily to that which in other times and circumstances might have been convenient and useful, for example, in the times of her youth and first love, but to that which I understand to be useful, suitable, and even necessary to her present state. This is a rule of true prudence, which right reason dictates, and which the Holy Ghost doth not fail to teach us particularly. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to eyery purpose under the sun…a time to keep silence and a time to speak.” Eccles. iii.

Now I know not what shall be thought among the learned, of the seasonableness of these ideas. That which appeareth to myself is, that in these points the time is gone by for holding one’s peace and concealing, which was the time of the old fathers, and of the doctors who succeeded them, and that we must now stand in the time to speak. The revelation or manifestation of those things which in other times would have been very inconvenient, and even injurious to the young spouse, appear now in these times both convenient and perhaps absolutely necessary. Any one who doubts it, hath but to open his eyes and look: and with no more pains he shall be easily delivered from his doubting.

How is it possible to confound the present times with the past? The times of the youth of the spouse with the times of her greatest age? The times of calm and fervour, with the times of lukewarmness and coldness in love, which now appear to threaten us, thus announced by St. Paul, “there shall come perilous times?” “Because iniquity shall abound,” saith the spouse himself, “the love of many shall wax cold.” Matt xxiv. The circumstances in which the holy fathers found themselves being so greatly changed; in this sensuality, in this luxury and worldly pomp, in this distraction, in this drowsiness, carelessness, and even weariness towards the true interests of the spouse, (which they who have eyes, see and deplore) will it be said that it is not high time to tell her, to warn her, to remind her of that which is written in the scriptures of truth? Is it not the time to tell her things which in other times were not suitable? Shall it be regarded a crime reverently to tell her that she is threatened by the spouse with that same chastisement, and haply with a greater than that which the former wife was visited withal? “And thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God on them which fell, severity, but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Rom.

xi. 21-23.

The second objection which is made to us is, our having sometimes said, that till now we understand not well what we ask of the Lord in these words; Thy kingdom come: which they say is false, or little accordant with truth; because Jesus Christ in his first coming did found a spiritual kingdom of righteousness and holiness, which he himself most frequently calleth the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of God. Although afterwards, in his second coming, he should found another kingdom, or do that which pleaseth him, as the absolute Lord of all, he shall not therefore destroy that other kingdom of justice already founded and therefore, if till now that kingdom of justice have been besought, it hath been besought with a very proper understanding.

It is a truth that Jesus Christ in his first coming founded a spiritual kingdom of righteousness and holiness, which he himself frequently called the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of God. Very well: then this kingdom is already come into the world, and we already have the possession of it in the earth. If it be verily come, and we hold it now, —why seek for it to come? Were not this a useless and impertinent petition? Either we believe that the kingdom which we ask is come into the world, or we do not believe it: if the first, then we have no reason to hope for it, and consequently we ought to pass over that petition; if the second, why will we not explain ourselves a little more?

This embarrassment appears to have obliged other learned men to proceed by another way. They say, that which we seek from God in these words, Thy kingdom come, is, that the present church (which is doubtless the kingdom of God) should increase and extend over all the human race, and that all men should enter into the church and become just and holy. That petition, there is no doubt, is good and worthy of a true Christian: but to make request for that benefit, the proper words are not Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come, that is, may the kingdom which is already come, increase and extend itself over all the earth, is a very violent interpretation; for coming and increasing are certainly two words, whose diverse signification he could not be ignorant of who taught us to pray this admirable prayer. But, if by these words I understand the kingdom which is to come, when the King cometh, according as the Holy Scriptures inform me; in that case, I find the words, Thy kingdom come, to be clear, proper, and seasonable. Then I pray with them, and I understand clearly what I ask: and, if I have true zeal for the wellbeing of my neighbours, if I desire with truth that all peoples, tribes, and languages should adore the true God, I comprehend all this in my petition, and for all this I confidently pray without passing beyond these three words, Thy kingdom come. I say, confidently; because I know by the same scriptures, that this blessing which I desire for the whole human race cannot be in the present state, but it shall be without fail when the kingdom cometh which I pray for. Therefore, far from fearing the coming of the Lord in glory and majesty, I desire it with the greatest longings, and pray for it with all the fervour of which I am capable, as well for the full remedy of the miserable Jews as also for all the residue of the Gentiles, who “when the vintage is done shall lift up their voice; they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord; they shall cry aloud from the sea:” Isa. xxiv. 14. of all which we shall speak expressly in due time.

Jesus Christ in his first coming founded (they say) a spiritual kingdom, which he himself called the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom of God. Here is to be discerned an equivocation of no small amount. —That which Jesus Christ frequently calleth in his parables the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, is very often nothing else than what he likewise calleth the gospel of the kingdom; that is, the knowledge, the good news, the announcement, the preaching of the kingdom of God. ‘The kingdom of heaven,’ saith St. Jerome, lib. 2. com. in cap. 13 Matt. ‘is the preaching of the gospel, and the knowledge of the scriptures which conducteth unto life.’³ This preaching and intimation of the kingdom it appears clear cannot be the kingdom itself, but the general invitation which is given to all by God, in order that they may receive the adoption of sons, which is offered to all under certain conditions, and in that way may have a part in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

³ Regmum cœlorum predicatio Evangelii est, et notitia scripturarum quæ ducit ad vitam.

The conditions indispensable for obtaining a right to this kingdom are faith and righteousness; or, as St. Paul explains it “faith which worketh by love.” Gal. v. Those who faithfully observe these two laws in all their extent, may be already regarded as the sons of the kingdom, and may hope in due time to be heirs indeed of God and joint-heirs with Christ. But they will not say, that already they are in possession of this inheritance, while they have still to live in solicitude, in vigilance, in fear and trembling, keeping in mind that sentence of the Lord; “But he who shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Matt. xxiv. 13. Therefore the Lord himself, being interrogated by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, gave them this divine answer: The kingdom of God is within you. —As if he had said, Think of making yourselves worthy of the kingdom of God so far as lieth in you and standeth on your part, and think not of curiously inquiring when it shall come. That righteousness or disposition for the kingdom of God, that invitation to the kingdom, that preaching of faith and righteousness necessary to obtain it, is not certainly the kingdom itself; and if it be called the kingdom, it is only in a very loose sense; as a building which is in the act of being constructed may be called a temple or a palace. The knowledge of this kingdom we already possess through the preaching of the apostles; that which is required of us on our part we are not ignorant of; consequently we believe in this kingdom, we hope for it, and we desire it; —therefore we have it not as yet: therefore we may and we ought to pray for it in those divine words, Thy kingdom come; therefore we may and ought to hope that in his time he will grant us what we ask for. They say that this will happen in heaven above, after the general resurrection, and the world’s end: but if the scriptures, clearly and expressly declare, as we have so often observed, that it will come to pass on this our earth, —whom ought we to believe? To explain these things by saying, It shall happen in the earth, that is, in the earth of the living; that is, in heaven; is to amuse us with words which ought to make little impression upon him who desires truth.

In sum, the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the heavens, has not till now arrived, and therefore we now do pray that it may come. That alone which hath come, is the knowledge, the account, the belief, the invitation, the gospel of the kingdom, with the conditions mentioned above. All this Messiah draws under the head of his first coming: the rest we expect at the second. “And the stone which smote the statue became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” If all that the scriptures tell us of the kingdom of God is to be accomplished in heaven above, it seems that we ought to pray, that we may go or be taken up to heaven, to the kingdom of God; not that the kingdom of God may come to our earth, and to us. In this case, the good Master would have taught us other words with which to pray. And thus I conclude with the most learned Father Maldonado (in Matt. vi. 10). “The true sense seems to me to be what Theophilactus and Rupertus point out, that the kingdom of God is the name for that condition of things, in which God, after having put all enemies under his footstool (when he shall reign, as saith St. Paul), shall be all in all. For although even now he doth everywhere reign, yet because he reigneth not in peace, nor without an enemy, nor without war, but many rebels as it were do still resist him, he is not said to reign. But then, his enemies being subdued, and his friends liberated, and his adversaries condemned, he is said fully to reign. That this is the sense, is collected not obscurely from that place of Paul which we have remarked, and likewise from this very passage. For it is manifest, that we here do ask, not our own kingdom, but the kingdom of God. It is not therefore the meaning, that God may reign in our hearts, or that we may reign with the blessed; for this pertains to us principally: but that God may reign absolutely, and without an enemy. For we so pray, thy kingdom come, as if children should pray for the king their father, a peaceful reign and victory over his; enemies not with the view of reigning ourselves, but that he may reign. And we desire it to come, as those who love the coming of Christ.” This is what I say, neither more nor less.

Observations upon that book which the Lamb openeth

BEING come thus far, it seemeth a most natural desire to know (with such knowledge at least as may be attained by us in our present state) what book this is, which in that extraordinary council is placed in the hands of the Lamb, so fast shut and sealed, that no mere creature is worthy or capable of opening it but he alone. What this book is which the Lamb receiveth directly from the right-hand of him that sitteth upon the throne: which he openeth there himself in the midst of all that numerous and venerable assembly: which, upon the mere opening of it, fills them all with so much joy and mirth; that, not being able to be contained in heaven, it diffuseth itself through all the creatures of the universe? Doubtless by this book there must be figured and signified something very great, since there results from the opening of it so very extraordinary and unheard of a joy. I confess that this very desire hath ever possessed me; forasmuch as it appeareth to be an easy thing, if this were once discovered, to draw many very useful consequences. What I have found upon this subject in the interpreters, speaking frankly, satisfies me not: either that I do not understand what they mean to say, or that I do not find it to bear any proportion to what is said in the sacred text.

Who could persuade himself, for example, after having considered the text with all its context, that the book here spoken of is the Holy Scriptures? How, and in what sense? It was, they say, opened and made intelligible by the death and resurrection of Christ. And, I say, that notwithstanding this supposed opening of it, the doctors have been at infinite pains to search out the meaning of the same scripture, declaring, for the most part, some one thing, others another, upon the same passage. Who could persuade himself that the book here spoken of is the book of the Apocalypse itself? How, and in what sense; when it is certain there was no such book in the world in the time when St. John had the vision? And even waving this anachronism, the book of the Apocalypse, that which the Lamb receiveth from the hand of God? that which he openeth before all angels and saints? that whose full opening causeth jubilee and rejoicing in heaven and on earth? This, certainly, I do not understand. Then what can this book be, to which things so strange and admirable as are here spoken of properly appertain? I well believe, Sir, that you do not ask me concerning the particulars which are written in the book; for you are not ignorant of what is written on this head in the text itself. (Rev. v. 4.) “Nobody was found worthy to open the book, neither to look thereon.” If no one be found worthy to open the book, nor to look thereon, who shall tell what it containeth? Surely it containeth that, of which St. Paul thus maketh mention, “which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.” 1 Cor. ii. 9. But if you simply inquire generally with respect to its argument and subject, I forthwith proceed to lay before you simply my thought, praying that you would for a moment lay all prejudice aside.

The book then whereof we speak, appears to me, all the circumstances being considered, to be nothing else than that new and everlasting covenant of God, in which we know for certain, in the first place, that the only-begotten Son of God is called and constituted Heir, King and universal Lord of all; “by whom and for whom are all things,” Heb ii. 10 “whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the world.” Chap i. I said in the first place, because we likewise know that conjointly with the first-born, and by him, and with him, and in him, are called to the inheritance as joint-heirs all his younger brethren, who long since were called and invited with the greatest urgency, long ago were sought from all parts and among all nations, tribes, and languages, in order that they might be admitted to the dignity of the sons of God, and have a share in the inheritance of which this same new and everlasting covenant speaketh, requiring of them only these two indispensable conditions, faith and righteousness, and that they should conform what in them lies to the living image of God himself, which is his own Son “For whom he did foreknow he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son…and if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…that he might be the first-born among many brethren” Rom. viii.

It is most certain that this new and eternal testament of God, so much foretold in the ancient scriptures, was made many ages since, was irrevocably confirmed, was sealed and secured by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie; (Heb. vi. 18.) that is, by the word of God and by the blood of the Lamb, by the blood of the man-God, “the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.” But although this covenant of God, new and eternal, be certainly made, it appears in like manner certain and indubitable that it shall not be opened, but remain closed and sealed until the time for opening it shall arrive. That which we call at present the New Testament, that is, the new, canonical, authentic, and divine Scriptures, which have been inspired since Messiah’s time, are not, properly speaking, the New Testament, but only the notice, the announcement, the general invitation which is given to all peoples, tribes, and languages, to the end that they all who would might come together to the great supper, and endeavour to enter as parties into the new and eternal testament of God, fulfilling, every one in himself, those two conditions which are required of all and of every one individually; to wit, faith and righteousness. These new scriptures are called with great propriety, the Gospel (good news) of the Kingdom, which is the name that Messiah giveth to the mission and preaching of the apostles; the gospel, the announcement, or the good news of the kingdom; which kingdom is all that the same gospel or good news proclaimeth. There is not then any reason for confounding the information, that the covenant is already made, with the covenant itself. The information is certain and sure, and upon this certainty and security they laboured many ages ago, that all might believe it and profit by it. But the covenant itself no one till now has read, and no one is able to read; both because no one is capable of understanding “what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and which hath not entered into the heart of man;” and principally because it lies still in the hands of God, closed and sealed with seven seals, until the times and seasons shall arrive which the Father hath put in his own power: until the covenant be placed in the hands of the Lamb: until the lamb himself break the seals of it: until he publicly open it in the supreme and full council of God himself, and thereupon enter legally into the actual possession of the whole inheritance, with the Amen, Amen, with the acclamation, desire, jubilee, and universal mirth of the whole universe.

In fact, what meaneth that presentation of the only begotten Son of God “like unto the Son of man, as a lamb that had been slain;” presentation of himself, I say, before the throne of his divine Father in that extraordinary council, and at that time of which we are now speaking? That receiving from the hand of his Father a closed and sealed book, which no one could open but he alone? Could open it there publicly in the presence of God, in the sight of all the angels, and of all the assessors and witnesses of judgment? That overflowing of admiration and extraordinary jubilee upon the opening of the book, among the witnesses and assessors, and likewise among all the angelic Spirits? The hearing at once, of all voices crying with one burst of acclamation, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever?” Rev. v. 13. Is not this manifestly a confirmation, a more enlarged and circumstantial relation of the text of Daniel?

A wonderful person “like unto the Son of man,” says the prophet, “came as with the clouds of heaven,” and entering into the great council of God, advanced and was presented before his throne, and there received from the hand of God, power, honour, and a kingdom: and I beheld “one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples; nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. vii. 13, 14. St. John says, that this same Son of man presented before the throne of God, is under the emblem of “a lamb that had been slain,” received from his hand a closed and sealed book, which he alone could open, and which he did open at that very time in the sight of all the assessors and spectators of the judgment, attended by the admiration and exultation of them all; and as the immediate consequence of this opening of the book, they all prostrated themselves before God and the Lamb, saying, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” Rev. v. 12. Say now, my dear sir, with sincerity, is not this the same mystery that Daniel speaks of? Is not this plainly to tell us, that the Lamb receiving a book from the hand of God, received in it power, honour, and a kingdom? Is it not to tell us, that upon receiving the book and opening it, it proved to be the covenant of his divine Father, wherein he constituted and declared him heir of all things? Is not this plainly to tell us, that along with this book is given to him the actual possession of all his inheritance: that is, the power, the honour, and the kingdom? If it be not this, to what purpose are the very great voices of jubilee and rejoicing with which the whole universe resoundeth upon the simple opening of the book? Let all this be considered with more formality, and examined with greater attention. I cannot delay longer, for I am summoned with loud cries to the woman who has just brought forth, spiritually, this male child, this Son of man, this Lamb; and to whom there abideth after her delivery, great conflicts upon the earth.

Returning then to the particular points which we left interrupted, what we say and conclude is, that to this same extraordinary council, to the very throne of God of which Daniel speaks, and of which St. John speaks, shall the man child of that metaphorical woman be caught up and presented that instant his birth (also metaphorical) hath been accomplished: on the instant, I say, that this very remarkable woman, now clothed with the sun, conceives him by faith and brings him to light by a public confession of that faith; because according to all the ideas given to us by the Holy Scriptures, it appeareth that this only is to be waited for in order to give to the son of this woman, all the actual power, all the effective honours, and all the kingdom and universal principality, which for so many ages hath been his right, and of which he is already constituted heir in the new and everlasting covenant of his divine Father.

Consequently there is no other thing to be looked for before placing in his hands that book or covenant, and beginning to bring into execution that which the covenant contains.

Then, my dear sir, and only then shall the great and admirable mysteries which the Apocalypse contains, begin to be seen, and the prophecies thereof to be fulfilled; which, let others say what they please, have not till this day been accomplished, I say not all, or many, but not one of them. Then shall be revealed, manifested, and shown in open day, with all his parts and all its springs, that great machine, or mystery of iniquity, which we call Antichrist, which began to form itself so many ages ago, and which in these our times we see already so grown and advanced.

ARTICLE IV.

“AND the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” Rev. xii. 6.

The woman having brought into the world, although with great perils and pangs, that of which she was pregnant, and the fruit of her womb having flown to God and to his throne, with a view to the great and admirable mysteries which we have just observed; it is said in the holy text, that the woman instantly fled to the wilderness where God had prepared for her a safe and commodious place, that there she might live and obtain for herself necessary and convenient food, by the space of 1260 days, which is exactly forty and two months, and according to the ancient calendar, three years and a half, the exact time during which the great tribulation of Antichrist among the Gentiles is to last, and which will almost entirely pervert them, as is set forth in the whole of the following chapter, and in the gospel (Matt. xxiv).

It appears morally impossible rightly to comprehend what is here declared, unless we advert to the very evident and sensible allusion made in these words to that famous event which is recorded in the book of Exodus, and to which the prophets do likewise very frequently allude, when they mention the future vocation of Israel, as we have observed, and have yet to observe.

When God determined to give to his people the law, which we call the written law, when he determined to enter into covenant and public fellowship with that people, when he condescended to exalt them to the dignity of his spouse, and solemnly to celebrate that contract, by which both should be bound and obliged for ever, it was convenient first of all, to deliver this people or spouse from Egypt, to redeem her from the captivity, slavery, and misery, under which she then lay, to separate her entirely from the tract and communication of that superstitious people, and to conduct her at the expense of unheard of miracles, to the wilderness and desert of Mount Sinai. It was convenient to keep her for some time in that solitude sustained both in mind and body by the hand of heaven, in order, that there, free from all occupation, disengaged from every care, and far removed from all distraction, she might be able quietly to heat the voice of her God, to be taught and instructed, as well in the rites and ceremonies of the new worship, as in all the other laws winch it behoved her to observe.

In like manner we may reason that it will come to pass, when upon the arrival of that blessed time announced by the prophets of God, in expressions so magnificent; the blessed time of the vocation, conversion, congregation, and reception of the precious relics of that people and spouse which hath conceived in spirit, and manifested in the face of day, that child altogether lovely, which hitherto she hath refused to acknowledge.

For then, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria and the four corners of the earth…And there shall be an high way for the remnant of his people, which shall be left (to the residue of the ten tribes), like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” Then God shall draw his ancient spouse out of all lands and nations, whither he himself hath kept her dispersed, exiled, captive, and filled with all that opprobrium and confusion of face which she had earned for herself. Then shall he deliver her with the same and still greater prodigies than those by which he delivered her out of Egypt; for so it is announced, and promised in almost all the prophets. “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things. The nations shall see, and be confounded at all their might,” (or as the LXX read, behold miracles,) Micah vii. 15,16.

And by Jer. xxiii. 7, 8. it is said of that holy remnant, “Therefore behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The Lord liveth, which brought up, and which led, the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.”

Of the flight of this woman to the wilderness, of her occupations in that sweet solitude, we shall speak on purpose, in Article VIII. St. John here teacheth that mystery only in a general way, and immediately leaves it, or reserves it for a more convenient place, substituting another and not inferior mystery, which will take place during the same time, and without the knowledge of which the mystery of the woman’s flight and habitation in the wilderness could not well be understood. Let us then follow the order of the sacred text, which, beyond all doubt, is the best and most convenient.

ARTICLE V

“AND there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels: And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

This famous battle between St. Michael and the dragon ought, as appears most clear from the whole of the sacred text, to take place after the delivery of the woman clothed with the sun, and after the man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, has ascended unto God, and presented himself before his throne. In like manner, it doth appear most clear, that the battle is to be fought, simply because of the woman, and in consequence of her delivery, which the dragon could neither hinder, nor devour her offspring. The interpreters of the Apocalypse (I speak of the literal ones), that they may have somewhat to say, have here recourse to that most obscure and impenetrable chaos, the sin and punishment of the evil angels; supposing that when Satan, abusing his liberty and the gifts of the Creator, raised rebellion in heaven against God, and drew over to his side, as they say, the third part of the angels, he was opposed by St. Michael the prince, full of a true zeal, unto whom the other two-third parts of the angelic spirits adhered. Whereupon they waged with one another a great dispute, which naturally passed into a true battle, wherein St. Michael and his faithful companions conquered Satan and his rebels, and cast them from heaven to earth, that is to hell.

If we ask now out of curiosity, from what fountains, from what public or secret archives, information like this has been derived, the most learned find themselves involved in a true and not slight embarrassment. This event (we can tell them) certainly preceded the creation of man, either a long or a short time, according to various modes of thinking; for from Divine Scripture nothing is clear upon the subject: and moreover it is certain, that what hath passed, or may pass, among purely spiritual beings, is not within the province of man; these things being much beyond his limited understanding. It is true, that we may come at this kind of knowledge, but under no other guidance than that of divine revelation. Whence it follows, that if the event of which we speak has not been revealed to us by God in his scriptures, we may reject it as apocryphal. In order to evidence this, they refer us to this very passage of the Apocalypse which we have now under observation. But of what times doth this passage of the Apocalypse speak? of past times or of future? Is it a history or a prophecy? It is a prophecy, they say, which undeniably announces, for other times yet future, a great battle betwixt the good and bad angels; but this future battle alludes to that which was fought in heaven between these same angels before the creation of man. And where is that passage which relates or indicates such a battle to have been fought. For unless there be such a passage, there can be no allusion to it. No, friend, you shall not find it, unless by recurring to allegory, you think you find it in that division of light and darkness which the Lord made, and which is related in the first chapter of Genesis. But surely you perceive, that to understand by light the good angels, and by darkness the bad ones, besides being a pure accommodation, does not indicate or suppose any conflict. Certain it is, that, in all the scripture there is not found a word, from which to infer or suspect any such battle before the creation of man. We know truly, from the same scriptures, that there are good and bad angels; but upon the fall of these, its causes, and its time, is preserved a profound silence, which we ought to respect. But let us pass on to observe expressly this passage of the Apocalypse, adverting beforehand to two points, which will prove to us of the greatest importance. First: That the dragon and his angels, notwithstanding their being deprived for ever of the grace and friendship of God, have some access real or personal to him: they can still come to God, and present themselves before his tribunal, speak to him, and make petitions, accusations, and allegations, &c. This appeareth clear from the scriptures, and it seems to me that no one can deny or doubt it. It is clear, from the second chapter of Job; it is clear from verses 19 and 21, of the twenty-second chapter of the first book of Kings; it is clear from the 31^st verse of the twenty-second chapter of the Gospel by St. Luke; and it is evident from this very passage of the Apocalypse; verse

10. This access to God, which the dragon and his angels have possessed, and still possess, is not to adore him, is not to enjoy the sight of him; but is such as hereupon earth, any private man, however vile he be, hath to his king or prince, in his council or tribunal of justice, where he is not prevented from debating or accusing.

The second thing which we ought here to advert to, and by no means to forget, is that extraordinary council, of which we have spoken in Article Fourth, which, as is expressly said in Daniel (vii. 26.) is to be opened in those times, in order to take from men all the power which they have received, and whereof they have made such great abuse. “But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it unto the end.” Dan. vii. 26. In which supreme council is seated, in the first place, upon his throne, the “Ancient of days,” and in their thrones respectively other assessors of judgment; and whereat thousand thousands of angels assist, prompt to execute whatever shall be there ordained. In which council the Messiah presenteth himself according to Daniel, “as it were the Son of man;” and according to St. John, “as it were a lamb slain.” In which he receives from the right hand of him that sitteth upon the throne a book, according to St. John; and, according to Daniel, he receiveth “power, and honour, and a kingdom.” The council or supreme judgment which opens, as hath been observed, after the delivery of the woman, continues open and in constant operation, all the time that the woman is in her retreat in the wilderness: that is to say, during the same forty and two months, during which the great tribulation of Antichrist among the nations is to endure; until, by the same supreme council and tribunal, the stone be unfastened and sent directly against the statue, striking it upon the feet, which were of iron and clay: until that hour and those seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, and which heaven and earth expect with the greatest longings, shall have arrived, the Son of man, or the Lamb Jesus Christ himself, shall come again to this earth, “having received the kingdom,” (Luke xix.) with all that glory and majesty which is described in the nineteenth chapter of the Apocalypse.

This truth may not only be collected, but manifestly seen, from reading the Apocalypse with any moderate degree of attention, from the fourth chapter to the nineteenth. After the opening of this extraordinary council, and the presentation therein of the Son of man, or the Lamb, and his receiving the book from the hand of God himself, it is seen in the Apocalypse, that of this very council the repeated orders against the earth, and especially against the beast and his worshippers, begin forthwith to be issued, and continue to be issued until the arrival of the Lord. From this council are seen first to go forth, as the seven seals are successively opened, those seven mysteries, of which, though the understanding be for the most part hid, yet is it not hid that they are true mischiefs and true plagues, “to those who dwell upon the earth.” From this council or judgment are seen to go forth those four angels, “standing upon the four corners of the earth…to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.”

From this council or judgment after the last seal of the book was opened, and a silence as of half an hour had succeeded, there are seen to go forth immediately seven angels “to whom were given seven trumpets,” at whose sound, and at whose successive voices, come to pass in succession, those seven horrible plagues which are mentioned in the eighth, ninth, and part of the tenth chapters. From this council or judgment, is seen to issue an angel with a censer in his hand full of coals of fire, which he casts out upon the earth, “and there were thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and a great earthquake,” (viii. 5.) A little afterwards are seen to proceed out of the same council other seven angels, every one with his vial in which they bear “the seven last plagues in which the wrath of God is filled up,” and to whom it is said “go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” (xv. and xvi.) From this council or judgment, after the cause hath been substantiated, and sentence given, goeth likewise (with the order for execution against great Babylon, which then came into remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath,” (xvi. 19) She who is seen in that time seated upon the beast, and yet full of a most vain security and presumption, saying in her heart “I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” Of all which it is spoken at large in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters, and part of the nineteenth. In short, from thus supreme council or judgment, are seen to proceed such great, new, and unheard of orders against the earth, as any one may easily observe who will read with care the divine book of the Apocalypse from the fourth chapter, in which the council opens and the vision begins, until the nineteenth, in which the King of kings is seen to descend from heaven in his proper person.

These two truths being laid down and well adverted to, the meaning of this particular mystery becomes plain and easy. The battle of St. Michael and his angels, with the dragon and his angels, must be a natural consequence of the new state, into which the woman came after her delivery.

We have already seen the suspicions, fears and disquietudes, under which the dragon lay upon seeing so great a novelty in that same woman, whom till this time he had regarded with the utmost contempt. These suspicions and fears, grow and augment upon seeing her really pregnant, and ready to bring forth. We have seen the pains which he took to prevent in their beginnings the terrible results of her pregnancy and her delivery. We have seen his desires and his efforts to destroy the offspring itself, when it was no longer possible to prevent it. We have seen that the woman, notwithstanding the artifices and violence of the dragon, “brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron,” that this her son flew at once to God, and presented himself before his throne; and there received from his hand a closed and sealed book, which he opened in that very presence to the fullest admiration and jubilee of the whole universe. We have seen, finally, that the woman after the birth, remaining victorious over so many enemies, retired from the world and went into the wilderness.

In this conflict then, so terrible, what refuge was left to the dragon? In the earth there appeareth none. There is no other hope than to repair to heaven; yes, saith the dragon, let us to heaven. There is no longer any anchor left to us, let us put to sea and avoid shipwreck. To heaven, to the tribunal of the just judge. Till now, all the accusations which we have brought against this woman, have been heard and decided in our favour, for God is not ignorant that she hath in all times been the most faithless, the most ungrateful, the most vile and perverse of all women. It may be, that we may be heard and attended to this time also: let us present new accusations against her. Deceived with such hopes, the dragon at once proceeds to heaven followed by all his angels. And though he finds in heaven another and a new tribunal and judgment, whose gates are kept closed, he is not thereby disconcerted, nor doth he lose heart nor hope. He presents himself at those gates seeking audience; and claiming with that pride and audacity which is his proper character, that entrance should be given to him as heretofore, in order that he may propound and make good his accusations. You do not think, Sir, that this is any of those vain phantasms which the imagination conjures up. Besides being a thing most natural, and to which, from any other quarter, no repugnancy is found, you shall see it all made clear in the following article.

The dragon and his angels being then as it were in a state of tumult, and so to speak, daringly beating against the doors of that new judgment, the great prince St. Michael, ariseth by order of God, and being followed by innumerable angels, goes forth to repress that audacity: “in that time (saith Daniel in the twelfth chapter) Michael shall rise up, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people.” Of this text we shall speak immediately. The furious dragon insists on entering by favour, or by force. St. Michael resists him perseveringly, the dragon with loud outcries claims to be heard in the judgment, then brings most grievous accusations against the woman who had just brought forth. St. Michael does not yield a foot, but treats him, not only as a wicked one, but as a false accuser; for the woman whom he cometh to accuse, is not now what she hath been in the sight of God, but an infinitely different person: is not that ungrateful and faithless one, but another who is faithful, humbled, bathed in tears of true penitence, who hath awakened from her lethargy, who acknowledgeth her faults, who detesteth and aboininateth them; who, in short, hath conceived and brought forth, that is, hath believed on, and publicly confessed her Messiah in the midst of so great oppositions, perils, and afflictions, and adored and loved him above all things. Therefore, if he bring new accusations, they are evidently false. If he bring nothing new, but her old transgressions only, these have already been abundantly chastised. Already hath that miserable one received at the hand of God double for all her sins. Isa. xl. 2. Already these sins are pardoned and cast into the depths of the sea. (Micah vii. 19.)

Upon this, the heat increasing every moment, and it not being possible for either party to give way, it passeth easily from words to deeds, and from reasons to force of arms. And the contest is joined between Michael the prince, and the dragon; and between the angels of the one, and those of the other; a true battle in that way in which pure spirits can contend with one another. “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.” Rev. xii. 7. In this true battle, not past, but still to come, the dragon and his angels are to be left fully and completely vanquished, are all to be cast down to the earth, irresistibly, and thenceforth deprived for ever of the access which they had to God, as to the just judge, to accuse, to bring allegations, and make petitions against men. “Neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Rev. iii. 8,9.

This famous battle shall be doubtless a most grave event, and attended with most grave consequences, since it is announced for those times, in expressions so clear and so magnificent. Thereby shall be decided, and remain decided, the fate of the woman, for whom certainly the contest is holden, as appeareth from the whole context.

A text from the Twelfth Chapter of Daniel.

THE mystery of this great battle being understood, its causes, its ends, its circumstances of time and of place, we shall at once understand the whole twelfth chapter of Daniel, to which, allusion is manifestly made; and not only so, but which explains and clears up the whole of this admirable prophecy contained in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse.

“And in that time (it is said in Daniel) shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book…And many shall be purified, and made white, and tried.” (quasi per ignem, as it were by fire,) &c. Dan. xii. 1. 10.

Upon this text of Daniel we ought to remark, first, that here it is clearly and expressly said, that St. Michael the great prince is singled out by God for the prince and protector of the Jewish people: “Michael the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people,” the same thing is said in the last verse of the tenth chapter, “Michael your prince.” Why should this circumstance, or notice, be here added, if the expedition of St. Michael, or “the rising up of St. Michael,” is not for the sake of that very people, for their defence and protection. We ought to remark in the second place, the precise time which is here spoken of, “at that time shall Michael arise.” That time presents itself of its own accord, as the time of the future vocation, and reception of Israel, spoken of by St. Paul, and almost all the prophets; for of this very time it is said in Daniel, “at that time shall thy people be delivered, every one that is found written in the book.” And it is added a little after, that many of this people shall be purified, and made white, and tried, as by fire, which are manifestly those of whom we spake towards the end of the first Article, of whom Zechariah saith, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried:” Zech. xiii. 9. And are they other than those who appear in the Apocalypse “sealed in the forehead, with the seal of the living God?”

We ought to observe in the third place, that this time of the battle of St. Michael with the dragon, must necessarily and evidently precede the tribulation of Antichrist, for it is expressly said in the prophet, that after the expedition of St. Michael, there shall follow upon the earth a time so dark and terrible, as never hath been seen in all the ages which have gone before “And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation,” which is the very expression our Lord makes use of in the gospel, when speaking of the tribulation of Antichrist. “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world.” The whole of which St. John repeats in this very prophecy, in verses 12 and 17; concerning which anon.

Whence it legitimately follows, that the explanation which till now has been given, as well of the text of Daniel, as that of St John, holding that the “arising of Michael,” or his battle with the dragon, shall be to defend the church from the persecution of Antichrist, which is the common interpretation among the literal interpreters, cannot keep its ground, both prophecies resisting it, and with one voice condemning it.

ARTICLE VI.

“AND I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Rev. xii. 10-12.

The dragon being vanquished in battle, and cast out to the earth with all his angels, and for ever deprived of the access which he had to God, there is instantly heard in heaven a great voice, as the voice of universal acclamation and jubilee, which said “Now is salvation accomplished,” or concluded; as if it had said, now are overcome the greatest impediments which stood in the way of the manifestation of the power and kingdom of our God, and the power of Christ; for the perpetual accuser of our brethren has been cast out for ever, from the tribunal of our just judge.

These shouts of universal jubilee, which are heard in heaven after the battle of St. Michael, show and prove, first, the great and most ardent desire which the inhabitants of heaven have, that the kingdom of God and the power of Christ should be fully manifested. They show and prove, in the second place, the free access which the dragon and his angels had to the tribunal of God, for the purpose of accusing men, and making intercession against them; especially when they are guilty. They show and prove, in the third place, that the kingdom of God and the power of Christ cannot, or will not, be manifested until the conversion of the Jews be accomplished, which is so much announced and promised in the scriptures. Thus the Lord said on a certain occasion, “You shall not see me henceforth, until you shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matt. xxiii. 39: you shall not see me henceforth, until you shall say with truth, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, and all the rest of that salutation which is written and announced in the 118^th Psalm, whence these words are taken. Israel being converted, and the accuser who now hath nothing whereof to accuse, being cast out from before the throne of God, there upon all heaven maketh a joyful noise, saying, “Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down.” Rev. xii. 10.

For these being converted in the times whereof we speak, do disarm the accuser, conquer him, and place the victory in the hand of St. Michael, who, but for this support could not have conquered, nor even thought of giving battle. But they did not prevail, continues the text, otherwise than “by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” That is to say, that the very blood of the Lamb which they shed, and which with such imprudence they invoked upon themselves, and upon all their posterity, that precious blood which till now, has cried and cries against them; that blood, I say, of infinite price shall in those times cry, not against them, but for them, shall intercede for them, shall reconcile them to God, and thoroughly wash them from all their iniquities, old and new. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.” But in order that this blood might profit them, it was necessary for them to bring something on their part, the word of the testimony of Jesus Christ, or of the same Lamb, was necessary, that is to say, to declare themselves publicly for him, to confess him in the presence of God and of men, as their true Messiah, the son of David, the Son of God, and to defend his faith, and fearlessly to confirm that testimony with their life and their blood; for, as we gather from the words that follow, the persecution of the woman will not consist in words only, or in threats, but will pass to the shedding of not a little blood, “and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

This great event of the conversion of Israel, of the battle of St. Michael, ought without doubt to be followed by great consequences, and to produce some great and strange novelty. The voices which are heard in heaven immediately after the battle, most clearly show, that there are immediately to follow things of very great consequence and joy to the inhabitants of heaven. “Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye who dwell therein.” Although, on the other hand, there were likewise to follow for a short season, other things not less great, but of the utmost affliction and tribulation to the inhabitants of the earth. Accordingly these same voices conclude by saying, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, and the sea, because the devil cometh down to you having great wrath, for he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” The things which are instantly to follow in the earth, by reason of the great wrath with which the dragon descended after being conquered, are noticed in the remainder of this chapter, and afterwards more particularly, and more extensively, in the seven chapters which follow.

ARTICLE VII.

“AND when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might flee into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.” Rev. xii. 13,14.

The dragon seeing himself cast to the earth, and for ever deprived of the free access which he had to the throne of God, is possessed with strong suspicions that his end draweth nigh. I say his end, not in respect of his natural being, but in respect of his liberty to harm men, which seems to be his ruling passion. This terrible thought which ought naturally to make his spirit fall, on the other hand, makes it more daring and desirous to occupy well that short period, without losing one single moment. The woman which brought forth the man child, is the object against which he directeth all his attention, as being the cause of the ruin of his projects by her unseasonable delivery. Against her therefore he takes his purpose, and makes dispositions to persecute her in all ways, to ruin her, and wholly to annihilate her; and at least not to allow her to enjoy in peace the fruit of her womb.

Well could God, by simply willing it, defend the woman by a shorter way from the machinations of the dragon, and bring to nought all his endeavours, as he could have defended his own Son from the snares of Herod without sending him an exile into Egypt. But the Most High and Supreme God, who is not only omnipotent, but likewise wise and prudent, will then observe towards the persecuted woman the same sweet yet powerful measures which he observed in former times towards the persecuted child who was born King of the Jews. When Herod full of wrath, determined to search him out and strangle him in the cradle, his divine Father so disposed it that be should flee into Egypt, and there remain hid until his time; for which flight he gave him two wings as of a great eagle, suited to the state of infancy in which he then was, that is to say, his own most holy Mother, and St. Joseph. These two wings conducted him in the deepest silence, and with wonderful sweetness to the place which God had prepared for him, and there they hid him from the face of Herod all the time that his banishment lasted, until Herod being dead, he gave them orders to return to the land of Israel, where there were no longer persecutors for the time being, “ for they are dead who sought the child’s life.” Matt. ii. 13.

In this same manner, when the woman of whom we are speaking, saw herself in the days of her youth, Hosea ii. so cruelly persecuted by the king of Egypt, and her death in so many ways attempted, that same most prudent wisdom, disposed and ordained that the young woman should go forth from Egypt, and flee into the deserts of Arabia, for the which he gave her two wings as of a great eagle, that is, two great and famous conductors, Moses and Aaron, who with unheard of prodigies, led her into the desert, and there sustained her with convenient food all the time of her sojourning. By the simple mention of this great event, the allusion of this text of the Apocalypse to the going forth out of Egypt, and especially to the

₄th

verse of the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, becomes at once evident. Compare the two passages with one another, and there will be found between them an entire conformity. After the Red Sea was past, and all Israel stood in the desert of Mount Sinai, the Lord spake to them these words: “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings,” Exod. xix. 4. (or, as the Chaldee paraphrase reads, “as upon the wings of an eagle;” quasi super alas aquilæ); and, in the Apocalypse, “to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle.”

In like manner, as in other very distant times, when God himself condescended to raise that young woman to the dignity of his spouse, he took her first from the slavery of Egypt, with a powerful and with a strong hand, and bore her upon eagles’ wings, or as it were, upon the wings of an eagle, to the solitude of Mount Sinai, where the espousals were celebrated: so, in some sort, it shall happen, in times, still future, of which the scriptures speak so much, when the same merciful God, pitying her afflictions, and appeased by so many ages of severest penance, condescends to call her the second time, as a woman forsaken and grieved, “and a wife of youth cast out,” Isa. liv. 6. though under another, a new, and eternal covenant. Then shall the Lord renew those ancient miracles, and perform others still greater, in order to draw out of the oppression and slavery, not of Egypt only, but of the four quarters of the earth, and to possess her the second time. “It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time, to recover (to possess) the remnant of his people,” Is. xi. And that she may come forth from her present servitude, and be able to fly with more facility, he shall likewise give her two other wings, as of a great eagle, with which to fly once more into the wilderness. He will give her two other conductors, much like unto Moses and Aaron, and fitted for this new ministry.

What those wings or those conductors shall be, we cannot ascertain to a certainty, but only to a measure of congruity and suspicion, yet very strong. The first wing, or the first conductor, appears certainly to be the prophet Elias. That which is written of him in Ecciesiasticus, in Malachi, and in the Gospel, gives a foundation beyond probability, and rising almost to evidence. This extraordinary man is still alive, without having passed through death, through which he must certainly pass at one time or other. He is only removed, according to the scriptures, for the benefit of the Jews and of the children of Israel in general; that is, as it is said in Ecclesiasticus, “To pacify the wrath of the Lord’s judgment,…to turn the heart of the father unto the son, and to restore the tribes of Jacob,” Ecclesiasticus xlviii.

10. The same thing in substance saith Malachi: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers,” Mal. iv, 5, 6. The whole of which is further confirmed and explained by the Son of God: “Elias indeed shall come, and restore all things,” Matt. xvii. 11. Wherefore it appears more than probable that the prophet Elias is to be one of the conductors, or one of the wings.

The great difficulty is to know, with the same probability, the second wing or conductor. There is no doubt that that most ancient prophet, “the seventh from Adam,” Enoch, is still alive, as well as Elias, without our knowing the determinate place where either of them at present is; for the Holy Scripture now saith in heaven, now in paradise, words having more of a general than a particular import. “He walked with God,” it is said of Enoch, “and was not, because God took him,” Gen. v. 24: and, as is added in the Chaldee paraphrase, “and yet God slew him not.” Moreover, in Ecciesiasticus it is written, “He was translated to paradise,” Ecclesiasticus xliv. 16: and of Elias it is said, “He went up by a whirlwind into heaven,” 2 Kings ii. 11. The text of Ecelesiasticus is the only one in all the scripture, by which we can discern the destiny of Enoch, or the end for which God holdeth him in reserve. “Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated, being an example of repentance to all generations.” From these last words, it is easy to perceive, that the destiny of this holy man is not for the Jews, as that of Elias, but for the nations. For this reason, I see not how he can be the other wing or the other conductor of the woman, with whom he holds no other relation than doth the common Father of all men.

The interpreters of the Apocalypse, excepting some few, commonly judge or suspect, that those two witnesses, clothed in sackcloth, spoken of in the eleventh chapter, who are to oppose the beast, and to be by him persecuted and put to death, shall prove to be Elias arid Enoch. But, from the context itself, it is easy to perceive, that those two witnesses are as far from signifying two single and individual persons, as is the beast to whom they are opposed, and which is to persecute them to the death. It is enough, to read attentively what is said of these two witnesses, from the 7^th verse to the 14^th, in order to perceive that they arc two “pious and religious bodies, or, as it were, two congregations of faithful and religious ministers of God; who, filled with his Holy Spirit, and guided by Divine Providence, shall oppose themselves to the abounding iniquity: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy one thousand, two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.” These, continues the text, the beast shall furiously persecute; but God shall visibly protect them by wonderful interferences, until they shall have fulfilled the days of their prophecy, when they shall be conquered and overcome by the beast himself, with the universal applause and joy of the inhabitants of the earth. “And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth,” Rev. xi. 10. After being overcome and slain (the text concludes), their dead bodies shall lie unburied for three days and a half, in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. These words, “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,” appear to be the key of the whole mystery. If the two witnesses are two single, persons, one street only were sufficient for their dead bodies. [In the Vulgate it is, In plateis civitatis, i.e. In the streets of the city.] Two dead bodies only are to be stretched over the streets of so great a city? In the streets of the great city.

Now, what city is this which deserveth the name of Sodom and Egypt? Is it not manifest, by those countersigns, that this is spoken by similitude, not by propriety? Is not this the manner of speaking throughout all this divine book of the Apocalypse? Many grave doctors, considering these expressions and this manner of speaking, are of opinion, that it is not any particular city, but the whole world, or the whole earth generally, which is here spoken of; for although the text adds, “where our Lord also was crucified,” this circumstance is not less true, speaking of the whole orb of the world, than speaking of Jerusalem alone; besides that the Lord was not crucified in the city of Jerusalem, but forth of it. I confess, that upon this point I think with these doctors. Returning now to our two witnesses, Considered as two moral bodies, we say, in few words, that from them will come forth those martyrs, all, or the most part, of whom are still wanted to complete the number of the joint-heirs of the kingdom; of whom it is spoken expressly in the twentieth chapter, that they are to arise, on the coming of Christ, along with the other more ancient martyrs, “and the souls of them that were beheaded,…and who had not worshipped the beast..And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years: the rest of the dead lived not.” So when, at the opening of the fourth seal of the book, the souls of the martyrs cry out for justice upon the blood shed for Christ, it is said to them that they should wait in expectation still a short while, until the number of their fellow-servants and brethren, who should be slain as they had been, should be completed. “And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled,” Rev. vi. 11.

Although, for the reasons which have been pointed out, it appears to me that the holy Enoch is not the second wing which shall be given to the woman, I dare not therefore deny it altogether; since the two mysteries, the one of giving repentance to the nations (either before or after the coming of the Lord), and the other of conducting the tribes of Israel to the wilderness, are not absolutely incompatible. Nevertheless, following the allusion, which appears so clear, to the going forth from Egypt, there is easily to be seen a great resemblance and proportion between Moses and Elias, and it is not easy to find any between Aaron and Enoch. If you ask me, who that second wing shall be, or can be, according to the scriptures; I answer truly that I do not know. For the present, it is enough to say, that this second wing, the companion of Elias, as Aaron was of Moses, will infallibly be that which God hath already chosen.

ARTICLE VIII.

“AND the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” Rev.

xii. 15,16.

These words carry us naturally, without our being able to resist, to the passage of the Red Sea; and if, with this in our mind, we read the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, there will be found in it the explanation of what is here declared to us by St. John; and the two metaphors which he makes use of will at once be understood. First, the water like a river, which proceeded with violence out of the mouth of the dragon, in order to overtake the woman who fled, that he might stop her, and make her turn back. Secondly, the mouth which the earth opens, in aid of the fugitive woman, swallowing up the whole of that great river of water which proceeded against her. That chapter of Exodus being read, we need no further explanation, the whole enigma is resolved.

When this same woman of whom we speak, finding herself persecuted and afflicted in Egypt, fled in the days of her youth towards the wilderness, upon the two wings, as of an eagle, which were given to her, what did Pharaoh? I shall, Sir, relate this great event, by the same metaphor, and with the same expressions and words which St. John useth; without any other alteration than placing Pharaoh instead of dragon, and sea for earth, and see if you can fail to understand me. Pharaoh, seeing that the children of Israel were actually on their flight out of Egypt, and took their way by the wilderness, aided and conducted by the two eagle’s wings which God had bestowed on them, full of new fury and indignation, cast out of his mouth a great flood of water, as a great river in order to overtake the fugitives, and make them return to serve him “And Pharaoh sent out of his mouth waters as of a flood, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” But the sea helped the children of Israel, for it opened its mouth, and swallowed all the water which Pharaoh had cast out of his mouth. “And the sea helped the children of Israel, or the woman, and opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which Pharaoh had cast out of his mouth.” Do you not understand it? Compare now this metaphor with the text of Exodus, and you shall see the entire propriety of it. Moses says, that so soon as Pharaoh knew for certain that all Israel was fleeing toward the wilderness, “the heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people;” and without losing time, he gave instant orders to his captains, who united all their armies, and he himself mounted his chariot: “And he took six hundred chosen chariots along with him, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them.” Why all this preparation? In order to pursue Israel on her flight, and force her to return to his bondage: “that she might be carried away of the flood.” See then here the great river of water which Pharaoh cast out of his mouth. If now you should wonder that the armies of Pharaoh should be explained by the metaphor of a river of water, you may call to mind how, in Isaiah (viii. 7.) the same metaphor is made use of, in order to announce the coming up of the armies of the king of Assyria against all Israel. “Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks,” Isa. viii. 7.

Moses saith further, that the troops of Pharaoh, or the river which had gone forth out of his mouth, being come in sight of Israel, who lay encamped by the shores of the Red Sea, that sea helped him in the terrible conflict; for, opening her mouth, or separating asunder into two parts, she gave the fugitives a free passage; and when they were passed over to the other side, she closed her mouth upon the enemies who pursued after them: “the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them.” Exodus xiv. 27,28. Compare now this text with that other; “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” Rev.

xii. 16. and it appears to me that you cannot do less than recognize two mysteries of the same Israel, —one already past, the other still future, when God shall set his hand the second time to possess the residue of Israel. Isa. xi. 11.

By the attentive and judicious combination of these two passages of the Apocalypse and of Exodus, there starts out and of its own accord presents itself, what is the plain and easy intelligence of very many prophecies which clearly announce to the remnant of Israel things very similar and even greater than those which came to pass on their going out of Egypt: in the first place we understand at once, by merely reading it, the whole mystery of the expedition of Gog’s multitude, spoken of so diffusely in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel: which expedition is by the prophet placed immediately after the metaphorical resurrection of the arid and dry bones, which occupies the whole of the thirty-seventh chapter, wherein God himself, explaining the metaphor, concludeth by saying, among other things, “Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land.” xxxvii. 21. This mystery of the vocation and receiving Israel being concluded, he begins forthwith to prophesy concerning a very great multitude from various parts and nations, which are to go against this same Israel: “In the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel…Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands, and many people with thee.” Ezek. xxxviii. 8,9. Who doth not see in this, the great river of water which the dragon casts out of his mouth against the woman in her flight? The earth aided the woman, saith St. John; for she opened her mouth and swallowed all the water of the flood. The same saith Ezekiel, announcing the end of all that infinite multitude: “And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea; and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it, The valley of Hamon-gog.” Ezekiel xxxix. 11. Many other observations might be easily made upon this prophecy, if it were read with that heedfulness which I cannot at present stay to do.

Besides this, many other passages of the prophets are in the same manner explained; and among them the sixteenth chapter of Isaiah, which we shall expressly observe in the last section of the following phenomenon. The whole of the third chapter of Joel is in like manner cleared up, which has been thought to treat of the universal judgment which is to take place in the valley of Jehoshiaphat: but if the following chapter be read over, you shall be compelled to seek for some other mystery widely different. The fear of that mystery, and of the other particulars which are there announced with so much clearness, appears to be that which has made them substitute in its stead the universal judgment. “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.” Joel iii. 1,2. In this text, and in all that follows till the end of the prophecy, they insist much upon these words; “I will gather all nations.” But these words, in the ordinary phrase of the Holy Scriptures, do signify no other thing, for the most part, than a great multitude of various peoples, tribes, and languages. Thus saith Zechariah; “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken.” Zech. xiv. 2. The remnant of Israel, in the 117^th Psalm say, “All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.” Verse 10. Should we then understand in these places all the individuals of the human race, —those not only living, but the dead also raised up? Moreover, after the universal resurrection, shall the Jews, now restored to their land, sell the Gentiles who heretofore had sold them? For it is one of the things which God says to those nations in this very prophecy, and in this judgment which is to be held of them in the valley of Jehoshaphat: “Behold, I will raise them (the Jews) out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head: and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.” Joel iii. 7,8. My dear Sir, let us not lose the time: read with your eyes the whole of this prophecy; consider attentively, not one or another word separately, but the whole of them in order, one connected with the other, and I firmly believe that without further trouble we shall be of one mind.

In short, by the combination of this passage of the Apocalypse and that of Exodus, the whole seventh chapter of Micah is opened; where he who cannot lie promiseth, that the miracles which he shall do when he shall draw Israel forth from among the nations, where he keepeth them in exile and dispersion, shall be very similar to those which he anciently did when he drew them forth out of Egypt; “According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things:” Mic. vii. 15. that the Gentiles shall see miracles, as the Egyptians saw them; and the more efforts they make, the more shall it redound to their own confusion. Finally, like as when all Israel saw themselves on the other side of the Red Sea; when they saw the whole of that great and formidable river, which came against them from the mouth of Pharaoh, swallowed up before their eyes, and sunk in those violent waters; when they saw the omnipotent hand of God so manifest in their behalf, they sung, full of a holy joy and a religious dread, that sublime song, which is ever read with admiration, in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus: so, after a perfectly similar manner, when the earth shall have swallowed up all the water of the great river that issued from the mouth of the dragon, and proceeded against the woman who fled into the desert (a metaphor most clearly indicated by the very allusion), beholding herself now free and in security by means of such great wonders, they shall likewise sing unto their God that other prophetical song, so sublime, which is already prepared in the same book of Micah, and with which that prophet concludes his whole prophecy: “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” Micah vii. 18-20.

The solitude of the Woman according to the Scriptures.

THE woman being at length arrived at the place which God had prepared for her, shall there be nourished “for a time, and times, and half a time,” or “one thousand two hundred and threescore days;” that is, for three years and a half. In respect to this retreat and solitude of the woman, it appears a most natural wish to know the determined place of the earth whither they are to conduct her on eagle’s wings by the appointment of God, as also what her occupations in that wilderness are to be, and what the design of God in so extraordinary a dispensation.

With respect to the first, we say, that although the text of the Apocalypse says nothing in particular, but merely announceth the mystery in very general words; yet, combining the text with other clear enough indications which are found in the rest of the prophets, we may argue, without fear of departing far from the truth, that the wilderness, or determinate spot of the earth, where God is to bring this woman, will be that same country promised with an oath to their fathers for their posterity; “from the stream of Egypt even unto the great river, Euphrates.” Gen. xv. 18. Behold on what foundation I rest this.

First; St. John says, verse 6, that the woman after her delivery should flee immediately to the wilderness, where she had a place already prepared for her by God himself: and in verse 13, where he returns to speak more specially concerning this flight, he says, that the place prepared by God, now desert and solitary, is a place belonging to the woman: “that she might fly unto her place.” Now what place doth it appear to you that must be, which belongs to the woman, and hath before been prepared for her by God? I will not deny that if there were no other light than this, it would be better to confess that the place to which the woman is to fly is a point unknown. But if we combine the little here spoken by St. John with that which is spoken upon this same point in many other passages of scripture, it appears to me that there is no necessity for this confession, and that we may without hesitation affirm the above proposition, and produce the reasons which we have for doing so. For which end we ought before all things to recollect all those very clear prophecies by which we have proved in various parts, especially in the Fifth and Seventh Phenomena, that the present exile and dispersion of the children of Jacob is a chastisement of their God, predicted in a thousand ways by their prophets; that this chastisement shall not be everlasting, but limited to a determinate time, which God only knows; that when the just indignation of God shall once have been satisfied upon that miserable people, his anger shall turn unto mercy; that, this time being arrived, God himself shall lead them out by his own omnipotent hand, from all the lands and nations where he himself keeps them dispersed, as he anciently led them out of Egypt, and shall plant them anew and stably in that very land promised for them to their fathers, and this in despite of all the powers of earth. “If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee. And he shall bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it.” Deut. xxx. 4. Of such announcements and promises you shall find an infinite number in the prophets, from Moses to Malachi.

This position being then certain and undeniable, we thus reason. —In order that God may introduce and plant anew the remnant of Jacob in the land promised for them to their fathers, it is necessary that he should first prepare for them that same land: and this is what St. John says; “the woman fled unto the wilderness unto a place prepared for her.” This preparation, according to the scriptures and according to natural reason, ought necessarily to commence by the evacuation of the same land. This then is, according to the scriptures, the first thing which the omnipotent hand of the God of Abraham hath to accomplish; and so it standeth clearly announced in the twenty-seventh chapter and 12^th verse of Isaiah, as was observed in the Fifth Phenomenon. Let that prophecy be perused with new and greater attention, giving good heed to all the context and to the times of which it is spoken. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river (the Euphrates) unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish.” Isa. xxvii. 12,13. which perfectly harmonizeth with what is said in the tenth Psalm; “The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.” Verse 16. Now if this prophecy is at some time to be accomplished, when can it be but in the time and circumstances of which we are now treating? So that it is at least highly probable that in the time of the future vocation and reception of Israel, or of the flight of the woman to the solitude, that prophecy is accomplishing itself, or shall be already accomplished; consequently, that all the promised land is reduced to a true desert and solitude by that same Lord who is not only omnipotent but likewise infinitely true. And it is equally probable that this may be the preparation of the place which is spoken of by St. John, forasmuch as it is the place which belongeth to the woman.

Besides this, if some greater attention be given to the prophets, there will be found in Isaiah not traces but very clear lights respecting this very mystery. First, in Ezekiel: “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you;” Chapter xx. 33. which are the expressions the Lord maketh use of, when speaking of the coming out of Egypt: “And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered…and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant…I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers. And there shall ye remember your ways, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Verses 35-44. Omitting for the present, not without reluctance, the many reflections which might be made upon this text, I give my attention to two expressions, which are those that bear upon my present purpose. First; “And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered…and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.” Chapter xx. 34,35. Second; “When I shall bring you into the land of Israel.” These two little clauses, pursuing the thread of the context, manifestly mean the very same thing. Therefore the desert of the people, or the land evacuated by the people who dwelt there, where God is to bring again the remnant of Israel, shall be the same land of Israel for which he hath lifted up his hand to give it to their fathers.

By Hosea (chap. ii.) the Lord speaks of the house of Jacob, under the same metaphor of a woman, his wife, cast out for her faults, and who one day shall return and cry, saying, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.” Hosea ii. 14, 15.

As if he had said, at the appointed time will I call unto this miserable one, after she has suffered her double confusion, and in the first place I will make her come unto the wilderness, where I will melt her with my words. Then will I give to her workmen natural to the very place; that is, Israelites of the very root of Jacob: “I will give her vineyards [Vulg. vinitores, vine dressers] from thence.” I will likewise give to her a second time the valley of Achor; which shall be to her as the gate or entering in of hope: “I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope.” In order to understand completely all the force and propriety of these last words, we should know that this valley of Achor, most pleasant and fertile, (near where stood the ancient Jericho, and, as some say, the famous vineyards of Engaddi, spoken of in Solomon’s song,) was the first land where all Israel encamped, then conducted by Joshua, after having passed the Jordan. This valley, says the Lord, alluding manifestly to that first entry into the land of promise, he shall then give to the woman who is carried into the wilderness, in order that there her hopes may open, upon seeing once more that first gate of the holy land set open to her. In Micah it is written, that land shall be laid waste on account of the iniquity of its inhabitants: “Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings;” Micah vii. 13. which being executed, the flock of the inheritance of the Lord shall dwell in it, as in a desert or solitude, or as in the brakes and woods of Mount Carmel; whence it is immediately said to Messiah, or to God himself, “Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel.” verse 14. The times of which the prophet here speaks it is easy to know from the whole context.

In Isaiah (xxxii. 15.) it is said, that the peculiar pastures of this same flock, when it shall live and be fed according to the purposes of God, shall for a long time be the habitation and joy of the savage beast; and, that it might not be thought that the captivity of Babylon was here spoken of, the prophet immediately adds; that this shall last until the Spirit from on high shall be poured out upon this same flock: “a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks, until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high.” That when this Spirit is poured out upon this flock, the desert shall be as Carmel; and that which before appeared a Carmel, or a pleasant and delicious plain, shall be reckoned a wood: “and the wilderness be a fruitful field; [Vulg. a Carmel] and the fruitful field [Vulg. the Carmel] be counted for a forest:” a very clear and expressive figure of the house of Jacob in comparison of the church of the Gentiles, which is also the house of Jacob by faith, and vice versâ of that which shall come to pass in other times; because there shall yet be another time. (Dan. xi. 35, see Vulg.) In that time, continues the prophet, judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness shall have his seat there, and allow herself to be seen in all her beauty. “Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field [Vulg. in Carmel].” That the work, or the fruit of justice shall be peace; that the worship or ornament of justice shall be quietness; all which shall produce true peace and unalterable security. “And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.” Isa. xxxii. 17,18.

Having ascertained, at least probably, the place of the wilderness whither God is to conduct the woman after her mysterious birth, it now follows naturally that we consider what is to pass in that solitude; that is, the ends which God hath in view by carrying the woman thither, and keeping her as it were hid from the face of the serpent for the space of forty and two months, which is exactly the same period as that during which the Gentiles are to suffer the great antichristian tribulation. For the understanding of this point almost all the prophets offer us facilities, and we are referred to them by the continual allusions of the beloved disciple.

Not only, then, is God to draw this ancient spouse the second time out of Egypt, or out of all the nations, according to his infallible promises; but he will conduct her to the wilderness, as he did the first time, in order that being free from all distraction, and disembarrassed of every other care, she may give way to the Spirit of God, and begin to speak and to hear what he speaketh to her heart: “I will lead her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her.” In order that there she may see and contemplate, as under one point of view, all that God hath done to her, since he graciously exalted her to the dignity of his spouse, and on the other hand that she may likewise see all which she hath done to her God, “I will bring you into the wilderness, and there will I plead with you face to face.” Ezek. xx.

35. A most vivid and natural expression for signifying a mutual judgement, where is manifested clearly the conduct of both spouses, and the reasons which may be produced upon both sides.

Therefore saith the Lord himself by Isaiah, “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.” Isa. xli. 21. And in the forty-third chapter, after reminding them of the marvels which he had done to draw them out of Egypt, he adds those words, “Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.” Isa. xliii. 18,19. He then passeth on to set before their face the great and continued benefits which they have received at his hand, and the very great and incredible ingratitude wherewith he had been always met. “But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel…But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.” &c. Isa. xliii. 22-26.

In this wilderness then, in this quietness, in this mutual pleading, the ears and the eyes of the spouse being opened, and her darkness turned into light, as is likewise promised to her, (Isa. xlii. 16.) “I will make darkness light before them,” thereupon that curtain shall be drawn, that dense and cloudy veil which till now hath kept their heart shrouded up “even until this day,” as saith the apostle, and we also say until this day with the same truth, “the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” 2 Cor.

iii. 15, 16. This curtain, I say, being withdrawn, that veil lifted up, she shall begin to see and also to hear her Holy Scriptures. With this intelligence, and with this knowledge and recollection of all the past, especially of that unjust treatment with which their very Messiah was received in the holy city, shall doubtless begin that tender, bitter, and inconsolable lamentation whereof it is spoken in the twelfth chapter of Zechariah, and which will continue without interruption until it be perfected in Jerusalem. “In that day (saith the prophet) there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem,…And the land shall mourn, every family apart;…and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born.” Zech. xii. 11,12.10. There with a softened heart, and with eyes full of tears, they shall begin to say unto Messiah, those tender words which are already entered in the same prophet, “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands?” Zech. xiii. 6. And the Lord shall answer, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends,” or, in my beloved house, as the LXX read.

There in that state of quietness and solitude, shall their heart be wholly changed, that pure and limped water being poured upon them (the proper symbol of baptism and the Spirit of God) which is promised in the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel from the 24^th verse, “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you.” Ezek. xxxvi. 24-27. Then shall the Lord bestow those good and excellent shepherds which are promised by Hosea, (chap. ii.) and by Jeremiah, (chap. xxiii.) who shall give them convenient food of doctrine and of instruction, whereby not one individual of them shall fail nor one be lacking in their number; “I will give them vinedressers from the same place, and I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.” Jer. xxiii. 4. Those shepherds, it appears, shall be their wings, which are to conduct them in the wilderness, “where she hath a place prepared for her by God, and they shall feed her there one thousand two hundred and threescore days.” These being sanctified with that perfect sanctification which is announced to them, the heavenly Father shall shed upon them with infinite bounty and profusion “the spirit of grace and of supplication;” the good, and for a sinner, the highly necessary spirit of lamentation, of contrition, and of penitence. “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.” Ezek. xxxvi. 31,32.

Then, in short, shall those innumerable prophecies be verified, of which the prophets, especially the Psalms, are full; where are announced to us the conversion, the restitution, the future assumption of the remnant of Israel, and the change of their present state into another infinitely different, which this very novelty and grandeur hath made venerable. Turn and read with great attention the prophecy of Hosea, which a little ago we pointed out.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the days when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; (my husband)…And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness:” &c. Hosea ii. 14-20.

ARTICLE THE LAST.

“AND the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. xii. 17.

The last event which is here announced by St. John, appears to be the last consequence, or final result of the vocation and assumption of the remnant of Jacob. The dragon not having been able to prevent the delivery of the woman, nor yet to devour it; nor having been able after this to obtain entrance or audience in the tribunal of the righteous judge; nor having been able to resist the great prince St. Michael, who cast him to the earth with all his angels; nor having been able, in fine, to recal the woman in her flight, the sacred text says that he was furiously irritated against her; “and the dragon was wroth with the woman;” and in order to comfort himself in any way, he took the last part and resolution that a desperado can take. He turned all his indignation, his rage, and his fury, against that part of the seed which remained on the earth; which can mean nothing else than the remains of true Christianity among the Gentiles; for it is expressly said that the remnant of the seed of the woman, against whom the dragon turned all his anger, and those who observe the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus Christ, “and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which kept the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, Rev. xii. 17: who by pure and incorrupt faith, are the seed of Abraham, and by a necessary consequence are the seed of that woman.

And by this alone do you see the whole theatre or present aspect of our earth changed; you see here the true principle of the Antichristian revelation; you see here revealed, manifested, perfected, and consummated, that very mystery of iniquity, which already began to work in the times of St. Paul: “the mystery of iniquity even now worketh.” Of which mystery of iniquity now publicly revealed, St. John begins forthwith to speak and continues to speak throughout the whole of the following chapter, under the figure of a terrible beast with seven heads and ten horns, and of another beast with two horns, only like those of a lamb, but with the voice or speech of a dragon; concerning which metaphors we have already spoken under the Third Phenomenon.

Conclusion.

SUCH, my dear Sir, and good, friend, is what I think with respect to the true meaning of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse. In which interpretation as you have just seen, every thing runs naturally without stumbling, without embarrassment, without artifice, without violence, and as a whole conformed to the scriptures. I do not deny that in this I may be deceived, on which account I give notice, that what I have said thereon, I do not hold up as a demonstrated truth, but only as an explanation whose goodness and preferableness to others, I expect to be decided by an impartial judge who, setting all prejudice aside, shall simply attend to reason and common sense.

If the woman whom we have proposed, is not in reality the same as is spoken of in the prophecy, (which ought first to be convincingly proved on solid grounds) at least it appears most certain, that whatever this prophecy saith, is to be verified in that very individual woman of whom we have been speaking. And if, according to the scriptures, this is to be verified in her at some time, what reason can there be for questioning or doubting that she may be the very person. It cannot be denied that this view is not conformed to, but manifestly repugns the ordinary ideas; but as little can it be denied that it is accordant with all the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

From which scriptures we know that the Gentiles called of God with such great mercies, have their fixed and precise times, already marked out in the divine prescience, which, according to the apostle, shall last only while they abide in goodness, and yield, like good grafts upon a good olive, those fruits which ought to be looked for after so extraordinary a bounty and cultivation. Which permanence in goodness, that is, in faith and justice, it is on the other hand announced to us, shall not be realized.

We know likewise, that the tribes of Jacob, cut off from their God in wrath and great indignation, have, in like manner, their times of severity and rigour marked out by the same providence; which times, as the Apostle himself predicts, shall be precisely the same with those of the continuance of the Gentiles in goodness; for as these found mercy without seeking it, through the unbelief of the Jews, so, vice versâ, the Jews shall obtain it, “for God hath concluded all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all.”

Now as the true Christian church is certainly indestructible, God must vouchsafe some extraordinary providence towards the end of the times of the Gentiles, in order that faith may not utterly fail, through the abounding of iniquity (Matt. xxiv). What providence will this be? The doctors coming to this strait, and confessing the fact, though only because they cannot help it, do yet set themselves to carry onwards to the end their favourable view of things. Accordingly they hold that the true Christian church in the terrible times of the tribulation of Antichrist, shall survive in those few, in those very few believers, who shall abide unperverted in the midst of the general iniquity. Well, this is a truth which cannot be denied. Some believers will then abide, in whom the Christian church shall live till the coming of the Lord; and those will undoubtedly, either in whole or the greater part, be the persons who, after the resurrection of the saints, shall ascend together with them in the clouds, to meet Christ in the air. But is this the only truth which is here to be considered? Is there not yet another of greater consideration? Why forget the vocation, the receiving, the restitution, the fulness of the Jews, so clear, so visible, so patent, in all the scriptures? Why despise so many miserable men? Behold here, in passing, the true cause of the obscurity of the doctors to lie in contempt for the Jews, in the not choosing to bring them into consideration, save in those things which bear against them; but totally to forget them in those that are favourable: this is what makes them unintelligible.

The providence then, which, according to the scriptures, the Lord shall exercise towards the end of the times of the Gentiles, that the church may not fail, will be the vocation of the remnant of Israel, so often foretold; just as when Israel failed, his providence was to call the nations. “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Rom. xi. 30-32. The providence, according to the scriptures, will be to insert anew in the good olive her proper and natural branches; “for God is able to graft them in again.”

The blindness of Israel, continues the apostle, is a mystery which the Christian nations should never forget, “that ye be not wise in your own conceit;” which mystery cannot be fully concluded until the fulness of the Gentiles, which is to enter, shall have entered: and then when there is no one found who desireth to enter, when those who abide give hardly signs of life, shall all Israel be saved, as it is written: Then the merciful and almighty God of our fathers “shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” Isa. xi. 11,12.

Then he shall call a second time the remnant of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, faithfully accomplishing to them all the promises which he made them, even with an oath. “Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” Micah vii. 20. Then shall he draw that precious remnant from among all nations, where he presently holdeth them dispersed abroad: he shall conduct them “upon eagle’s wings, or, as it were, the wings of an eagle, unto the wilderness of the peoples,” by prodigies equal or superior to those which he anciently did, in order to bring them out of Egypt, and conduct them to the wilderness of Mount Sinai: he shall there wash them from all their iniquities, old and new, with the blood of the Lamb: he shall fill them with his Spirit, and work upon them and with them that perfect sanctification, and all those marvels so great, so novel, and so extraordinary, which with such frequency and clearness are met with in the prophets of God.

To all this that voice appears to make manifest allusion, which was heard from heaven a short while before the execution of the sentence which had been just given in the extraordinary counsel of God against great Babylon. “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. xviii. 4,5.

PHENOMENON IX. THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID.

WE have just finished the observation of the great sign of the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, with all its mysteries. In which observation we have left that famous woman in the wilderness, in the place prepared for her by God, retired and safe from the face of the serpent, free from all distraction, and wholly occupied in nourishing herself upon that spiritual food which God hath prepared for her: all this while the rest of the earth is inwrapped with that most devouring fire or pestilence of Antichrist: “for darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people,” (it is declared and announced to this same woman by Isaiah in the sixtieth chapter); “but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen in thee.”

“Behold,” it is said in Zephaniah, “at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.” Zeph. iii. 19. And by Micah it is said, “in that day, saith the Lord, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted.” Micah iv. 6.

If now you desire to know for what end, in that day, this lame woman whom he had cast out and afflicted, shall be gathered by God, you may know it by merely reading the words which follow in Micah: “And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever,” Micah iv. 7: so that the Lord will gather her that halteth, with all her remnant, in order to reign over them in Mount Zion from thenceforth and for ever; for he adds, that when this congregation hath been made, the first dominion and kingdom shall return to the daughter of Jerusalem; “Even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.” Micah iv. 1. But what doth all this signify? What sense can it have? To me it appears that all this hath no other sense than the obvious and natural one, which is, that for this halting woman which he had cast out, and with all her precious relicts, sealed in the forehead with the seal of the living God, and congregated in that day with great mercies, he shall instantly proceed to prepare the tabernacle, or the throne of David, which is fallen down, of whose stable and permanent erection and re-edification the Holy Scriptures speak to us so constantly.

The mode of discoursing upon this point, according to the ordinary system.

PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

§ 1. THE tabernacle of David, or his throne, fell more than two thousand years ago, from that height in which God himself had placed it. Not only fell by its own weight, as all frail and corruptible things of our world fall, but because of the iniquity and ingratitude of the kings his successors, who were seated upon it; for, excepting two or three, all the rest were sinners. “All, except David, and Ezekias, and Josias, were defective.” Ecclesiasticus xlix. 4. On which account, the God of their fathers not only deposed from the throne of David, and for ever disinherited all his children and descendants, but he gave the throne itself a most violent blow to the earth, by the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar, broke it, shattered it to pieces, and reduced it to dust and ashes. David himself, speaking to God in the eighty-ninth Psalm, after bringing forward the promises which had been made in this matter, even with an oath, doth yet say to him these prophetic words: “But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown, by casting it to the ground.” Psalm lxxxix. 38,39. And in truth, the tabernacle or throne of David suffered such a shock in being cast to the earth by Nebuchadnezzar, that till this day it hath not been able to arise, nor hath either the appearance or the hope of ever rising again.

It is true (they continue), that many prophecies clearly and expressly announce the re-edification and erection of that very tabernacle or throne of David, which fell and was wholly ruined, towards the beginning of the first empire; but these prophecies, they add, cannot, and ought not, to be understood otherwise than in the spiritual sense: and in this their true and only sense, they have all been accomplished, and are actually accomplishing, in the present church, from which is the true tabernacle of David, Jesus Christ. It appears to me that I have faithfully reported, in these few words, the whole manner of the doctors’ discoursing, whether interpreters or theologians, upon the point whereof we treat.

So that, according to this manner of reasoning, the tabernacle or throne of David, hath or ought to have two senses or aspects, infinitely different from one another. The one purely material, the other purely spiritual; the one to receive blows and punishment, the other to receive mercies and favours; the one to fall, to be broken and frittered away, the other to arise sound and perfect; the one, in short, to die, and the other, infinitely different, to rise again. Accordingly, although the prophecies announce that that very throne of David, which is fallen, dead, and buried, shall one day revive, and arise from the dust of the earth, incorruptible and eternal; yet shall this not be, they say, nor can it be, according to its first sense and material aspect, but only according to the second sense and spiritual aspect. In fine, the tabernacle or throne of David, shall revive and arise once more, according to the Scriptures, but not in that sense in which it fell and died, but in another most perfect sense, in which it hath not fallen nor ever died.

I am very far from opposing myself to this spiritual sense or aspect. What is said here, or meant to be said, I also say, believe, and confess, as a truth. There is no doubt that the present church may, in a certain sense, be called a kingdom, a tabernacle, a throne, where Jesus Christ reigns spiritually, through the faith of believers, where true faith and likewise true righteousness reign; but these words, kingdom, tabernacle, throne, &c. being spoken of the present church, are words not appropriate, but manifestly of a borrowed meaning: used with propriety, but with a propriety derived from resemblance, and which consists in the very resemblance not in the thing itself. In this way, St. Paul saith with truth and propriety, “Death reigned from Adam even unto Moses,” Rom. v. 14. In the same way we say with truth, that over a great part of the world Mahomet or Mahometanism reigneth, by the faith, though false and erroneous, of those who believe and follow his doctrine. In another portion not less in size reigneth idolatry, in another heresy, and in another philosophy, and in another barbarism, &c. And in this same sense, it is most true that in another great part of the world reigns true Christianity, which constitutes the true church of Christ; and consequently Christ himself spiritually reigns by the faith of believers, especially over those who hold the faith in good works.

But in this spiritual sense, though true, is it possible fully to verify the prophecies? Is the present church in reality that very kingdom, tabernacle, or throne of David, which was entirely destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and whereof the prophets of God announce the resurrection, the erection, the solid and eternal re-edification? Consider, Sir, equivocate not, seek not forcibly to reduce into one idea two so diverse from one another. The present church is a moral and mystical body, of which Christ himself is the true head, the high priest, the prince of the Pastors, the master, the light, the way, the truth, the life, the propitiation, the redemption; but not the temporal king; because, in the Apocalypse, when he cometh from heaven to earth in glory and majesty, he brings written on his vesture and on his thigh, “King of kings, and Lord Of lords,” and as such shall be acknowledged of all the universe.

Jesus Christ is therefore, as high priest, the true head of the church, though invisible. Now is it the same to be sovereign pontiff, invisible head of a moral and mystical body, and to be the king of this same body? Is there not a notable difference between the priesthood and the empire? Is it the same thing, to be in the church of Christ high priest or supreme pontiff as to be king or monarch? We Catholics do all believe and avow it as a truth, that the bishop of Rome, as legitimate successor of St. Peter, is the vicar of Christ, is the high priest, the sovereign pontiff, the supreme father, the superior and the visible head of the mystical body of Christ, which is the church; and yet no Catholic believes, at least in these times (nor in the seven or eight first centuries did believe), that he is king or temporal monarch of the same church, or that his power is so entirely without limits, as to extend indifferently to every thing, as well civil as spiritual. The spiritual exclusively concerns the priesthood, strictly united with their visible and invisible head. The civil (and the priesthood itself, so far as it is civil) concerneth the empire, the king, the prince, or the secular power. To seek to depart from this, is to seek to confound the most clear ideas.

Of the kingdom then, of the tabernacle, of the throne of holy king David, which hath entirely fallen and been reduced to powder, since the beginning of the first empire; of this same do the prophets of God foretell, that one day it shall arise anew in the person of Messiah, the son of David according to the flesh. But may not this kingdom, this tabernacle, this throne, this royal seat (for of all these four words do the prophets make use), haply be some purely spiritual kingdom? May it not peradventure be the tabernacle of religion, or the seat of the high priest? Certainly not. The high priest, by divine institution, pertained to the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron, not to the tribe of Judah and the family of David; as of which tribe (saith St. Paul) Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood, Heb. vii. 14. It is true that the same apostle adds, that the high priesthood is transferred to Christ, and in him confirmed for ever. But it is also true that it is not translated to Christ as being the Son of David, to whom the high priesthood did in no way appertain; nor as little as being the son of Aaron, even though he had really descended from him by some line; for, as observeth the same St. Paul, the high priesthood of Christ is not according to the order of Aaron (much less according to the order of David), but according to the order of Melchisedec. The high priesthood was then transferred to Christ, and in him for ever confirmed, but simply by the express will of God, who had thus promised and sworn in the 110^th Psalm, “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec,” Psalm

cx. 4; that is, adds St. Paul, “Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” Heb. vii. 16.

In short, it is most certain that neither the priesthood of Aaron nor that of Melchisedec pertained to David, therefore neither the one nor the other can be called the kingdom, the tabernacle, or the throne of David. Therefore the eternal priesthood which is established in the person of Christ and which he now exerciseth in the present church, and which they call the spiritual kingdom of Christ, is very different from the throne or tabernacle of David, which fell and was entirely dissolved, more than two thousand years ago.

What would they say to me, if imitating the way of discoursing followed by the doctors, I should say of David himself the same which they here say of his tabernacle? If I should dare to speak or to advance the proposition, The holy king David fell, died, and was buried, and converted into dust; and although it is an article of divine faith from the scriptures that he is to rise again (if haply he be not already risen), yet this resurrection is already fully accomplished, and no other is to be looked for. How? Spiritually. When? When Messiah, his Son, received the high priesthood according to the order of Melchisedec, or also when the soul of David went forth from the place of departed spirits [del limbo], and was glorified with Christ on the day of the resurrection of the. Lord. If this similitude does not appear to you exact, take this other. St. Peter, in his second epistle, chapter first, speaking of his bodily tabernacle, says, “I must shortly put off this tabernacle,” that is, his body was soon to fall into the dust. It is a fact that he actually died in the time of Nero, and that his body or his tabernacle was buried and reduced to dust. It is likewise a truth, that in the resurrection that same body or tabernacle of St. Peter, which he laid down, shall rise and be re-constituted as it formerly was. Would we now believe any one who should seek to persuade us that this resurrection of St. Peter is already accomplished, seeing that, in a spiritual sense, the Vatican may be looked upon as his tabernacle? Would we not contend, that the spiritual sense did not interfere with nor hinder that, in the proper and natural sense, should one day be accomplished the true and indestructible re-constitution of the body or tabernacle of St. Peter?

According then as we are very sure that the tabernacle of St. Peter, of which he himself speaketh, though laid down, dissolved, and reduced to powder since the government of Nero, shall arise one day from the dust, that is, shall arise the same as it was laid down, and no other; that it shall arise in a state more perfect, and never again to fall away: So, the scriptures tell us, it shall be with the tabernacle of David, concerning which we speak, that his kingdom, his throne, his fallen seat, destroyed and converted into dust since the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, shall likewise one day arise, shall arise the same and no other; shall arise in a state the most perfect, incorruptible, and eternal. Now it is most certain, according to the scriptures, that the tabernacle of St. Peter is one day to be raised from the earth, not in a metaphorical and spiritual sense, but in a proper, physical, and real sense; therefore may we well assure ourselves of the same, with respect to the tabernacle or, throne of David, because the same spirit of truth which promiseth the first generally, promiseth likewise the second particularly. “In that day” (it is said, for example, in Amos) “will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.” Amos ix. 11.

But why draw these and other similar prophecies, of which we shall speak further on, away to other senses purely spiritual? Why, with a violence so visible, will they strive to verify them in the priesthood or spiritual kingdom of Christ, which is the present church? Whereas this which they call the spiritual kingdom of Christ has no connexion whatever, or the least relation with the tabernacle, or kingdom, or throne of David, which is fallen down? Why, I say, do they not receive these prophecies as they are found written, in their proper and natural sense? Is it, peradventure, that being thus received, there would be received along with them some clear and manifest error? Thus they would have us to understand, but to prove it they find not. Is it perhaps, that in this proper and natural sense the thing is utterly impossible? Let the utter impossibility be demonstrated; let them show in it any repugnancy or contradiction. I know that by Zechariah, the Lord speaking of those times, saith, “If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvellous in my eyes? saith the Lord.” Zech. viii. 6.

Shall it prove difficult for God faithfully to accomplish his word, without having recourse to other senses and refuges, unworthy of his infinite greatness and his supreme veracity? Did he not accomplish faithfully to our father Abraham, in its proper and natural sense, that famous promise? “Sarah thy wife shall bear a son.” A promise which made the righteous Abraham to smile, though not to doubt, because he already counted about an hundred years, and Sarah about ninety. Did he not faithfully accomplish to Zachariah, the father of St. John, a promise altogether similar? “Thy wife Elizabeth shall bear a son.” Did he not accomplish faithfully to the most holy Virgin Mary, that unheard of promise? “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son…The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” Luke i. 31.35. Hath he not accomplished, in fine, in all of us believers, that admirable, ineffable, and incomprehensible promise? “For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him…He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” John vi. 55, 56. 57.

If then these and so many other promises which God hath made to his servants and friends, he hath most faithfully accomplished, in that very obvious, proper, and natural sense, in which he hath spoken them; why may we not, why ought we not to believe that he will accomplish in like manner, what he hath promised of the tabernacle, throne, or royal seat of the holy king David, which is fallen down? But leaving this dispute, with which we have perhaps detained ourselves more than was necessary, let us now advance to the attentive and faithful observation of that which we find written hereon in the Holy Scriptures.

The First council of the Christian Church is considered.

§ 2. THE extravagant pretence, and open contention by certain Jewish doctors, now Christians, that the Gentiles ought to be circumcised, saying to them “unless ye be circumcised according to the law of Moses ye cannot be saved,” was the reason for which the first council of the church was held, and the apostles and the elders came together to Jerusalem to consider of this matter.

Various disputes having proceeded without coming to any conclusion in that way, St. Peter rose full of the Holy Spirit, and commanding all to hold their peace, he spoke in favour of the Gentiles, making a simple and admirable discourse, of which the substance is as followeth: “To those who from among the Gentiles have till now believed without being circumcised, or bound by the law of Moses, God hath given the Holy Ghost, even as to us of the circumcision who have believed; and in this respect there has not been any substantial difference between them and us; for God who knows the heart, hath purified them by faith as well as us; it will therefore be a rashness or a tempting of God, to seek to place upon the necks of those new disciples a very heavy yoke, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear.”

To the force of this reasoning in the mouth of St. Peter, says the sacred historian, they all held their peace, which is the same as to say that they were convinced, “Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.” Acts xv. 12.

In the last place spake St. James, not to oppose in any way the discourse of St. Peter, but rather to confirm, illustrate, clear, and consolidate it in such a way, as to leave this most grave business wholly determined amongst the believers, so that the Christian Jews ever zealous for their law, might be wholly calm and quiet, without any further power to embarrass the conversion of the Gentiles. Accordingly calling the attention of the council he spoke in these terms:

“Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.” Acts xv. 13-l9.

This text has always been looked upon as very obscure, and doubtless is so, partly from its extremely laconic character, partly also because it is very difficult, being well considered, to accommodate it with the ideas which we bring into question. The mode of explaining it, and the explanation itself no less laconical, do betray in the doctors an extraordinary embarrassment. But to be able thoroughly to understand, as well the explanation as the text itself, it will be of good service to know first, and to have very present to the mind, what we are told by the same doctors upon that famous question which was put to the Lord by all those who stood by and were eye-witnesses of his wonderful ascension into heaven.

“When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” Acts i. 6. This question, they say, originated in an error derived from what they had heard from their Rabbis upon the kingdom of Messiah, which they believed was to be temporal and worldly, like that of David and Solomon, although the prophets had announced one spiritual, which was to begin in this world by faith, and to be completed in heaven.

Upon this very formal decision, it will be permitted us to put these two very short questions, first, where stand these predictions of the prophets? Secondly, by what reason, or with what equity do they confound the gross ideas which the Jews have held and still do hold upon the kingdom of their Messiah, with the predictions of the prophets of God, which are so far from any such grossness? If the question, which the disciples put to the Lord in those circumstances, had originated in some vulgar error amongst themselves, was it not most natural, not to say absolutely necessary, that the good master should have said to them at least those three precious words, which on a similar occasion he spoke to the Sadducees? “You do err, not knowing the scriptures.” Was it not most natural, and even necessary, that at least he should not confirm them in that error by his answer? Let us consider the reply of our Lord, and it will be seen without being able to avoid it, that although the Lord did not reveal to them the particular and determinate secret which they desired to know, that is, the precise time of the restitution of the kingdom to Israel, he doth yet evidently confirm them in the substance of that mystery. That which they inquired was, if the kingdom of Israel, which according to the prophets ought to be restored by Messiah, would be restored immediately in those times or not. “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And the Lord replies to them that they should not set themselves to search out the times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power, “it is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power,” as if he had said: The kingdom of Israel shall be re-established, but the time when, it does not interest you to know, for the times and the seasons in which it is to come to pass, the heavenly Father hath kept in his own power. In this answer of the Lord, is there not to be seen a tacit confession that in reality there should be a time, which the Father only knew, for restoring the kingdom of Israel? How then can that be held as fable and error, which is to come to pass at a time which God only knoweth? Would the Lord have permitted that his hearers should be confirmed in an error. Let us consider the circumstances in which he gave that reply, and we shall be still more convinced of the impossibility that he would have left them with an equivocation. When the Lord spake these words, he was speaking to his disciples only, he was speaking to his friends, to men who really loved and venerated him, and who were most ready to receive and believe any thing which he should say to them, as they were simple and straight forward men, without malice, or artifice, or pre-occupation. He spake to those men, whom he himself had chosen for the masters of the world, whom he had instructed all the time of his preaching, and even after his resurrection he had not ceased to instruct them forty days, appearing to them, and speaking to them “concerning the kingdom of God;” to whom he ended by saying, “Go and teach all nations;” to whom “he opened their understanding that they should understand the scriptures,” and to whom he had said in the night of his passion, “But I have called you friends, because whatever I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” Is it then probable or credible, that if the restoration of the kingdom of Israel was an error, the master of truth would not have delivered them from the same, in those circumstances in which he was about to absent himself from them? Is it compatible with the goodness and veracity of one who was every way God, that when his disciples besought him upon a point of such transcendent importance, he should not undeceive them, he should not blame their foolishness, or in a few words explain the sense of the prophecies when they announce the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. Nothing of all this did the Lord, but left them in the same belief in which they were concerning the kingdom of Israel, and contented himself with merely signifying to them that they could not know the time in which it would come to pass, and to ascertain which they were so full of anxiety, because that was a thing which the Father had reserved to himself. This being set forth, we pass now to consider the text of St. James, the prophecy to which it refers, and the explanation which the interpreters give us thereof.

§ 3. “SIMEON hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down.” Acts

xv. 14-16.

All the interpreters suppose here that St. James speaks of the vocation of the Gentiles, whom in that time the Lord visited with his infinite mercy, in order to take out of them a holy people. This position admitteth of no doubt. They suppose likewise (but upon what foundation is not known) that the prophecy of Amos quoted by St. James, speaks of the same mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, as if it were therefore cited, and for no other purposes. Consequently, they suppose in the last place, that the re-edification and erection of the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, with all the other things which the prophecy announces in the train thereof, were verified and are still verifying themselves in the very mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles; who, they say, have principally formed, along with some few Jews who believed, the new spiritual tabernacle of David “which is fallen down,” that is, the present church, where Messiah himself the son of David spiritually reigneth. And to this the substance of all the explanations of the doctors may be reduced.

If we inquire now what is meant by several very remarkable things which are found as well in the text of St. James as in that of Amos, we shall by that alone come to suspect the goodness of this interpretation. What signifies, for example, that word first in speaking of the vocation of the Gentiles? What signify these words, after these things I will return? These four words which are of chief importance, are yet passed over by the most part of the doctors whom I have been able to see. One only have I found who troubles himself with them, and what is it that he says? He says shortly, that they allude to the conversion of the centurion Cornelius, the first of all the Gentiles who was called of God, as related in the tenth chapter of the Acts; after which, (post hæc after these things) the gate was opened, and the Gentiles began to enter, and till now have entered by thousands, and it is of these chiefly that the spiritual tabernacle of David is made up. Let this explanation now be compared with the text, and its incoherency will easily appear. According to it God first visited the Gentiles, in order to take out of them a people for his name, which came to pass in the conversion of Cornelius and all his family; “God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.” And after these things which happened in the house of Cornelius; after this God returned again, and built anew the tabernacle of David; “after this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David.” And as this tabernacle of David, according to the same doctors, is no other thing than the Christian church, it is only after the conversion of Cornelius the centurion, that this began to exist.

Besides this, what do these words in the text of Amos mean, “And I will build it as in the days of old?” Is it that God hath built the Christian church as it was in the days of old before it fell? “I will set up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and I will rebuild it as in the days of old.” After the tabernacle of David is rebuilt (continues the prophet) “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.” What meaneth this? It means, they say, that in the church of Christ, its ministers or workmen shall ever be held in a great and continuous occupation, their ministries succeeding one another without leaving any moment of repose, as happened to the apostles, and happeneth still to apostolic men. That the mountains shall drop sweetness, that is, they shall rain celestial consolations upon the true believers: that all the hills shall be cultivated [Vulg. culti erunt], that is, there shall not be any people or nation where the ministers of the church do not labour and where they do not gather some fruit to God. And these words which follow, “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel.” “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God:” How, pray, are they to be understood?

It seems that we ought here to expect, of so many Christian doctors, some mercy to the miserable Jews; but our hopes vanish in this, as in every other instance; they dare not open, nor consent to the opening of one single door, for the fear of some evil consequence; accordingly these words with which this prophecy concludes, “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God,” have according to them no other sense than this, —I will draw from under the captivity of sin and Satan the Jews who shall believe as well as the Gentiles, and I will plant them in their own land, that is, in my church; and I will never remove them from this place which I have given them, if by their iniquity they do not forsake it, as so many heretics and apostates have done.

You have here, my dear sir, all the interpretation, or as they say, the true sense intended by the Holy Spirit, as well in the prophecy of Amos, as in the discourse of St. James before the council of Jerusalem. Whether this sense, purely accommodative, be sufficient or not, fully to satisfy the searcher after truth in the Holy Scriptures, it pertaineth not to me to determine. Any one can ask himself, weighing it justly in the balance of common sense. The greatest vexation is that if any one is bold enough to raise his voice and beg some good reason for all this understanding or sense which they call the true and only one, he has nothing to expect but three or four or more strings of quotation, to show that very many other doctors have understood it so. Well, and on what ground have they proceeded in so understanding and explaining it? If that reason or foundation be not produced, what use is there in filling whole pages with quotations from authors?

Some say that this is the understanding of all the orthodox interpreters. And what does this mean in relation to the point in question? Does it peradventure mean that none but the heterodox or heretics can think otherwise? Or haply that the said understanding is a point of Catholic faith, is orthodox, is true, is indisputable? See you not, sir, their challenge and pledge? See you not the fear and the scruple with which they endeavour to terrify us?

The pledge and the challenge is still more increased. One grave author, quoting another, formally declares, that the aforesaid understanding of the prophecy of Amos, and consequently of the text of St. James, has been already determined as literally true, against Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuesta, by Pope Vigilius, in the Roman council. Any one who reads these words would look upon this dispute as concluded. I also would give it up at once, if this were certain, or if it were not evidently false. I say evidently false, because it appeareth not from history that any council was held in Rome in the time of Vigilius, either while he was antipope or while he was pope. Besides, the question which so much disturbed the peace of the church upon the three famous heads, that is to say, upon some writings of Ibas, bishop of Edesa, of Theoeleret, bishop of Scyro, and of Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuesta, did not occur in the West but in the East, not in Rome but in Constantinople. And lastly, because, of the sixty propositions extracted from the writings of Theodorus which were condemned, not one has any connexion with, or the least relation to the point which we now handle. In all these sixty propositions as laid down by historians, there doth not once occur the tabernacle of David, or the prophecy of Amos, or the council of Jerusalem, or the discourse of St. James, or any other thing which might be mistaken for any of these. The most which is found in history (and perhaps in this the equivocation might have originated) is that the enemies of Theodorus accused him, among other things, of cleaving much to certain opinions of the Rabbis, and saying that the twenty-second psalm doth not speak of Christ; but it is neither known that this general accusation was laid before the council of Constantinople, nor that the council spoke one word thereon, for the sixty propositions contain nothing concerning it. I defy all the learned to substantiate by historical documents any fact similar to that which is supposed above.

I conclude this point with these two questions. First: if this information were correct, is it to be believed that other doctors would be ignorant thereof? Secondly: not being ignorant of it, and regarding it as sure, is it credible that they would not have produced it as a proof the most decisive of the goodness of their interpretation?

Another Explanation is proposed of the Text of St. James.

§ 4. “SIMEON hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, “After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down.” Acts xv. 14-16.

It clearly appeareth that St. James here mentions two things very different from each other, which it is not good to confound with one another, since he himself distinguisheth them, saying, that the one is to take place after the other. First, after this I will return. The first, by the unanimous consent of all the doctors, is the vocation of the Gentiles, which he proves in confirmation of the discourse of St. Peter; and assureth them, according to the scriptures, that God determined to visit first the Gentiles (for the Jews although first called would not hear), and to take out of them a people for his name: “God first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.” The second, after this, is the vocation, gathering together, and receiving of the remnant of Israel, dispersed among all nations for their unbelief: “After this I will return and build again.” So that the former only pertaineth to the subject for which that council had been gathered together; that is, to the subject of the Gentiles visited and called by God, to form a new people. And the second was directed to quiet the Christian Jews, always zealous for their law and their people, by assuring them that after the mystery of the Gentiles, the time of mercy would likewise arrive for that unhappy people, “as it was written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down.” Acts xv. 16. To this end those two capital words, first and after that, are manifestly directed.

St. James says, that the prophecy of Amos, which he quotes, and generally “the words of the prophets,” agree to these words, “First God hath visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name;” but this accordancy respects not the mystery of the Gentiles, considered in itself, but in its relation to another mystery which is to follow after it. This then is the agreement, of which he here speaks, between the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles and the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David: that first, and this second; that is to precede, and this to follow. How is it possible that a mystery should precede itself? If then the visitation or vocation of the Gentiles, to take out of them a people, is the first which God wisheth to do; if after this he is to rebuild the tabernacle of David, and the other things announced in the prophecy of Amos are to follow; then are these two mysteries wholly distinct, and the present church cannot be the tabernacle of David here spoken of.

Of this harmony of the one mystery with the other, the prophets speak very frequently, as we have so often remarked in the four preceding Phenomena. Of this harmony St. Paul speaketh not seldom, especially when he says to the Gentiles, “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also, &c." Rom. xi. 30,31. Of this harmony Messiah himself speaketh very often in parables; especially when he saith that Jerusalem should be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled: and this same harmony lies manifest in that song, not less brief than admirable, of the righteous Simeon, who holding in his arms the hope of Israel and of all the world, yet in the state of infancy, announceth full of the Holy Ghost, that he should be first “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” and afterwards “the glory of thy people Israel.” To all these things, and others of the like kind, which are found in the sacred books, these two words, first and after this, appear to allude.

Perhaps it may be objected, that neither in the prophecy of Amos, nor in the other prophets, are these words ever found, after this I will return; but always, or almost always, those others, “in that day, in those days, in that time,” &c. Well, and what inconvenience is found in this? The Prophet says, “In that day (without marking the precise day of which he speaks), I will set up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and I will build it again as in the days of old.” St. James quoting this prophecy, marks the day or time of which this and the other prophets speak, and he marks it by these words, after this I will return, giving these two clear countersigns. First, after this, after these things, that is, pertaining to the great mystery of the vocation of the Gentiles, whom God was visiting in the first place. The second countersign is, I will return. Who will return? whither and to whom will he return? He who will return can be no other than that same “nobleman, who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and return,” Luke xix. 12; and he of whom those consolatory words are spoken, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Acts i. 11. Whither will he return? He will return doubtless to that same land which he left, from which he is, in so far as he is a man. To whom shall he return? He shall return, according to the scriptures, to raise up in his own person, and build or build anew, as in the times of old (with that grandeur and righteousness worthy of a Man-God), the tabernacle or throne of David his father, which is fallen down. “In that day I will set up the tabernacle of David which is fallen down. After this I will return and I will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down. And the first dominion shall come to them, the kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.” These last words of the prophet Micah visibly correspond to those others of Amos, “And I will build it as in the days of old;” and both clearly announce the judgement of the quick, or which is the same, the kingdom of Messiah over the living.

From all that we have just spoken, this conclusion follows: that first God is to gather from among the nations a people of his own in the room of Israel, who chose not to be gathered unto him. And when he no longer findeth men to collect; and those even which were gathered are decaying, either going out for want of faith, or corrupting within by the abounding of iniquity; in short, after that the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; after all this another day shall begin to dawn, of which the prophets of God spake so much, wherein the Lord himself shall begin to pass over from the Gentiles to the Jews; and these being prepared, that is, his precious remnant being made ready; with all the convenient preparations of which we have already spoken, he shall like wise return in his proper person, from that far country whether he went long ago, to receive for himself a kingdom, and return. He shall return, I say, when he has received from the Father himself, power, and honour, and a kingdom.

All which hath been said above is confirmed by other passages of Scripture.

§ 5. FIRST; Isaiah, speaking of Messias, says of him among other things, “upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.” Isa.

ix. 7. If this text be compared with that of Amos, cited by St. James, and. they be weighed in a faithful balance, it appears impossible to find between them any difference worthy of regard. Isaiah says, that Messiah, as son of David, to whom the promises were made, should one day sit upon his royal seat and throne, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice. St. James, citing generally the words of the prophets, and in particular the prophecy of Amos, says that Messiah himself, who had then gone to heaven, should one day return to the earth and rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, raising it from the dust of the earth where it lay buried; which shall be after this, or after these things. Amos saith, that in that day the Lord shall arise and shall raise from the earth the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and build it anew, as in the days of old.

By these last words, I do not mean to say (nor may such an extravagance be attributed to me without manifest injustice) that the kingdom of Messiah, of which he speaks, shall be or can be “as in the times of old,” making the word as to turn upon the mode and not expressly upon the substance. I think and surely hold the second. If my countrymen the Jews have thought and till now think the first, or any other thing similar thereto, they have certainly erred and do err in the most substantial parts of the scriptures. But this and other errors of the like kind, manifestly gross, can be easily corrected by the scriptures themselves.

Second; the prophecy of Isaiah, of which we began by speaking, we find expressly cited in the gospel by the angel Gabriel, (Luke i. 32.) sent from God to the most holy Virgin Mary. Among the things which the angel promised on God’s part, one of them is that which the prophecy of Isaiah containeth and announceth: “And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke i. 32,33. This most solemn promise, made to the most holy Virgin in behalf of Messiah her son, is certainly what hath not been accomplished till now; and it is in like manner certain, that it is the only one which hath not been accomplished: for all the things of which the angel assures her on God’s part have been most perfectly accomplished in their natural and proper sense, as is clear from all the holy text and the creed which is founded thereon.

If this promise be the only one which hath not till now been accomplished to our Lord, it appears necessary that it should one day be accomplished in the same natural and proper sense as have the others; since there is no more reason for them than for it. If this promise be already accomplished, as they strive to maintain, its complete accomplishment ought with distinctness and clearness to be made to appear, without for that purpose having recourse to the high priesthood of Christ according to the order of Melchisedek, with which the throne of David holdeth no connexion whatever, nor the least possible relation, it being clear that the promise doth not speak of the priesthood, but of the throne of David: “And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.” When then has this promise been accomplished; or when could it have been accomplished? In all the sacred history we find nothing more than that Messiah, the son of David, once entered publicly into Jerusalem among the acclamations of the people, with that new and unheard of pomp related in the Evangelists: but we likewise know that, far from placing him on the throne of David, they placed him six days after upon another the one, of grief and of ignominy, which was the cross: and the people themselves who had hailed him Son of David, cried out against him with a loud voice, Crucify him, crucify him!

After his death and resurrection, we know for certain that he passed to heaven, as he himself said, “in order to receive for himself a kingdom, and return.” We know for certain, that there in heaven he is seated on the very throne of his Father: “I have sitten down with my Father on his throne.” We know, certainly, that there he shall continue seated: “until I make thine enemies thy footstool;” and, as the apostle adds, “henceforth expecting,” &c. We know, finally, that he shall one day return to this our earth, “to judge the quick and the dead, and his kingdom shall have no end.” But neither the throne of God where he now is seated, nor the throne of ignominy where his own did place him, can be called without manifest violence the throne, or royal seat, or tabernacle of David his father, which is the thing so expressly promised.

To this they reply, that the kingdom of Messiah spoken of in the scriptures is not earthly and worldly, but celestial and divine; not temporal, but eternal; not carnal, but spiritual. Accordingly, although it be said that to Messiah shall be given the throne of David his father; that he shall sit upon that throne after it has been rebuilt and raised from the dust of the earth; that he shall reign for ever over the house of Jacob; yet can all this not be understood literally, but in another most perfect sense, which is the allegorical or spiritual; inasmuch as the throne of David over all Israel was a figure or shadow of the spiritual throne of Christ over all believers (which is no other thing than his high priesthood after the order of Melchisedec). I have protested in other places, that I do not mean to oppose myself in any way to what is said, or meant to be said, in this allegorical or spiritual sense, which I likewise say and believe with all believers. That to which I do indeed oppose myself with all my weak efforts, is the claim and pretension of those who would despotically have it, that this is the only sense of the Holy Scriptures, and that for any one to think of any other besides this, is an error, a dream, and a gross absurdity. But how prove they it to be so? I, at least, find no proof which satisfies me.

It is most certain that the kingdom of Messiah whereof the scriptures speak cannot be an earthly and worldly kingdom, but a celestial and divine one; nor can it be a carnal kingdom, but a spiritual; nor can the kingdom of Messiah be like any kingdom which we have till this day seen in our world whose princes have been and are but men, and their power merely of the earth and present world; whereas the kingdom of Messiah shall be properly called celestial, divine, and eternal: for though it shall truly exist upon the earth and over men, its authority, its power, and the person who exerciseth it are wholly celestial and divine, and shall never have an end. The words earthly, worldly—celestial, divine, being understood in this way, the whole question and dispute will cease at once, and the proper reply will be given to the other difficulty which is wont to be objected, and which reduceth itself to what Jesus Christ (they say) declared to Pilate the governor, (before whose tribunal he stood as one accused of high treason, falsely accused of having sought to make himself king, and rebel against Cæsar) that his kingdom is not of this world; “My kingdom is not of this world:” wherefore, they conclude, the kingdom of Christ is not to be looked for in this world, however much the scriptures may announce, or seem to announce so. But this is a difficulty which the very persons who propose it ought rather to be called upon to resolve; seeing that the present church, which they call the kingdom of Christ, is not certainly of the other world, but of this; is not composed of angels and other unknown creatures, but of reasonable men of the lineage of Adam, who actually dwell in this world and are of this world. They reply, and with good reason, that Christ did not say that his kingdom was not in this world, but that it was not of this world: accordingly, although the Christian church really be in this world, it is nevertheless not of this world; both because it is not of human institution, but divine, and because it is not conformed, or ought not to be conformed to the customs and maxims of the world, which are properly called worldly. Well, then, in this same sense may the kingdom of Christ, of which we speak, very well exist in this world, without being a kingdom of this world; that is, without holding any resemblance to the kingdoms of this world, or being in the least conformed to its maxims and customs. In this sense, and in this only, doth the Lord himself say of himself and of his apostles, “They are not of this world, as I am not of this world.” John xvii. 16. </