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| Utterances of the Prophet Isaiah Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead and the Retributive Judgment.
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Chapter 21.—Utterances of the
Prophet Isaiah Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead and the
Retributive Judgment.
The prophet Isaiah says, “The
dead shall rise again, and all who were in the graves shall rise
again; and all who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew
which is from Thee is their health, and the earth of the wicked
shall fall.”1413
All the
former part of this passage relates to the resurrection of the
blessed; but the words, “the earth of the wicked shall fall,”
is rightly understood as meaning that the bodies of the wicked
shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we would more
exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which refer to the
resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first resurrection
the words, “the dead shall rise again,” and to the second the
following words, “and all who were in the graves shall rise
again.” And if we ask what relates to those saints whom the
Lord at His coming shall find alive upon earth, the following
clause may suitably be referred to them; “All who are in the
earth shall rejoice: for the dew which is from Thee is their
health.” By “health” in this place it is best to understand
immortality. For that is the most perfect health which is not
repaired by nourishment as by a daily remedy. In like manner the
same prophet, affording hope to the good and terrifying the wicked
regarding the day of judgment, says, “Thus saith the Lord,
Behold, I will flow down upon them as a river of peace, and upon
the glory of the Gentiles as a rushing torrent; their sons shall be
carried on the shoulders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As
one whom his mother comforteth, so shall I comfort you; and ye
shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and your heart
shall rejoice, and your bones shall rise up like a herb; and the
hand of the Lord shall be known by His worshippers, and He shall
threaten the contumacious. For, behold, the Lord shall come as a
fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with
indignation, and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of
the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with His
sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord.”1414
In His promise to the good he
says that He will flow down as a river of peace, that is to say, in
the greatest possible abundance of peace. With this peace we
shall in the end be refreshed; but of this we have spoken
abundantly in the preceding book. It is this river in which he
says He shall flow down upon those to whom He promises so great
happiness, that we may understand that in the region of that
felicity, which is in heaven, all things are satisfied from this
river. But because there shall thence flow, even upon earthly
bodies, the peace of incorruption and immortality, therefore he
says that He shall flow down as this river, that He may as it were
pour Himself from things above to things beneath, and make men the
equals of the angels. By “Jerusalem,” too, we should
understand not that which serves with her children, but that which,
according to the apostle, is our free mother, eternal in the
heavens.1415
In her
we shall be comforted as we pass toilworn from earth’s cares and
calamities, and be taken up as her children on her knees and
shoulders. Inexperienced and new to such blandishments, we shall
be received into unwonted bliss. There we shall see, and our
heart shall rejoice. He does not say what we shall see; but what
but God, that the promise in the Gospel may be fulfilled in us,
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God?”1416
What
shall we see but all those things which now we see not, but believe
in, and of which the idea we form, according to our feeble
capacity, is incomparably less than the reality? “And ye shall
see,” he says, “and your heart shall rejoice.” Here ye
believe, there ye shall see.
But because he said, “Your heart
shall rejoice,” lest we should suppose that the blessings of that
Jerusalem are only spiritual,
he adds, “And your bones
shall rise up like a herb,” alluding to the resurrection of the
body, and as it were supplying an omission he had made. For it
will not take place when we have seen; but we shall see when it has
taken place. For he had already spoken of the new heavens and the
new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures, of the
things promised to the saints, and saying,“There shall be new
heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered
nor come into mind; but they shall find in it gladness and
exultation. Behold, I will make Jerusalem an exultation, and my
people a joy. And I will exult in Jerusalem, and joy in my
people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in
her;”1417
and other
promises, which some endeavor to refer to carnal enjoyment during
the thousand years. For, in the manner of prophecy, figurative
and literal expressions are mingled, so that a serious mind may, by
useful and salutary effort, reach the spiritual sense; but carnal
sluggishness, or the slowness of an uneducated and undisciplined
mind, rests in the superficial letter, and thinks there is nothing
beneath to be looked for. But let this be enough regarding the
style of those prophetic expressions just quoted. And now, to
return to their interpretation. When he had said, “And your
bones shall rise up like a herb,” in order to show that it was
the resurrection of the good, though a bodily resurrection, to
which he alluded, he added, “And the hand of the Lord shall be
known by His worshippers.” What is this but the hand of Him who
distinguishes those who worship from those who despise Him?
Regarding these the context immediately adds, “And He shall
threaten the contumacious,” or, as another translator has it,
“the unbelieving.” He shall not actually threaten then, but
the threats which are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in
effect. “For behold,” he says, “the Lord shall come as a
fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with
indignation, and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of
the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with His
sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord.” By fire,
whirlwind, sword, he means the judicial punishment of God.
For he says that the Lord Himself shall come as a fire, to those,
that is to say, to whom His coming shall be penal. By His
chariots (for the word is plural) we suitably understand the
ministration of angels. And when he says that all flesh and all
the earth shall be judged with His fire and sword, we do not
understand the spiritual and holy to be included, but the earthly
and carnal, of whom it is said that they “mind earthly
things,”1418
and “to
be carnally minded is death,”1419
and whom the Lord calls simply
flesh when He says, “My Spirit shall not always remain in these
men, for they are flesh.”1420
As to the words, “Many shall
be wounded by the Lord,” this wounding shall produce the second
death. It is possible, indeed, to understand fire, sword,
and wound in a good sense. For the Lord said that He
wished to send fire on the earth.1421
And the cloven tongues appeared
to them as fire when the Holy Spirit came.1422
And our Lord says, “I am not
come to send peace on earth, but a sword.”1423
And Scripture says that the word
of God is a doubly sharp sword,1424
on account of the two edges, the
two Testaments. And in the Song of Songs the holy Church says
that she is wounded with love,1425
—pierced, as it were, with the
arrow of love. But here, where we read or hear that the Lord
shall come to execute vengeance, it is obvious in what sense we are
to understand these expressions.
After briefly mentioning those who
shall be consumed in this judgment, speaking of the wicked and
sinners under the figure of the meats forbidden by the old law,
from which they had not abstained, he summarily recounts the grace
of the new testament, from the first coming of the Saviour to the
last judgment, of which we now speak; and herewith he concludes his
prophecy. For he relates that the Lord declares that He is coming
to gather all nations, that they may come and witness His glory.1426
For, as
the apostle says, “All have sinned and are in want of the glory
of God.”1427
And he
says that He will do wonders among them, at which they shall marvel
and believe in Him; and that from them He will send forth those
that are saved into various nations, and distant islands which have
not heard His name nor seen His glory, and that they shall declare
His glory among the nations, and shall bring the brethren of
those to whom the prophet was speaking, i.e., shall bring to
the faith under God the Father the brethren of the elect
Israelites; and that they shall bring from all nations an offering
to the Lord on beasts of burden and waggons (which are understood
to mean the aids furnished by God in the shape of angelic or human
ministry), to the holy city Jerusalem, which at present is
scattered over the earth, in the faithful saints. For where
divine aid is given, men
believe, and where they
believe, they come. And the Lord compared them, in a figure, to
the children of Israel offering sacrifice to Him in His house with
psalms, which is already everywhere done by the Church; and He
promised that from among them He would choose for Himself priests
and Levites, which also we see already accomplished. For we see
that priests and Levites are now chosen, not from a certain family
and blood, as was originally the rule in the priesthood according
to the order of Aaron, but as befits the new testament, under which
Christ is the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, in
consideration of the merit which is bestowed upon each man by
divine grace. And these priests are not to be judged by their
mere title, which is often borne by unworthy men, but by that
holiness which is not common to good men and bad.
After having thus spoken of this
mercy of God which is now experienced by the Church, and is very
evident and familiar to us, he foretells also the ends to which men
shall come when the last judgment has separated the good and the
bad, saying by the prophet, or the prophet himself speaking for
God, “For as the new heavens and the new earth shall remain
before me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain,
and there shall be to them month after month, and
Sabbath
after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before me in
Jerusalem, said the Lord. And they shall go out, and shall see
the members of the men who have sinned against me: their worm
shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall
be for a spectacle to all flesh.”1428
At this point the prophet closed
his book, as at this point the world shall come to an end. Some,
indeed, have translated “carcases”1429
| 1429 As the Vulgate: cadavera
virorum. | instead of “members of the
men,” meaning by carcases the manifest punishment of the
body, although carcase is commonly used only of dead flesh,
while the bodies here spoken of shall be animated, else they could
not be sensible of any pain; but perhaps they may, without
absurdity, be called carcases, as being the bodies of those who are
to fall into the second death. And for the same reason it is
said, as I have already quoted, by this same prophet, “The earth
of the wicked shall fall.”1430
| 1430 Here Augustin inserts the remark,
“Who does not see that cadavera (carcases) are so called
from cadendo (falling)?” | It is obvious that those
translators who use a different word for men do not mean to
include only males, for no one will say that the women who sinned
shall not appear in that judgment; but the male sex, being the more
worthy, and that from which the woman was derived, is intended to
include both sexes. But that which is especially pertinent to our
subject is this, that since the words “All flesh shall come,”
apply to the good, for the people of God shall be composed of every
race of men,—for all men shall not be present, since the greater
part shall be in punishment,—but, as I was saying, since
flesh is used of the good, and members or
carcases of the bad, certainly it is thus put beyond a doubt
that that judgment in which the good and the bad shall be allotted
to their destinies shall take place after the resurrection of the
body, our faith in which is thoroughly established by the use of
these words.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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