CHAPTER 25

From the same.

How, again, the Coming of God the Word and the Gathering of All Nations is foretold.

[Passage quoted, Isa. lxvi. 18, 19.]

HERE also the Coming of the Lord to men is exactly foretold. And as it said, "He will come as fire," our Saviour rightly says, "I came to cast fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?" You may say His "chariots" are His attendant divine powers, and the holy angels chosen - 47 - to minister to Him, of whom it is said, "and angels came and ministered to Him," and His holy apostles and disciples, borne up by whom, the Word of God with divine invisible power ran through all the world. One might also literally in another way connect fire and chariots with His coming, through the siege that attacked Jerusalem after our Saviour's Advent, for the Temple was burned with fire not long after, and was reduced to extreme desolation, and the city was encircled by the chariots and camps of the enemy, after which too the promises to the Gentiles were fulfilled in harmony with the prophecy. Who would not wonder hearing the Lord say by the prophet, "I come to bring together all nations and tongues," and then seeing throughout the whole inhabited world the congregations welded together in the Name of Christ through the Coming and the Call of our Saviour Jesus Christ, with the tongues of all nations in varying dialects calling on one God and Lord? To crown all, who beholding all them that believe in Christ using as a seal the sign of salvation, would not rightly be astounded hearing the Lord saying in days of old, "And they shall come and see my glory, and I will leave my sign upon them"?

We see in part, indeed, now with our own eyes the fulfilment of the holy oracles as to the first Epiphany of our Saviour to man. May it be seen completely as well in His second glorious Advent, when all nations shall see His glory, and when He comes in the heavens with power and great glory.

To that day the remainder of the prophecy must be referred, as I shall show in my own argument.

As I have in this Book collected so many passages concerning the prophecies of the coming of God, my next task should be to connect with them an account of what was foretold as to the nature of His entry into human life.

[Note to the online text: volume 2 commences with book 6, so the page numbering starts again at 1]