Section 445
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414 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. these enemies of God are no more, because they never were.* For a short time, indeed, they created alarm, whilst themselves were troubled ; then suffering the severe punishment which they owed to divine justice, they overturned themselves, and friends, and habitations to the dust. So that it is confessed those decla rations inscribed of old on the sacred tablets, are proved as true by facts, in which the divine Word, among others, also asserts the following concerning them : ' The ungodly have drawn out the sword, they have bent the bow to cast down the poor . and needy, and to slay such as are of an upright walk. Their sword shall pierce through their own heart, and their bows shall .be broken.' And, again, ' Their memory is perished with a sound, and their name hast thou blotted out for ever and ever. Because when they were in miseries they cried, and there was none to save, even to the Lord, and he heard them not. They were boundf and fell, but we are raised and stand upright.' " That, too, which was declared before, in the following words, O Lord, thou shalt annihilate their image in thy city,' is truly manifested to the eyes of all. But after waging a war against God, like tbe giants, they terminated their lives in this manner ; whilst she " which was desolate, and rejected of men," has re ceived that consummation that we have seen, for her patient en durance in God, so that the prophecy of Isaiah seemed to utter these things ; Rejoice, thirsty desert, let the desert exult and blossom as the lily, and the desert places shall flourish and be This expression seems to have been misapprehended by Valesius and Shorting. It simply expresses the utter nothingness of the enemies of God. No expression could represent human weakness in a stronger light when arrayed against Omni potence. It is scarcely hyperbolical to say such poiver never -was. The com pound word Set/ia-