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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

    3435 Immo.

    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

    3436 Apud inferos.

    in Abraham’s bosom. Oh, most excellent God, when He restores in amnesty3437

    3437 Placatus.

    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

    3440 Persequi.

    how the figurative3441

    3441 Allegorica.

    interpretation is spiritually applicable to Christ and His church, and to the character and fruits thereof; besides, the subject has been regularly treated3442

    3442 Digestum.

    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

    3444 Otiosum.

    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

    3446 Rev. xxi. 2.

    which the apostle also calls “our mother from above;”3447

    3447 Gal. iv. 26.

    and, while declaring that our πολίτευμα , or citizenship, is in heaven,3448

    3448 Phil. iii. 20, “our conversation,” A.V.

    he predicates of it3449

    3449 Deputat.

    that it is really a city in heaven. This both Ezekiel had knowledge of3450

    3450 Ezek. xlviii. 30–35.

    and the Apostle John beheld.3451

    3451 Rev. xxi. 10–23.

    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

    3454 Evanescente.

    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

    3456 Ratio.

    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

    3458 Dispositionis.

    When Isaac, in blessing his son Jacob, says, “God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth,”3459

    3459 Gen. xxvii. 28.

    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

    3461 Luke xii. 31.

    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

    3462 Gen. xxvii. 39.

    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

    3465 Gen. xxviii. 12–17.

    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

    3466 Apud.

    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

    3467 Amos ix. 6.

    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

    3468 Isa. xlix. 18.

    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

    3469 Isa. lx. 8.

    —that is, simply like a dove.3470

    3470 In allusion to the dove as the symbol of the Spirit, see Matt. iii. 16.

    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

    3471 Dan. vii. 13.

    ) and so shall we ever be with the Lord,3472

    3472 1 Thess. iv. 17.

    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

    3473 Isa. i. 2.

    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

    3474 Præjudicium.

    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

    3475 Præconium.

    of a (perhaps3476

    3476 Si forte.

    ) 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

    3477 Indulgentiæ.

    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

    3479 Omne.

    O hollow pretence of a mighty promise!

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