Zion, the Mountain of the Church

… of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will declare to us His way, and we will walk in it. For out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).

For his vision had come to its end, and the close of the prophecy that went before was this: “For they will be ashamed of their idols, which they themselves wanted, and they were ashamed of their gardens, which they desired” (Isaiah 1:29). In what way those of Israel were put to shame over their idols, we have said sufficiently.

But since mention has been made of the prophecy concerning them, the prophet, beginning the second vision that follows close upon it, marks out the time in which the power of the devil will fall, not in some one part of the earth, nor in a single country and city, while the worship of idols and its profane apparatus are torn down altogether; rather, such a disease will be taken away from the whole world under heaven, and with it the tyranny of the unclean demons.

This too has been accomplished for those on earth “in the last days,” that is, in the final times of the present age, in which the only-begotten Word of God shone forth, born of a woman (Galatians 4:4). It was then that He presented to Himself the spiritual Judea, or Jerusalem, that is, the Church, a pure virgin (2 Corinthians 11:2), “having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” as it is written, but rather “holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).

Of her he says that “in the last days the mountain of the Lord will be manifest, and the house of the God of Jacob on the tops of the mountains” (Isaiah 2:2). The Zion in Judea, we are told, lies on a mountain and is built there. But in these words the Church would be understood not in a bodily sense but rather spiritually; and she is likened to a mountain. For she is truly high and seen from every side, and very well known to people everywhere.

She is high in another way too. For she minds nothing earthly, but stands above earthly things; as far as she can, she gazes on the glory of God with the eyes of the mind, and she glories in the very lofty doctrines about Him. The chosen men of the Greeks, though they raise their brows high over their wisdom, make gods of the creation and fasten their reverence on the elements of the world. For their mind is low, their speculations are cast to the ground, and their heart is darkened (Romans 1:21): “claiming to be wise, they became fools,” as it is written (Romans 1:22).

But the spiritual Zion, that is, the Church, soars above all creation, visible and invisible, and reaches the very nature that is beyond all things. For she is filled with the divine light; and recognising that nature as the Maker and Craftsman of all things, she ascribes to it, and to it alone, the power over all. And with such glory, crowning …