{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>It is the last judgment of God which is referred to also in\r\nthe 50th Psalm in the words, \"God shall come manifestly,\r\nour God, and shall not keep silence: fire shall devour before\r\nHim, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He\r\nshall call the heaven above, and the earth, to judge His\r\npeople. Gather His saints together to Him; they who make\r\na covenant with Him over sacrifices.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_807_807\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_807_807\">[807]</a> This we understand\r\nof our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from heaven to\r\njudge the quick and the dead. For He shall come manifestly\r\nto judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came\r\nhiddenly to be unjustly judged by the unjust. He, I say,\r\nshall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence, that is, shall<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_398\">[Pg 398]</a></span>\r\nmake Himself known by His voice of judgment, who before,\r\nwhen He came hiddenly, was silent before His judge when\r\nHe was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and, as a lamb before\r\nthe shearer, opened not His mouth, as we read that it was\r\nprophesied of Him by Isaiah,<a id=\"FNanchor_808_808\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_808_808\">[808]</a> and as we see it fulfilled in the\r\nGospel.<a id=\"FNanchor_809_809\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_809_809\">[809]</a> As for the <i>fire</i> and <i>tempest</i>, we have already said\r\nhow these are to be interpreted when we were explaining a\r\nsimilar passage in Isaiah.<a id=\"FNanchor_810_810\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_810_810\">[810]</a> As to the expression, \"He shall\r\ncall the heaven above,\" as the saints and the righteous are\r\nrightly called <i>heaven</i>, no doubt this means what the apostle\r\nsays, \"We shall be caught up together with them in the\r\nclouds, to meet the Lord in the air.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_811_811\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_811_811\">[811]</a> For if we take the\r\nbare literal sense, how is it possible to call the heaven above,\r\nas if the heaven could be anywhere else than above? And\r\nthe following expression, \"And the earth to judge His people,\"\r\nif we supply only the words, \"He shall call,\" that is to say,\r\n\"He shall call the earth also,\" and do not supply \"above,\"\r\nseems to give us a meaning in accordance with sound doctrine,\r\nthe heaven symbolizing those who will judge along with\r\nChrist, and the earth those who shall be judged; and thus\r\nthe words, \"He shall call the heaven above,\" would not\r\nmean, \"He shall catch up into the air,\" but \"He shall lift up\r\nto seats of judgment.\" Possibly, too, \"He shall call the\r\nheaven,\" may mean, He shall call the angels in the high and\r\nlofty places, that He may descend with them to do judgment;\r\nand \"He shall call the earth also\" would then mean, He shall\r\ncall the men on the earth to judgment. But if with the words\r\n\"and the earth\" we understand not only \"He shall call,\" but\r\nalso \"above,\" so as to make the full sense be, He shall call\r\nthe heaven above, and He shall call the earth above, then I\r\nthink it is best understood of the men who shall be caught\r\nup to meet Christ in the air, and that they are called <i>the\r\nheaven</i> with reference to their souls, and <i>the earth</i> with reference\r\nto their bodies. Then what is \"to judge His people,\"\r\nbut to separate by judgment the good from the bad, as the\r\nsheep from the goats? Then he turns to address the angels:\r\n\"Gather His saints together unto Him.\" For certainly a<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_399\">[Pg 399]</a></span>\r\nmatter so important must be accomplished by the ministry of\r\nangels. And if we ask who the saints are who are gathered\r\nunto Him by the angels, we are told, \"They who make a\r\ncovenant with Him over sacrifices.\" This is the whole life of\r\nthe saints, to make a covenant with God over sacrifices. For\r\n\"over sacrifices\" either refers to works of mercy, which are\r\npreferable to sacrifices in the judgment of God, who says,\r\n\"I desire mercy more than sacrifices;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_812_812\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_812_812\">[812]</a> or if \"over sacrifices\"\r\nmeans in sacrifices, then these very works of mercy are\r\nthe sacrifices with which God is pleased, as I remember to\r\nhave stated in the tenth book of this work;<a id=\"FNanchor_813_813\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_813_813\">[813]</a> and in these\r\nworks the saints make a covenant with God, because they do\r\nthem for the sake of the promises which are contained in His\r\nnew testament or covenant. And hence, when His saints\r\nhave been gathered to Him and set at His right hand in the\r\nlast judgment, Christ shall say, \"Come, ye blessed of my\r\nFather, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from\r\nthe foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave\r\nme to eat,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_814_814\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_814_814\">[814]</a> and so on, mentioning the good works of the\r\ngood, and their eternal rewards assigned by the last sentence\r\nof the Judge.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTIETH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-629"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"35103f4c22604e2d5b3d31ab1dfcf445d4a8ee6dbd2ec66278cfd1a7947e7985","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"HOS","chapter":6,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Hos. vi. 6","verse":6,"verse_end":6}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_812_812","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_812_812","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_812_812\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_812_812\"><span class=\"label\">[812]</span></a> Hos. vi. 6.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_812_812","text_sha256":"a6d9feaf0f51b48cfd23f1fd7149905b250e9a4ef9c4eeb2abf2976f67089dff","verified":false,"work_id":null}