The Trumpet of Truth and the Judgment of the Lord

The powers working these things are Jacob, who flutters the mentioned stalk; and Israel, having become higher than all toil through purity of mind, who approaches God. Since he who struggles against the mentioned opponents has need of God's mercy, but he who is unhearing of the truth is said to remember God in harmony with the things foretold, mentioning His mercy to Jacob and His truth to Israel.

And in Jeremiah, he who is beginning in the virtue of mercy, it is necessary, as the one speaking of God says to the God-fearing: 'Remember the mercy of your youth and the perfection of your love' (Jer 46:11); for he who is beginning in mercy, as also he who is led toward perfection in love, is able to say, 'There is the truth of Christ in me.' And as truth is appropriate for those with insight, the Savior says to the two hundred Jews who had believed in him: 'If you remain in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free' (John 8:31-32).

From the occurrence of the prophecy saying, 'All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him' (Ps 97:3c), it shall be said, 'All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.' For the gospel having been preached in all that is under heaven and in all the inhabited world as a testimony to all the nations, according to the oracle of Christ, all the ends of the earth shall see Christ, the salvation of God.

And those who do not see him by mere sight, but with faithful assent to his teaching through which a vision is present; but also toward the intellect, those having passed through the earth and having become higher than it, not thinking of material and earthly things, but seeking and caring for the things above—the ends of the earth—those see salvation and the God who is the cause of it, the salvation of God.

All the earth, that is to say, all people upon the earth, commands a triumphal hymn to be sent up to the Lord, who brings down the invisible enemies of men, the devil and his attendants (Ps 97:4-5). And all those upon the earth, shouting to him, let them sing to him and with the lyre. But what is the lyre, as I have often said, and what is to sing in it, what it is in practice through the body...

To work the things of virtue through all the powers of the soul. And those who, plucking with this harp and uttering a song, receive a command, it is not the voice of a psalm, but rather the contemplation concerning the practical matters, instead of that which is struck upon the psalm through the instrument and some voice singing.

They blow trumpets in elms, brightly and with fire proclaiming the word of truth (Ps 97:6a). For they are not sufficient to truly awaken for a spiritual feast, saying, 'Our sufficiency is from God,' who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, who alone are able to utter this, enriching with every word and all knowledge. But those who fight against the word blow with the horn, being able against sophisms and deceptive words. And if an interpreter of divine instruction stands, he uses a trumpet of elm to utter words pedagogically and demonstratively, but he constrains the opponents of the truth with a horn.

And those divided by wisdom and by conduct, who having profited through the height of faith, rejoice, not being guilty of the judgment which the Lord came to perform (Ps 97:8b). For the Lord says, 'He who believes in me shall not be judged' (cf. John 3:18), that is, he is not subject to accusations, but stands at the step of Christ to receive the promised good things. And judging the inhabited world in righteousness, he will judge with uprightness those who have been made his own as his people, since the peoples have a straight heart and straight deeds; for he will render to each according to his deed (Ps 98:2).

Previously in Zion, according to the gift of the law and the prophets, the Lord is great, but he is so much higher than all the peoples coming from the nations through faith (Ps 97:7). For glory and honor and peace belong to everyone who works the good, first to the Jew and also to the Greek; for having been lifted up from the earth, he has drawn all to himself. Both the high and the great exist according to his nature. For he dwells in the high places, and he is great and exceedingly praiseworthy, while the generated nature is lowly and brief, and rather nothing in comparison to him. We have a vision of his highness, we who think of the things above; but also, proclaiming great things about him, we contemplate his magnitude. But not the...