Along with my prayers I now add book 10 to the Church History and dedicate it to you, my most consecrated Paulinus,^[1] and blazon you as the seal of the whole work. It is appropriate that in a perfect number^[2] I shall here provide a completed account in celebration of the restoration of the churches, in obedience to the divine Spirit who urges us:

done marvelous things;

His right and his holy arm have wrought

The Lord has made known his salvation:

His righteousness he has revealed in the sight Accordingly, let me now sing the new song, since after those grim and horrifying scenes and narratives, I was now privileged to see and to celebrate what many righteous people and martyrs of God before me desired to see but did not see and to hear but did not hear. But they hurried on to far better things in the heavens, caught up into a paradise of divine bliss, while I, admitting that even the present circumstances are more than I deserve, have been totally astonished at the magnitude of grace he has conferred and offer him my total awe and worship, confirming the truth of the prophecies that declare:

Come and behold the works of the Lord,

What wonders he has wrought on the earth,

Making wars to cease to the ends of the world.

He will break the bow and shatter the spear,

And the shields he will burn with fire.^[1] Rejoicing that all this has been clearly fulfilled, let me proceed with my narrative. ^[1]

Sing joyfully to God, all the earth. What is it that an understanding of this great joy is likely to make clear? Why is it that, after God gave commandments so great, so terrifying and so awesome, he now invites the earth to a shout of joy? Sing joyfully to God, all the earth, the text reads.

What other reason is there than the following? The awesome God later on chose the role of a very gentle shepherd. He assumed this character in order to act as a merciful shepherd and gather together, like straggling sheep into one fold, those wandering peoples, those straying nations, those tribes scattered far and wide. Yes, more, he wanted to lead back to the use of milk and grass and restore those wild nations that were languishing after the prey of a carcass, the eating of flesh, the drinking of blood and the fury of beasts. Briefly, he desired to make them once more truly humble sheep.

All the earth sing joyfully to God, he says, and by this command he imposes his shepherdly control on all the earth. The resounding trumpet draws the soldier forth to war; just so does the sweetness of this jubilant call invite the sheep to pasture. How fitting it was to mitigate the din of fighting by shepherdly kindness, in order that such gentle grace might save the nations that their own natural wildness had long been destroying.

The phrase Sing and exult and play the lyre follows. Although these words seem to be similar, nonetheless they are separated by some distinction. Singing is shouting the praises to the Lord, as is befitting for the mouth of a serious Christian to do. Exulting is declaring the vows of the mind with great affection. Playing the lyre is fulfilling the commandments of the Lord with good deeds. As to the fact that he admonishes this to be done so many times, it is because we must rejoice there in a diverse variety of virtues.

It is prophesied here^[1] that the coming of the Lord will be the cause of great benefits to the nations, which have been proved to have actually accrued to them, through the manifestation of our Savior. For of a truth from then and not before the new song of the new covenant has been sung among all people, and his wonders have been known and heard by all people through the written Gospels. And salvation also, by the resurrection of the Lord from the dead, has been revealed to all nations, and the true righteousness, by which it has been clearly proved that God is not the God of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles. Since there is one God, in the words of the holy apostle, who will judge the circumcised from their faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.^[2] And the words for he, comes to judge the earth, might refer also to his second coming.