Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

380 ST. MATTHEW.
True Christians are spiritual eagles, raised by
faith above all things here below, and soaring still
with ardour towards Jesus Christ. Wherever his
mystical body the church, or (the represensation of)
his natural body in the eucharist, is found, there the
elect are gathered together, as so many eagles to
their prey. As soon as Christ shall appear at his
second coming, with the scars of his wounds, and the
standard of his cross, which will renew the memory
of his death ; then all men become, as it were,
eagles by the resurrection ; shall rise in the air to
meet him ; and gather about this carcass, or dead
body, as the Greek expresses it, which, being the
victim of God, was sacrificed on the cross ; there to
receive the sentence of their eternal portion. Let
us earnestly endeavour to be of the number of those
blessed eagles, who shall present themselves with
confidence before Jesus Christ, and be united to his
immortal body to all eternity.
Sect. V. The Sun darkened. The Coming of
Christ.
" 29. f Immediately after the tribulation of those
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall
not give her light, and the stars shall fall from hea-
ven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken :"
The Jewish church ends in the persecution which
fell on the Jews; the Christian church is estab-
lished by the persecutions of the Gentiles. In
times of trial, when the sun of faith seems to be
darkened, and the church not to give her light, when
many of her doctors fall, and her pillars are shaken
then even her greatest lights and strongest supports