6. Such then was once this flock, and such it is
now, so healthy and well grown, and if it be not yet in perfection, it
is advancing towards it by constant increase, and I prophesy that it will advance. This is
foretold me by the Holy Spirit, if I have any prophetic instinct and
insight into the future. And from what has preceded I am able to
be confident, and recognize this by reasoning, being the nursling of
reason. For it was much more improbable that, from that
condition, it should reach its present development, than that, as it
now is, it should attain to the height of renown. For ever since
it began to be gathered together, by Him Who quickeneth the
dead, Rom. iv. 17. bone to its bone, joint to joint, and the
Spirit of life and regeneration was given to it in their
dryness, Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 10. its entire
resurrection has been, I know well, sure to be fulfilled: so that
the rebellious should not exalt themselves, Ps. lxvi. 7.
and that those who grasp at a shadow, or at a dream when one
awaketh, Ps. lxxiii. 20. or at the
dispersing breezes, or at the traces of a ship in the water, Wisd. v. 9 sqq. should not think that they have
anything. Howl, firtree, for the cedar is fallen! Zech. xi. 2. Let them be instructed by the
misfortunes of others, and learn that the poor shall not alway be
forgotten, Ps. ix. 18. and that the Deity
will not refrain, as Habakkuk says, from striking through the heads of
the mighty ones Hab. iii. 13. in His
fury—the Deity, Who has been struck through and impiously divided
into Ruler and Ruled, in order to insult the Deity in the highest
degree by degrading It, and oppress a creature by equality with
Deity.