Page:Post-Mediaeval Preachers.djvu/185

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fill the places with the dead bodies: He shall then exercise judgment over all nations, and, having condemned the wicked, shall perfect and consummate their last extermination. Then shall the places of hell be filled with impious men, and with devils thrust down thither and there enclosed; and that because He shall smite in sunder the heads over divers countries, breaking down the proud, and bringing them into confusion before all the world.

“And would you know why He is given such power to judge the nations and trample upon kings and haughty men? He shall drink of the brook in the way: therefore shall He lift up His head. Because, forsooth, in this way and mortal life, which glides by as a brook, He drank the turbid water, bearing our infirmities, by His Passion descending into the very depths of the stream; therefore, because of this so great humility, hath God highly exalted Him, making Him the Judge of all.

“If indeed in His first Advent it was cried, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest! how much more in that His second triumphal coming will it be cried by angels, by the elect, by kings, by priests, by people, by children, ay! by all creatures, Let the Heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad: let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is. Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh, for He cometh, to judge the earth.

“We too, considering that time of triumph, shall exclaim to our King and Saviour with glad accord, ‘Reign