Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 9.djvu/38

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16
IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
[Book iv.

Jeremiah, too, makes this point still clearer, when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem: "She that hath born [seven] languisheth; her soul hath become weary; her sun hath gone down while it was yet noon; she hath been confounded, and suffered reproach: the remainder of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies."[1]

13. Those of them, again, who spoke of His having slumbered and taken sleep, and of His having risen again because the Lord sustained Him,[2] and who enjoined the principalities of heaven to set open the everlasting doors, that the King of glory might go in,[3] proclaimed beforehand His resurrection from the dead through the Father's power, and His reception into heaven. And when they expressed themselves thus, "His going forth is from the height of heaven, and His returning even to the highest heaven; and there is no one who can hide himself from His heat,"[4] they announced that very truth of His being taken up again to the place from which He came down, and that there is no one who can escape His righteous judgment. And those who said, "The Lord hath reigned; let the people be enraged: [even] He who sitteth upon the cherubim; let the earth be moved,"[5] were thus predicting partly that wrath from all nations which after His ascension came upon those who believed in Him, with the movement of the whole earth against the church; and partly the fact that, when He comes from heaven with His mighty angels, the whole earth shall be shaken, as He Himself declares, "There shall be a great earthquake, such as has not been from the beginning."[6] And again, when one says, "Whosoever is judged, let him stand opposite; and whosoever is justified, let him draw near to the servant[7] of God;"[8] and, "Woe unto you, for ye shall all wax old as doth a garment, and the moth shall eat you up;" and, "All flesh shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in the highest,"[9]—it is thus indicated that, after His passion and ascension, God shall cast down under His feet all who were

  1. Jer. xv. 9.
  2. Ps. iii. 5.
  3. Ps. xxiv. 7.
  4. Ps. xix. 6.
  5. Ps. xcix. 1.
  6. Matt. xxiv. 21.
  7. Or "son."
  8. Isa. l. 8, 9 (loosely quoted).
  9. Isa. ii. 17.