Hence, if they find anyone outside, they beat, wound and rob him^[1] by not believing in the true flesh of Christ that was nailed to the cross, from whom true blood flowed when pierced by a lance, and by not believing in the true God who bore a true soul and laid it down freely and raised it up freely. Isaiah prophesied about this city and, indeed, demonstrated with his finger, when he said, Behold, our Savior is a strong city, fortified with walls and bulwarks.

For this reason, it seems to me that the wall^[1] represents the people who are acquainted with the one omnipotent God, having been brought near to the Word of the Father, about whom Isaiah prophesied, saying, The Savior is our strong city. A wall and a bulwark is established in him. This indicates that Christ was shown to be equipped with a true soul and true flesh for the redemption of the world. But those who have already attained greater perfection, who are prepared to have their blood shed for the sake of his name, who by their own example offer unbelievers access to salvation, are compared with gates. For although the Word of God clothed himself with the nature of every human person for the liberation of the human race, it is nevertheless true that anyone becomes the wall or the gate of the prophesied city, that is of Christ, who, bearing God’s image and holding fast to the true faith, merits with his holy works to contain the Word himself, as he promised through the prophet: I will dwell within them, and I will be their God.^[2]

When Hezekiah, the king of Judah and son of Ahaz, was gravely ill and had learned of his coming death by the prophecy of Isaiah, he turned his face to the wall and wept bitterly.^[1] Immediately the Lord in his mercy not only averted the destruction of imminent death but also added fifteen years to the man’s life. Then, at last, Hezekiah sang this song.^[2] Hezekiah, a holy man who reigned at that time over all of Israel, displayed the Lord’s form: clearly he had every movement of body, soul and mind in subjection to himself, and he accepted the consequences of his infirmity and weakness. He knew without doubt through the prophetic message that the end of his life was approaching. For the longer we seem to live, the more indubitably is our future death foreknown to us. And if we turn our face to the wall when struck by the fear of death, that is, if we direct the vision of our hearts to the Savior, who is here represented by the wall because he is elsewhere called a wall, we will be saved, inasmuch as he saves the faithful who dwell within him from a great many attacks. In the city of our strength, says Isaiah, is the Savior established as a wall and a fortress. Behold, the Savior is said to be a wall.

And now, beloved, I ought to say a word about the antiquity of the tradition and the utility of vigils. It is easier to begin a work if we keep before our eyes how useful it is. The devotion to vigils is very old. It has been a household tradition among the saints. It was the prophet Isaiah who cried out to the Lord: My soul has yearned for you in the night. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks you early in the morning.

For this reason, as I have already said, you ought to read and listen to the sacred lessons with such eagerness that you may be able to speak about them and teach them to others in your own homes and elsewhere, wherever you are. As you, like clean animals, ruminate the Word of God by continuous reflection, you may be able to procure useful favor for yourselves, that is, their spiritual meaning, and with God’s help give it to others. Then will be fulfilled in you what is written: Your cup overflows!^[1] Moreover, you will fulfill what the blessed apostle encourages and advises when he says, The fact is that whether you eat or drink—whatever you do—you should do all for the glory of God.^[2] If infirmity does not prevent it, fast daily. Hasten to the vigils with cheerful and fervent devotion because of what is written: O God, my soul yearns for you in the night; and again: To you I pray, O Lord; at dawn you hear my voice;^[3] and still further: At midnight I rise to give thanks to your name, O Lord.^[4] To this our Lord and Savior also exhorts and encourages us when he says in the Gospel: Be on guard, and pray that you may not undergo the test.^[5] May he himself deign to grant this, to whom are honor and might together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, world without end.

[In monasteries] at the crowing of the rooster their leader comes, and gently touching the sleeper with his foot, rouses them all. For there are none sleeping naked. Then as soon as they have arisen they stand up and sing the prophetic hymns with much harmony and well-composed tunes. And neither harp nor pipe nor other musical instrument utters such sweet melodies as you hear from the singing of these saints in their deep and quiet solitudes. And the songs themselves too are suitable and full of the love of God. In the night, they say, lift up your hands to God. With my soul have I desired you in the night; truly with my spirit within me will I seek you early.

For night is this present life,^[1] and as long as we are in it, we are covered with a mist of uncertain imaginations as far as the sight of inward objects is concerned. For the prophet was sensible that he was held by a certain mist in his sight of the Lord, when he says, My soul longed for you in the night. As if he were to say, I long to behold you in the obscurity of this present life, but I am still surrounded by the mist of infirmity.

Anyone who has been able to reach out for the truth has been on fire with this love. For this reason David said, My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?^[1] And he counseled us, saying, Seek his face continually.^[2] And for this reason the prophet said, My soul has desired you in the night, and with my spirit within my breast I will watch for you in the morning. And again the church says to the Lord in the Song of Songs, I have been wounded with love.^[3]

It is right that the soul, after bearing in its heart a wound of love brought on by its burning desire, should reach out for healing at the sight of the doctor. And so, again, it says, My soul melted when he spoke.^[4] The heart of a person who does not seek the face of his Creator is hardened by his wickedness, because in itself it remains cold. But if it now begins to burn with the desire of following him whom it loves, it runs since the fire of love has melted it. Its desire makes it anxious. Everything that used to please it in the world seems worthless; it finds nothing agreeable outside of its Creator; things that once delighted the heart afterwards become grievously oppressive. Nothing brings it consolation in its sadness as long as the one it desires is not beheld. The heart sorrows. Light itself is loathsome. Scorching fire burns away the rust of sin in the heart. The soul is inflamed as if it were gold, for gold loses its beauty through use, but fire restores its brightness.

When, by such faith and knowledge, the Lord’s people have embraced this true life, they surely receive the joy of heaven. The wicked, on the other hand, since they don’t care about the Lord’s life, are rightly deprived of its blessings. For, let the wicked be taken away so that he shall not see the glory of the Lord. In the end they, like everyone else, shall hear the universal proclamation of the promise, Awake, sleeper, and rise up from the dead.^[1] They shall rise and knock on the doors of heaven, saying, Open to us.^[2] The Lord, however, will rebuke them for rejecting knowledge of him and will tell them, I do not know you.^[3]

In the resurrection itself it is not easy to see God, except for those who are clean of heart; hence, Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.^[1] From here on he begins to speak of that world where all who rise again will not see God, but only those who rise to eternal life. The unworthy will not see him, for of them it is said, Let the wicked be taken away lest he behold the brightness of the Lord. But the worthy will see him, and of such the Lord spoke when, though present, he was not seen, saying, He that loves me keeps my commandments, and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.^[2]

In this human form the good will see him in whom they have believed; the wicked, him whom they have despised. But the wicked will not see him in the form of God in which he is equal to the Father, for as the prophet says, The wicked shall be taken off that he may not see the glory of the Lord, and, on the other hand, Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.^[1]

Then, therefore, we shall come and we shall enjoy the one thing; but the one thing will be all things to us. For what was it I said, my brothers, when I began to speak? What is that sufficiency which we shall possess when we shall have no need? What is the sufficiency which we shall possess? I had intended to say, What will God give to us which he will not give to them? Let the wicked be taken away that he may not see the glory of God. Hence God will give his glory to us so that we may enjoy it; and the wicked will be taken away that he may not see the glory of God. God himself will be the entire sufficiency which we shall possess as our own. Greedy one, what did you seek to gain? What does anyone, for whom God is not enough, seek from God?

Our Lord Jesus Christ came on this account, too, that we might see not only his glory here but also the glory to come. Therefore he said, I will that where I am they also may be, in order that they may behold my glory.^[1] Now, if this glory here has been so bright and splendid, what could one say of that other? It will not appear on this corrupt earth or while we are in our perishable bodies but in that immortal and everlasting creation, and with so much brightness that it is impossible to put it into words. Oh, blessed, and thrice-blessed, and blessed many times over, they who are deemed worthy to become beholders of that glory! With reference to it the prophet says, Away with the impious, that he may not behold the glory of the Lord.

His coming means his return from the judgment to his kingdom. The Lord comes to us after the judgment, because he lifts us up from his human appearance in the contemplation of his divinity; his coming means that he leads us to the vision of his glory. We see in his divinity after the judgment the one we beheld in his humanity at the judgment. At the judgment he comes in the form of a servant and appears to everyone, since it is written, They will look on him whom they pierced.^[1] When the condemned fall down to their punishment, the righteous are led to the brightness of his glory, as is written: The wicked is taken away, so that he will [not] see the glory of the Lord.

Note that there are two kinds of zeal, one full of love, the other full of hatred. The former is indicated in the words, The zeal of your house has devoured me;^[1] the latter, in the words, Zeal has taken hold of the senseless people, and now fire shall devour your opponents.

A fire went before the Lord’s coming when the hearts of the unfaithful seethed at the preaching of the prophets so that they were fired with the heat of anger, and they debated the murder of those preachers. So this is the fire that shall go before him, but it devoured instead those who stirred it. As the prophet Isaiah said, And now fire will devour your enemies. Next comes, And shall burn his enemies round about. Shall burn, as we have stated, refers to the indignation and sudden mental heat that the enemies of the holy church experienced at that time. Round about we must interpret as on all sides, for as the preachers were few, a countless crowd of enemies hemmed them in.

I know the glittering sword,^[1] and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to nothing, to make childless and to spare neither flesh nor marrow nor bones. I know him who, though free from passion, meets us like a bear robbed of her cubs, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians,^[2] not only those of that day, but if anyone now is an Assyrian in wickedness. Nor is it possible to escape the might and speed of his wrath when he watches over our impieties, and his jealousy, which knows to devour his adversaries, pursues his enemies to the death.^[3] I know the emptying, the making void, the making waste, the melting of the heart and knocking of the knees together;^[4] such are the punishments of the ungodly.

So they are truly wise who entrust themselves to the power and dispensation of the Godhead; him alone they seek, and the outcome is all that is good for them. This is the message of the prophet Isaiah: Lord our God, give us your peace; for you have bestowed all things on us. Next comes: And he gave ear to me. Note that this utterance to the Lord, so short but magnificent in its devotion, sought that he should deign to give ear; what is there that he has failed to give us when out of pity he has granted such a request? For his gaze on us spells deliverance and a bestowal of gifts so great that even the greedy suppliant ceases to beg for them.

The time when our external enemy the devil will be under our feet is when the internal enemy, covetousness, has been healed, and we shall be living in peace. What sort of peace? The sort that eye has not seen nor ear heard.^[1] What sort of peace? The sort that no imagination can conceive and no quarreling intrude on. What sort of peace? The sort about which the apostle said, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts.^[2] About this peace the prophet Isaiah says, O Lord our God, give us peace, for you have given us everything you promised. You promised Christ; you have given him to us. You promised his cross and the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of sins; you have given them to us. You promised his ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit from heaven; you have given them to us. You promised us a church spread throughout the world; you have given it. You promised there would be heretics to try us and put us through our paces, and the church would triumph over their errors; you have given this. You promised the abolition of the idols of the heathen; you have given it.

What’s the meaning of Where, death, is your sting? It means, Where is sin? You ask, and it is nowhere. For the sting of death is sin.^[1] They are the apostle’s words, not mine. That is when we will be able to say, Where, death, is your sting? Sin will be nowhere, neither to take you captive, nor to assault you nor to tickle your consciousness. That is when we will not say, Forgive us our debts.^[2] But what will we say? Lord our God, give us peace, for you have given us everything.

When you see a person living in wickedness and enjoying great prosperity without suffering any misfortune, you should mourn particularly for this reason, because although he is afflicted with a very serious disease and ulcer, he aggravates his illness, making himself worse by his luxury and self-indulgence. For punishment is not evil, but sin is evil. The latter separates us from God, but the former leads us toward God and dissolves his anger. How do we know this? Hear what the prophet says, Comfort, comfort my people, O priests, speak tenderly to Jerusalem . . . that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.^[1] And elsewhere he says, O Lord our God, give us peace; for you have given us all our due.

And we have learned also to say in our prayers, O Lord our God, grant us your peace, for you have given us everything, so that if anyone becomes partaker of the peace furnished by God, he will not be lacking any good thing.

But I say all this now, and select all the histories that contain trials and tribulations and the wrath of kings and their evil designs, in order that we may fear nothing except offending God. For then also was there a furnace burning;^[1] yet they derided it but feared sin. For they knew that if they were consumed in the fire, they should suffer nothing that was to be dreaded; but that if they were guilty of impiety, they should undergo the extremes of misery. It is the greatest punishment to commit sin, though we may remain unpunished; as on the other hand, it is the greatest honor and repose to live virtuously, though we may be punished. For sins separate us from God; as he himself speaks: Have your sins separated between you and me?^[2] But punishments lead us back to God. As one says, Give peace; for you have recompensed us for all things. Suppose anyone has a wound; which should we most deservedly fear, gangrene or the surgeon’s knife? The steel or the devouring progress of the ulcer? Sin is a gangrene; punishment is the surgeon’s knife. If someone has gangrene and does not have surgery, he does not merely remain ill, he gets worse. In the same way the sinner, though he is not punished, is the most wretched of people; and he is then especially wretched when he has no punishment and is suffering no distress.

All have fallen.^[1] Anyone who refuses to seek out a strong foundation necessarily falls. Together they became useless, namely, with regard to the work for which they were created. There is none who does good.^[2] There was no one who would do good, because the Jews broke the commandments and the Gentiles spurned the law of nature. When anyone from either party did good, therefore, he knew that he was indebted to grace, not to nature, as the prophet said in reference to the Lord: in the presence of whom no one is innocent.^[3] Isaiah also says in his canticle: O Lord our God, you will give us peace, for you have accomplished all of our works in us.

A man’s steps are directed by the Lord.^[1] Whoever walks a straight path composed of human steps does so not by the freedom of human judgment but by the governance of him to whom Isaiah said, All of our works were accomplished by you. What man can understand his way?^[2] In this it becomes clear that whatever goodness anyone possesses from himself he does not have except through the grace of God, because no one is able to understand through the freedom of his own judgment either what kind of future he will have or the quality and duration of conquests to come.

Let us offer thanks to our Creator for the blessings we have received and humbly say with the prophet Isaiah, For you have wrought all our works for us.

Therefore Christ will hand the kingdom over to God and the Father when through him the Father will be known by sight, for his kingdom consists of those in whom he now reigns through faith. In fact, in one sense Christ’s kingdom means his divine power according to which every created thing is subject to him; and in another sense his kingdom means the church in respect to the faith that it has in him. In accord with this meaning is the prayer of him who says, Possess us, for it is not the case that [Christ] himself does not possess all things. This is also the meaning of the following statement: When you were the slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.^[1] Therefore he will destroy every dominion and every authority and power, so that he who sees the Father through the Son will neither require nor be pleased with repose in his own or the power of any created thing.

For the Son of God indeed, being himself the Word, is Lord of all. But we once were subject from the first to the slavery of corruption and the curse of the law. Then by degrees fashioning for ourselves things that were not, we served, as says the blessed apostle, them which by nature are no gods.^[1] Ignorant of the true God, we preferred things that were not to the truth. But afterwards, as the ancient people when oppressed in Egypt groaned, so when we too had the law engrafted^[2] in us, according to the unutterable sighings^[3] of the Spirit made our intercession, O Lord our God, take possession of us; then, as he became a house of refuge and a God and defense, so also he became our Lord. Nor did he then begin to be, but we began to have him for our Lord.

For hence it is said by the prophet, The dead shall not live; the giants shall not rise up again. For whom does he call the dead except sinners, and whom does he designate giants except those who over and above take pride in sin. Now the former do not live, because by sinning they have forfeited the life of righteousness; these latter too cannot rise up again after death because after their transgression they are swollen with pride and do not have recourse to the remedies of penitence.

Nature provides woman with a womb in which a living person is brought to birth in the course of time. Such too is that characteristic of the soul which is ready to receive in its womblike recesses the seeds of our thoughts, to cherish them and to bring them forth as a woman gives birth to a child. This and no other is the meaning of the words of Isaiah: We have conceived and brought forth the spirit of salvation.^[1]

We, however, who heard the Lord our Savior say that those in Judea should flee to the mountains^[1] also lift our own eyes to the mountains, concerning which it was written: I raise my eyes to the mountains, whence comes my assistance.^[2] And in another place [it is written], Its foundation is in the holy mountains,^[3] and The Lord surrounds his people as the mountains surround them,^[4] and The city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.^[5] We must shed the skin of the letter and, ascending Mount Zion barefoot with Moses, say, I will cross over and see this great vision.^[6] [This is] so that we can understand those souls to be pregnant who conceived the beginning of faith from the seed of doctrine and from talking with God, who say with Isaiah, Out of reverence for you, Lord, we have conceived and given birth, bringing the spirit of your salvation upon the earth.

The souls of those believers are pregnant who are able to say at the beginning of faith: From reverence for you, Lord, we have conceived and given birth.

Therefore faith can neither be conceived nor augmented in the human heart unless it is infused and nourished by the Holy Spirit. For we are reborn from the same Spirit from which Christ was born. The Spirit by which Christ is formed according to faith in the heart of each believer, therefore, is also the Spirit by which he was formed bodily in the womb of the Virgin. For this reason, it is in the person of the believer that the prophet cries out to the Lord: Out of reverence for you, Lord, we conceived in the womb and brought forth; we have brought the spirit of your salvation upon the earth.

Their cows did not miscarry, therefore, but gave birth, so that their labor would be increased and that they would beget everything they conceived without reverence for God.^[1] The righteous, however, take delight in an altogether different way. They glory not in the abundance of their wealth or the fruitfulness of their livestock but in the Lord, saying, We were impregnated with reverence for you, and we brought forth the spirit of salvation.

Isaiah also, proclaiming the resurrection to the people, says that he is the announcer of the Lord’s message, for we read thus: For the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and they shall speak in that day.^[1] And what the mouth of the Lord declared that the people should say is set forth later on, where it is written: Because of your fear, O Lord, we have been with child and have brought forth the Spirit of your salvation, which you have poured forth upon the earth. They that inhabit the earth shall fall; they shall rise that are in the graves. For the dew which is from you is health for them, but the land of the wicked shall perish. Go, O my people, and enter into your chambers; hide yourselves for a little until the Lord’s wrath pass by.

Even now let us rejoice somehow or other in this hope derived from the promises of one most faithful, until that richest of all possible joys arises, when we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is,^[1] and our joy nobody shall take from us. Of this hope, you see, we have also received already the acceptable and freely given pledge that is the Holy Spirit, who produces in our hearts the unutterable groanings of holy desire. For we have conceived, as Isaiah says, and have brought forth the spirit of salvation. And, when a woman is in labor, the Lord says, she has sorrow, because her day has come; but when she has brought forth, there is great joy, because a human being has been born into the world.^[2] This will be the joy that nobody will take away from us; on the day when we are brought forth into the eternal light from this conception of faith. So meanwhile let us fast and pray, while it is still the day of bringing forth.

When a woman gives birth, she is sorrowful because her hour has come.^[1] He refers to holy church as a woman on account of her fruitfulness in good works and because she never ceases to beget spiritual children for God. He says also in another place about this, The kingdom of heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until the whole [mass] was leavened.^[2] A woman took some yeast when the church, by the Lord’s generosity, secured the energy of love and faith from on high. She hid this in three measures of flour until the whole [mass] was leavened when she performed her ministry of imparting the word of life to parts of Asia [Minor], Europe and Africa, until all the bounds of the world were on fire with love for the heavenly kingdom. The one who said sadly to those who were departing from the purity of the faith, My little children, for whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you,^[3] was indicating that he was among this woman’s members. They testified that they were among her members who were enkindled with heavenly desires, who cried out in praise of their Maker, It is out of fear of you, Lord, that we have conceived and been in travail and given birth to the Spirit.

Let us talk about how mercy is put in the balance^[1] as holy Isaiah declares, for goodness is not without discernment, as the first laborers in the vineyard fancied, because they could not perceive any distinction between those who were paid alike.^[2] And [let us talk about] how anger, which is called the cup in the hand of the Lord^[3] and the cup of falling which is drained,^[4] is in proportion to transgressions, even though he abates to all somewhat of what is their due and dilutes with compassion the unmixed draught of his wrath. For he inclines from severity to indulgence toward those who accept chastisement with fear and who after a slight affliction conceived and are in pain with conversion and bring forth the perfect spirit of salvation. But nevertheless he reserves the dregs, the last drop of his anger, that he may pour it out entire upon those who, instead of being healed by his kindness, grow obdurate, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh, that bitter taskmaster, who is set forth as an example of the power of God over the ungodly.

The first part [of the verse] concerns the resurrection of the just, but the last few words may be taken to mean the bodies of the wicked will fall into the ruin of damnation. In regard to the resurrection of the just, the attentive reader will notice some distinction. The dead shall rise refers to the first resurrection; those in the graves refers to the second; and in the following words we may not improperly find a reference to the saints whom the Lord will find alive on earth. As for the word your dew is their health, we are not wrong in taking health to mean immortality, that most perfect health which needs no daily medicine of ordinary food.

Isaiah made it clear that Christ will raise up all people when he said, The dead shall be raised up again; even those in the tombs shall be raised up. For the dew from you is healing for them. That was not all. After his cross, after his slaughter, his glory will shine forth more brightly; after his resurrection, he will advance the message of his gospel still more.

Isaiah the prophet says, The dead men shall rise again, and those who are in the tombs shall awake. And the prophet Ezekiel, now before us, says most plainly, Behold, I will open your graves and bring you up out of your graves.^[1] And Daniel says, Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame.^[2]

And there are many Scriptures that testify of the resurrection of the dead. For there are many other sayings on this matter. But now, by way of remembrance only, we will make a passing mention of the raising of Lazarus on the fourth day^[3] and just allude, because of the shortness of the time, to the widow’s son also who was raised.^[4] And merely for the sake of reminding you, let me mention the ruler of the synagogue’s daughter,^[5] and the rending of the rocks,^[6] and how there arose many bodies of the saints which slept,^[7] their graves having been opened. But especially be it remembered that Christ has been raised from the dead.^[8]

Do not listen to those who say that this body is not raised up; for raised it is, as Isaiah witnesses, saying, The dead shall arise, and they in the tombs shall be raised. Or, as Daniel says, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame.^[1] But while rising again is the common lot of all people, the manner of rising again is not alike for all. For while we all receive everlasting bodies, those bodies are not alike for all. That is to say, the righteous receive such bodies as may enable them to join with the band of angels throughout eternity, while sinners received bodies in which to undergo through the ages the torture of their sins.

Then too, Isaiah himself has plainly declared that there shall be joy of this nature at the resurrection of the just, when he says, The dead shall rise again; those too who are in the tombs shall arise, and those who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from you is health to them.

Sacred Scripture . . . testifies to the fact that there will be a resurrection of the body. . . . Isaiah also [testifies that] the dead shall rise and those in their graves be awakened. And it is obvious that it is not the souls that are put in the tombs but the bodies.

About this dew^[1] the prophet Isaiah proclaimed: Your dew is their salvation, or, according to the Hebrew text, For your dew is the dew of light. Here is clearly taught that the dew of which he speaks is the light of wisdom and the healing of souls, which is the doctrine of wisdom and truth, without which the soul is sickly and blind.

We should love the dew about which Moses said, May my words descend as the dew,^[1] and about which Isaiah also said, The dead shall rise again, and all who were in the graves shall rise again, for the dew which is from you is their health.

In the same way that the Lord becomes the light,^[1] the way, the truth,^[2] the bread,^[3] the vine,^[4] the fire,^[5] the shepherd,^[6] the lamb,^[7] the door, and many other things to believers, so also does he become the dew to us who are in need of his mercy and know ourselves to be feverish with sin, about whom Isaiah said, The dew which is from you is their health.

Unquestionably, if the people were indulging in figurative murmurs that their bones were become dry^[1] and that their hope had perished—plaintive at the consequences of their dispersion—then God might fairly enough seem to have consoled their figurative despair with a figurative promise. Since, however, no injury had as yet alighted on the people from their dispersion, although the hope of the resurrection had very frequently failed among them, it is manifest that it was owing to the perishing condition of their bodies that their faith in the resurrection was shaken. God, therefore, was rebuilding the faith that the people were pulling down. But even if it were true that Israel was depressed at some shock in their existing circumstances, we must not on that account suppose that the purpose of revelation could have rested in a parable. Its aim must have been to testify a resurrection, in order to raise the nation’s hope to even an eternal salvation and an indispensable restoration and thereby turn off their minds from brooding over their present affairs. This indeed is the aim of other prophets likewise. You shall go forth, [says Malachi], from your tombs, as young calves let loose from their bonds, and you shall tread down your enemies. And again [Isaiah says], Your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall spring up like the grass,^[2] because the grass also is renewed by the dissolution and corruption of the seed. In a word, if it is contended that the figure of the rising bones refers properly to the state of Israel,^[3] why is the same hope announced to all nations, instead of being limited to Israel only, of reinvesting those bony remains with bodily substance and vital breath and of raising up their dead out of the grave? For the language is universal: The dead shall arise and come forth from their graves; for the dew which comes from you is medicine to their bones. In another passage it is written: All flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.^[4] When? When the fashion of this world shall begin to pass away. For he said before, As the new heaven and the new earth, which I make, remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your seed remain.^[5] Then also shall be fulfilled what is written afterwards: And they shall go forth [namely, from their graves] and shall see the carcasses of those who have transgressed: for their worm shall never die, nor shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh,^[6] even to that which, being raised again from the dead and brought out from the grave, shall adore the Lord for his great grace.

To remove all doubt about the resurrection of the body, take a single illustration from the course of nature. The apostle reminds us, What you yourself sow is not brought to life, unless it dies.^[1] Here you have a grain of wheat, dead and dry and sown in the earth. It is softened by the rain from heaven. Only when it decays does it spring to life and begin to grow. I take it that he who raises to life the grain of wheat for the sake of humankind will be able to raise to life the person himself who has been sown in the earth. He both can and wills to do this. What the rains do for the seed, the dew of the Spirit does for the body that is to be raised to life. Thus Isaiah cries to Christ, Your dew is health for them, true health, since, once the bodies of the saints have been raised to life, they feel no pain, they fear no death. They will live with Christ in heaven, who lived on earth according to the words and ways of Christ. This is the eternal and blessed life in which you believe. This is the fruit of all our faith and holy works. This is the hope on account of which we are born, believe and are reborn. It was on account of this that the prophets, apostles and martyrs sustained such endless toil and accepted death with joy.

Of the fulfilled promise (both believed and seen) wherein the bodies of the saints rose again at the death of the Lord, the prophet Isaiah said, The dead will rise again, and all who were in the graves will be raised up, and all who are on the earth shall rejoice, for the dew which is from you is their medicine. Matthew the Evangelist confirms this, saying, The earth shook and rocks were split and graves were opened and many bodies of the sleeping saints were raised. And going forth from their graves after his resurrection, they came to the holy city and appeared to many.^[1]

Certainly there are two things that make us hope for the bliss of the just and the end of all suffering: death and the resurrection from the dead. In death is rest, as the prophet says, My people, enter into your chambers, hide yourself a little until the indignation of the Lord pass away. But in the resurrection there is perfect happiness in the whole person, that is, in flesh and spirit. Consequently we are not to think that both of these are to be marked by the labor of fasting but rather by the rejoicing of refreshment.

The hour will come in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth.^[1] They shall hear with ears and come forth with feet. This Lazarus had already done. They shall, moreover, come forth from the tombs; that is, they who had been laid in the tombs, the dead, shall come and shall rise again from their graves. For the dew that God gives is healing to their bones. Then shall be fulfilled what God says by the prophet, Go, my people, into your closets for a little while, until mine anger pass. The closets signify the graves, out of which is brought forth which had been laid therein. And they shall come out of the graves like young mules free from the halter. Their heart shall rejoice, and their bones shall rise like the sun; all flesh shall come into the presence of the Lord, and he shall command the fishes of the sea; and they shall give up the bones which they had eaten; and he shall bring joint to joint, and bone to bone;^[2] and they who slept in the dust of the earth shall arise,^[3] some to life eternal, others to shame and everlasting confusion.

When we read, Go, my people, enter into your closets for a little while, until my anger passes away, we have in the closets graves, in which they will have to rest for a little while, who shall have at the end of the world departed this life in the last furious onset of the power of Antichrist. Why else did he use the expression closets in preference to some other receptacle, if it were not that the flesh is kept in these closets or cellars salted and reserved for use, to be drawn out thence on a suitable occasion? It is on a similar principle that embalmed corpses are set aside for burial in mausoleums and sepulchers, in order that they may be removed from there when the Master shall order it. Since, therefore, there is consistency in thus understanding the passage (for what refuge of little closets could possibly shelter us from the wrath of God?), it appears that by the very phrase which he uses, until his anger passes away, which shall extinguish Antichrist, he in fact shows that after that indignation the flesh will come forth from the sepulcher, in which it had been deposited previous to the bursting out of the anger. Now out of the closets nothing else is brought than that which had been put into them, and after the extirpation of Antichrist shall be busily transacted the great process of the resurrection.

All the generations from Adam to this day have passed away; but those who were made perfect in charity by the grace of God live among the saints; and they shall be made manifest at the judgment of the kingdom of Christ. For it is written, Enter into your chamber a little while, until my wrath and anger pass, and I remember the good day and will raise you up out of your graves.^[1] 1

Therefore [Noah] constructs the ark and makes nests in it, that is, certain chambers in which animals of various kinds are received. The prophet also speaks of these chambers: Go, my people, into your chambers, hide yourself a while until the fury of my anger pass away. This people, therefore, which is saved in the church is compared with all those, whether men or animals, which are saved in the ark.

The hairs of your head are numbered.^[1] If the hairs, I suppose the teeth would be more easily numbered. But there is no object in numbering them if they are some day to perish. The hour will come in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth.^[2] . . . Then shall be fulfilled what God says by the prophet, Go, my people, into your closets for a little while, until my anger pass. The closets signify the graves, out of which is brought forth which had been laid therein. And they shall come out of the graves like young mules free from the halter.