Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Vers. 8. He will destroy death for ever: and the Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the rebuke of his people will he take away out of the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

Vers. 8. He will destroy death for euer: and the Lord will wipe away the teares from all faces, and the rebuke of his people will he take away out of the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

The Prophet goes on still with the matter in hand, for in sum, he promiseth that there shall be perfect felicity under the kingdom of Christ. And the better to express it, he useth many figures very fitting and agreeable for his present purpose.¹ True felicity stands not in earthly nor transitory things, but in that which can not be taken from us by death: for in the chiefest delights the pleasure thereof is much diminished, because they can not last always. He joins two things together then which make happiness full and complete: first, that a man may live ever (for §1it is a miserable thing for them to die which otherwise were once happy for a time) secondly, that this life be joined with joy, for without that death seems better then a life full of trouble & calamities. Further he ads, §2that all rebuke being taken away, this life shall be glorious: for otherwise the woeful oppression of the people which they endured might have seemed to contradict this prophecy. Quest. But some may ask to what time these promises should be referred: for whilst we are in this world we must fight against many assaults, and that without any intermission: so as we are not destinate to die once only, but every day. To which purpose S. Paul complains, that he and the chief pillars of the Church in his time were gazing-stocks unto ⟨p. 243⟩all the world sustaining all sorts of reproaches, being esteemed no better then the offscouring and refuse of the same. In what time, or when are these things fulfilled then? Ans. No doubt they are to be referred to the whole Kingdom of Christ: