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| Christ's Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with His Saints.
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Chapter
XXV.—Christ’s Millennial and Heavenly Glory in Company with
His Saints.
Yes, certainly,3435
you say, I do
hope from Him that which amounts in itself to a proof of the diversity
(of Christs), God’s kingdom in an everlasting and heavenly
possession. Besides, your Christ promises to the Jews their primitive
condition, with the recovery of their country; and after this
life’s course is over, repose in Hades3436
in
Abraham’s bosom. Oh, most excellent God, when He restores in
amnesty3437
what He took away
in wrath! Oh, what a God is yours, who both wounds and heals, creates
evil and makes peace! Oh, what a God, that is merciful even down to
Hades! I shall have something to say about Abraham’s bosom in the
proper place.3438
| 3438 See below, in book iv.
chap. iv. | As for the
restoration of Judæa, however, which even the Jews themselves,
induced by the names of places and countries, hope for just as it is
described,3439
| 3439 Ita ut describitur,
i.e., in the literal sense. | it would be tedious
to state at length3440
how the
figurative3441
interpretation is
spiritually applicable to Christ and His church, and to the character
and fruits thereof; besides, the subject has been regularly
treated3442
in another work,
which we entitle De Spe Fidelium.3443
| 3443 On the Hope of
the Faithful. This work, which is not extant (although its title
appears in one of the oldest mss. of
Tertullian, the Codex Agobardinus), is mentioned by St. Jerome
in his Commentary on Ezekiel, chap. xxxvi.; in the preface to
his Comment. on Isaiah, chap. xviii.; and in his notice of
Papias of Hierapolis (Oehler). | At present, too, it would be
superfluous3444
for this reason,
that our inquiry relates to what is promised in heaven, not on earth.
But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth,
although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as
it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the
divinely-built city of Jerusalem,3445
| 3445 [See Kaye’s
important Comment. p. 345.] | “let
down from heaven,”3446
which the apostle
also calls “our mother from above;”3447
and, while declaring that our πολίτευμα
, or citizenship, is in heaven,3448
he predicates
of it3449
that it is really a city in heaven. This
both Ezekiel had knowledge of3450
and the Apostle
John beheld.3451
And the word of the
new prophecy which is a part of our belief,3452
| 3452 That is, the
Montanist. [Regarded as conclusive; but not conclusive evidence
of an accomplished lapse from Catholic Communion.] |
attests how it foretold that there would be for a sign a picture of
this very city exhibited to view previous to its manifestation. This
prophecy, indeed, has been very lately fulfilled in an expedition to
the East.3453
| 3453 He means that of
Severus against the Parthians. Tertullian is the only author who
mentions this prodigy. | For it is evident
from the testimony of even heathen witnesses, that in Judæa there
was suspended in the
sky a city early every morning for forty days. As the day advanced, the
entire figure of its walls would wane gradually,3454
and sometimes it would vanish
instantly.3455
| 3455 Et alias de proximo
nullam: or “de proximo” may mean, “on a near
approach.” | We say that this
city has been provided by God for receiving the saints on their
resurrection, and refreshing them with the abundance of all really
spiritual blessings, as a recompense for those which in the world we
have either despised or lost; since it is both just and God-worthy that
His servants should have their joy in the place where they have also
suffered affliction for His name’s sake. Of the heavenly
kingdom this is the process.3456
After its thousand
years are over, within which period is completed the resurrection of
the saints, who rise sooner or later according to their deserts there
will ensue the destruction of the world and the conflagration of all
things at the judgment: we shall then be changed in a moment into the
substance of angels, even by the investiture of an incorruptible
nature, and so be removed to that kingdom in heaven of which we have
now been treating, just as if it had not been predicted by the Creator,
and as if it were proving Christ to belong to the other god and as if
he were the first and sole revealer of it. But now learn that it has
been, in fact, predicted by the Creator, and that even without
prediction it has a claim upon our faith in respect of3457
| 3457 Apud: or, “in
the dispensation of the Creator.” | the Creator. What appears to be probable to
you, when Abraham’s seed, after the primal promise of being like
the sand of the sea for multitude, is destined likewise to an equality
with the stars of heaven—are not these the indications both of an
earthly and a heavenly dispensation?3458
When Isaac, in
blessing his son Jacob, says, “God give thee of the dew of
heaven, and the fatness of the earth,”3459
are there not in his words examples of both kinds of blessing? Indeed,
the very form of the blessing is in this instance worthy of notice. For
in relation to Jacob, who is the type of the later and more excellent
people, that is to say ourselves,3460
| 3460 Nostri, i.e.,
Christians. [Not Montanist, but Catholic.] | first comes
the promise of the heavenly dew, and afterwards that about the fatness
of the earth. So are we first invited to heavenly blessings when we are
separated from the world, and afterwards we thus find ourselves in the
way of obtaining also earthly blessings. And your own gospel likewise
has it in this wise: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and these
things shall be added unto you.”3461
But to Esau the blessing promised is an earthly one, which he
supplements with a heavenly, after the fatness of the earth, saying,
“Thy dwelling shall be also of the dew of heaven.”3462
For the dispensation of the Jews (who were
in Esau, the prior of the sons in birth, but the later in
affection3463
| 3463 Judæorum enim
dispositio in Esau priorum natu et posteriorum affectu filiorum. This
is the original of a difficult passage, in which Tertullian, who has
taken Jacob as a type of the later, the Christian church, seems to make
Esau the symbol of the former, the Jewish church, which, although prior
in time, was later in allegiance to the full truth of God. | ) at first was
imbued with earthly blessings through the law, and afterwards brought
round to heavenly ones through the gospel by faith. When Jacob sees in
his dream the steps of a ladder set upon the earth, and reaching to
heaven, with angels ascending and descending thereon, and the Lord
standing above, we shall without hesitation venture to
suppose,3464
| 3464 Temere, si forte,
interpretabimur. | that by this ladder
the Lord has in judgment appointed that the way to heaven is shown to
men, whereby some may attain to it, and others fall therefrom. For why,
as soon as he awoke out of his sleep, and shook through a dread of the
spot, does he fall to an interpretation of his dream? He exclaims,
“How terrible is this place!” And then adds, “This is
none other than the house of God; this is the gate of
heaven!”3465
For he had seen
Christ the Lord, the temple of God, and also the gate by whom heaven is
entered. Now surely he would not have mentioned the gate of heaven, if
heaven is not entered in the dispensation of the3466
Creator. But there is now a gate provided by
Christ, which admits and conducts to glory. Of this Amos says:
“He buildeth His ascensions into heaven;”3467
certainly not for Himself alone, but for His
people also, who will be with Him. “And Thou shalt bind them
about Thee,” says he, “like the adornment of a
bride.”3468
Accordingly the
Spirit, admiring such as soar up to the celestial realms by these
ascensions, says, “They fly, as if they were kites; they fly as
clouds, and as young doves, unto me”3469
—that is, simply like a dove.3470
For we shall, according to the apostle, be
caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord (even the Son of man, who
shall come in the clouds, according to Daniel3471
)
and so shall we ever be with the Lord,3472
so
long as He remains both on the earth and in heaven, who, against such
as are thankless for
both one promise and the other, calls the elements themselves to
witness: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth.”3473
Now, for my own part indeed, even though
Scripture held out no hand of heavenly hope to me (as, in fact, it so
often does), I should still possess a sufficient presumption3474
of even this promise, in my present
enjoyment of the earthly gift; and I should look out for something also
of the heavenly, from Him who is the God of heaven as well as of earth.
I should thus believe that the Christ who promises the higher blessings
is (the Son) of Him who had also promised the lower ones; who had,
moreover, afforded proofs of greater gifts by smaller ones; who had
reserved for His Christ alone this revelation3475
of
a (perhaps3476
) unheard of
kingdom, so that, while the earthly glory was announced by His
servants, the heavenly might have God Himself for its messenger.
You, however, argue for another Christ, from the very
circumstance that He proclaims a new kingdom. You ought first to bring
forward some example of His beneficence,3477
that I may have no good reason for doubting the credibility of the
great promise, which you say ought to be hoped for; nay, it is before
all things necessary that you should prove that a heaven belongs to
Him, whom you declare to be a promiser of heavenly things. As it is,
you invite us to dinner, but do not point out your house; you assert a
kingdom, but show us no royal state.3478
| 3478 Regiam: perhaps
“capital” or “palace.” | Can it be that
your Christ promises a kingdom of heaven, without having a heaven; as
He displayed Himself man, without having flesh? O what a phantom from
first to last!3479
O hollow pretence
of a mighty promise!E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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