Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Isaiah confirms that which he said erewhile, to wit,¹ that the Lord would cause the Church which a long time was a widow and barren, to bring forth an innumerable of spring, so as her self should be constrained to admire at her own fruitfulness. And this he doth to remove all scruples and doubtings, which peradventure might arise in their minds. But ⟨p. 525⟩the Lord pronounceth, that he will not only give children to his Church among the Jews (as in former time) but among the Gentiles also: and yet he shows, that this generation shall be spiritual, to wit, by the grace of adoption. To which purpose appertains the similitude of the standard, for thereby he encourageth the faithful to hope for a new kind of generation, far different from that which we see in the common course of nature. It was necessary then that the Lord should set up his standard, and to discover his secret power by the preaching of the Gospel, that among so many sorts of languages and differing dispositions, he might bring children to the Church, and to be made one with her in the same faith, even as brethren gather together into the lap of their mother.