CHAPTER 21

From the same.

A Promise of Good Things to the Church of the Gentiles, that before was deserted, and to Sick Souls the Manifest (c) Presence of God, and Marvellous Saving Acts.

[Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv. 1-7.]

HERE also the Coming of God for salvation, bringing many blessings, is precisely foretold. The prophet says that there will be a cure for the deaf, sight for the blind, yea, even healing for the lame and tongue-tied, and this was only fulfilled at the Coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ, by Whom the eyes of the blind were opened, and the deaf regained their hearing; why need I say, how many palsied and deaf and lame also received physical cure by the hands of His (301) disciples? And how many others, afflicted with various diseases and maladies, received of Him healing and salvation, according to the inspired prediction of prophecy, and according to the unimpeachable testimony of the Holy Gospels? And the prophecy here disguises under the name of "desert" the Church of the Gentiles, which for long years deserted of God is being evangelized by those of whom we are speaking, and it says that besides other blessings the glory of Libanus will be given to the desert. Now it is customary to call (b) Jerusalem Lebanon allegorically, as I will show, when I have time, by proofs from Holy Scripture. This prophecy before us, therefore, teaches that by God's presence with men the glory of Libanus will be given to that which is called "desert," that is to say, the Church of the Gentiles. And for, "And the honour of Carmel," Aquila says, "the - 43 - beauty of Carmel, and of Sharon, they shall see the glory of (c) the Lord." Symmachus, "The grace of Carmel and of the plain, those shall see the glory of the Lord." And Theodotion, "The beauty of Carmel and of Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord." In which I think the prophet means, figuratively, not that Jerusalem, nor Judaea, but the land of the Gentiles will be counted worthy of divine knowledge. For Carmel, and that which is called Sharon were places that belonged to foreign races. That would be the literal meaning: but figuratively, even to-day, they that were before so blinded in soul, as to bow down to wood and stone and other lifeless substances, earth-bound daemons, (d) and evil spirits instead of the God of the Universe, and they that were deaf in the ears of their mind, and lame, and palsied in all their life, are even now being released from all these and many other sufferings and weaknesses by the teaching of our Saviour Jesus Christ, receiving far better healing and benefit than that of the body, and shewing forth clearly the divine and superhuman power of the presence of the Word of God among men.