Chapter XLIX.—Two Comings of Christ.

“His coming, therefore, was predicted by Moses, who delivered the law of God to men; but by another also before him, as I have already informed you.  He therefore intimated that He should come, humble indeed in His first coming, but glorious in His second.  And the first, indeed, has been already accomplished; since He has come and taught, and He, the Judge of all, has been judged and slain.  But at His second coming He shall come to judge, and shall indeed condemn the wicked, but shall take the pious into a share and association with Himself in His kingdom.  Now the faith of His second coming depends upon His first.  For the prophets—especially Jacob and Moses—spoke of the first, but some also of the second.  But the excellency of prophecy is chiefly shown in this, that the prophets spoke not of things to come, according to the sequence of things; otherwise they might seem merely as wise men to have conjectured what the sequence of things pointed out.”