CHAPTER 24

From the same.

How the Same Lord that spake in the Prophets will come Among Men and be seen by Their Eyes, and be known to the Gentiles.

[Passage quoted, Isa. lii. 5-10.]

THE prophecy of Christ's Passion immediately succeeds this in one and the same passage, which I shall expound at leisure. One and the same Lord, who said in the previous (304) quotation to the Jewish people, "You were sold for your sins, and for your iniquities I sent away your mother, because I came, and there was no man: I called and there was none - 45 - to hear," says in the passage before us to the Jews again: "Because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles."

Then, as though having another people besides them, he adds, "Therefore my people shall know my name," and teaches that not another, but the same Lord that spoke in the prophets, will sojourn some day in our life, saying, "I am he that speak; I will come." And the words, "As a season upon the mountains, as the feet of one preaching a message of peace, as one preaching good things, I will make thy salvation known, saying, Sion, thy God reigneth," the other translators make it clearer. For Aquila says: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that preacheth the gospel, who publisheth peace, who preacheth the gospel of good things, publishing salvation, saying to Sion, Thy God reigneth."

And Symmachus says, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him that preacheth the gospel, making peace known, publishing good things, making salvation known, saying to Sion, Thy God reigneth": and instead of "The voice of thy guards is lifted, and they shall rejoice with the voice together, because they shall see eye to eye." Symmachus translates thus: "The voice of thy guards; they have raised their voice. Together, will they praise: For they will see openly." By "guards" would here be meant the holy apostles of our Saviour, who also saw openly Him that was foretold, and raised their voice preaching to all the world. Sion and Jerusalem that here have the good news told them the apostle knew to be heavenly, when he said, "But Jerusalem that is above is free, that is the mother of us," and, "Ye have come to Mount Sion, and the city of the: living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." Sion might also mean the Church established by Christ in every part of the world, and Jerusalem the holy constitution which, once established of old time among the ancient Jews alone, was driven into the wilderness by their impiety, and then again was restored far better than before through the coming of our Saviour. Therefore the prophecy says, "Let the waste places of (305) - 46 - Jerusalem break forth into joy together, for the Lord has pitied her, and saved Jerusalem."

Nor would you be wrong in calling Sion the soul of every holy and godly man, so far as it is lifted above this life, having its city in heaven, seeing the things beyond the world. For it means "a watch-tower." And in so far as (b) such a man remains calm and free from passion, you could call him Jerusalem—for Jerusalem means "Vision of Peace."

After this the call of the Gentiles to the worship of God is very clearly shown in the words, "And the Lord God will reveal His holy arm before all nations; and the high places of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." And consider that the arm of the Lord is nothing else but the Word and Wisdom, and the Lord Himself, Who is the Christ of God.

It is easy to shew this from many instances. In the Exodus you have Israel saved by the arm of God from (c) slavery to the Egyptians. While the prophecy before us says that that same arm of the Lord, which of old appeared to save His people will be revealed to all nations, as if it formerly were hidden from them. And "the salvation, which "he says "all the high places of the earth shall see," and which he mentioned before when he said, "I will make my salvation known," know that it is the Hebrew for the name of Jesus.