Chapter 34

§ 1.

But Esaias himself hath distinctly declared that such joy shall be in the Resurrection of the Just, thus speaking:¹ The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the graves shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is of thee, is health unto them. This same Ezekiel also saith,² And behold I will open your graves, and bring you out of your graves; in the time when I shall bring My people from the graves, I will both put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you upon your own land, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And again the same speaketh thus:³ Thus saith the Lord, I will gather Israel from all nations, where they are scattered, and I will be sanctified in them in the sight of the children of the Heathen: and they shall dwell in their own land which I have given to My servant Jacob, and they shall dwell on the same in hope, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and dwell in hope, when I shall execute judgment on all who have dishonoured them, on those who are around them, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God and the God of their Fathers. Now we shewed a little before that the Church is the seed of Abraham; and therefore, that we might know how that in the New Testament after⁴ the Old, [there will be] one who shall gather out of all nations such as shall be saved, raising from the stones children unto Abraham, Jeremiah saith, Behold,⁵ the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall say no more, The Lord liveth, Who brought the children of Israel⁶ from the North, and from every region whither they had been driven; He shall restore them into their own land, which He gave unto their fathers.

§ 2.

That the whole creature shall be at men’s will for increase and growth unto the bearing and nourishing of such fruits,⁷ Esaias saith, And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every lofty hill, water passing through in that day, when many shall perish, when walls shall fall down. And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, seven times that of day, when He shall heal the bruise of His people, and heal the grief of their wound. But the grief is of that wound whereby man disobedient in Adam, was smitten at first:⁸ i.e., death, which God shall heal, raising us from the dead, and restoring us to the fathers’ inheritance:⁹ as Esaias saith again: And thou shalt be trusting in the Lord, and He will make thee to enter in upon the whole earth, and feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father.¹⁰ This is what the Lord spake of: Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you that He shall gird Himself and make them sit down, and pass along and minister unto them. And if He shall come in the evening watch, and find it so, blessed are they, for He shall make them sit down and minister unto them; though it be in the second, and though it be in the third, blessed are they. And this same John also saith in the Apocalypse,¹¹ Blessed and holy is he who hath part in the first resurrection. And the time also is announced by Esaias when these things shall be:¹² And I said, saith he, For how long, Lord? Until the cities be desolate not to be inhabited, and the houses that there be no men, and the land¹³ shall he left desolate. And after this God shall make us men to be afar off, and those who shall have remained shall be multiplied in¹⁴ the earth. Yea, and Daniel too saith the very same:¹⁵ And the Kingdom and the Power and the greatness of the things which are under Heaven is given to the Saints of the Most High God, and His Kingdom is everlasting, and all principalities shall serve and obey Him. And that the Promise may not be thought to be spoken of this time, it was said to the Prophet,¹⁶ And do thou come and stand in thy lot in the end of the days.

§ 3.

And to shew that the promises were announced not to the Prophets only and Fathers,¹⁷ but to the Churches also gathered from among the Gentiles, which also the Spirit ealleth Islands; and that they are established in the midst of confusion and endure the storms of blasphemies, and are a saving harbour to those in danger, and a refuge to those who love what is on high and endeavour to escape the Abyss¹⁸, i.e., the deep of error, Jeremiah saith thus:¹⁹ Hear the Word of the Lord, ye Gentiles, and tell it unto the Islands which are afar off: say ye, that the Lord will winnow Israel, He will gather him and will keep him, as one feeding the flock of his sheep: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and delivered him from the hand of him that is stronger than he. And they shall come and rejoice in Mount Sion, and shall come unto good things, and to a land of wheat and wine and fruits and cattle and sheep, and their soul shall he as a fruitful tree, and they shall not hunger any more. And then shall the virgins rejoice in the congregation of the young men, and the elders shall be glad, and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will make them to be in exultation, and will magnify them, and I will satisfy as with drink the soul of the Priests the sons of Levi, and My people shall be filled with My good things. Now we have shewn in the former book, how the Levites and Priests are all the Lord’s disciples:²⁰ who did also profane the Sabbath in the Temple, and are blameless. And so such promises most evidently signify the feasting of the righteous in the Kingdom on that creation, which God engages Himself to minister [unto them.]

§ 4.

Further: of Jerusalem and of him that reigneth in her, Esaias saith, Thus saith the Lord:²¹ blessed is he that hath his seed in Sion and them of his house²² in Jerusalem.²³ Behold, the Just King shall reign and princes shall rule with judgment. And of the material prepared for its rebuilding he saith,²⁴ Behold, I will prepare for thee for stone carbuncle, and the foundations [to be] sapphire, and I will make thy bulwarks Jasper, and thy gates a chrystal stone, and thy rampart choice stones, and all thy sons to be taught of God, and thy sons in much peace, and in justice shalt thou be builded.²⁵ And again this same saith, Behold I make Jerusalem and My people a joy: also there shall not be heard in her the voice of weeping, nor the voice of crying; also there shall not become there immature or aged, so as not to fulfil his time. For the young man shall be an hundred years old: but the sinner dying an hundred years old shall be also accursed. And they shall build houses and themselves inhabit; and they shall plant vineyards and themselves eat the fruits of them, and drink the wine. And they shall not build and others inhabit: neither shall prop and others eat. For as the days of the tree of life shall be the days of the people in thee; for the works of their labours will grow old.