25. “Yet once more,” Hagg. ii. 7; Heb. xii. 26. I hear the Scripture say that the heaven and
the earth shall be shaken, inasmuch as this has befallen them before,
signifying, as I suppose, a manifest renovation of all things.
And we must believe S. Paul when he says Heb. xii. 27.
that this last shaking is none other than the second coming of Christ,
and the transformation and changing of the universe to a condition of
stability which cannot be shaken. And I imagine that this present
shaking, in which In which,
etc. This sentence probably alludes to the excessive zeal of the
monks of Nazianzus. the contemplatives
and lovers of God, who before the time exercise their heavenly
citizenship, are shaken from us, is of no less consequence than any of
former days. For, however peaceful and moderate in other respects
these men are, yet they cannot bear to carry their reasonableness so
far as to be traitors to the cause of God for quietness’
sake: nay on this point they are excessively warlike and sturdy
in fight; such is the heat of their zeal, that they would sooner
proceed to excess in disturbance, than fail to notice anything that is
amiss. And no small portion of the people is breaking away with
them, flying away, as a flock of birds does, with those who lead the
flight, and even now does not cease to fly with them.