Such was the literal fulfilment. But the prophecy also shews figuratively the stability, the calmness and peace of every soul, who receives the God that was born, Emmanuel Himself. For now that the one Christ, and the Word (d) proclaimed by Him, rule as kings over the souls of men, the old enemies have been put to flight, the two forms of sin, the one that leads men into idolatry and into a diversity of varied beliefs, the other that tempts them to moral ruin. Of these I say the earthly kings of old above-named were symbols. Of these the king of Damascus was the picture of the Gentile errors with regard to idols. And the other, of those who had rebelled from Jerusalem, that is to say from the worship of God according to the Law.