The History of the Waldensians

Preface.

of the Hittites. This refers to Ezekiel 16:3, where God describes the lowly origins of Jerusalem/the Church, saying her "mother was a Hittite." 4. Your birth was as follows: your navel was not cut when you were born, nor were you bathed with water to make you clean, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5. For no one pitied you, to show mercy upon you or to perform these tasks for you; but you were cast out into the open field and were despised, for your soul was loathsome on the day you were born. See, such is she in herself; and therefore the Church confesses not only that she is without ornament, but also that she is misshapen and unclean. Isaiah 64:6. We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as a filthy rag: we all fade as a leaf, and our sins take us away like the wind, etc. And with the Prophet David in Psalm 51:7 In modern Bibles, this is Psalm 51:5.: I was born from sinful seed, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And therefore she prays in verse 9: Purge me with hyssop that I may be clean; wash me that I may be snow-white, which is to say, beautiful.

But all her beauty has come to her from the outside, and was granted by God out of grace according to His Mercy; for when He had beheld her in her former state, He testifies in Ezekiel 16:6: I passed by you and saw you lying in your blood, and I said to you, while you lay there in your blood: You shall live. Yes, I said to you while you lay in your blood: You shall live. 7. And I caused you to increase by the thousands like the growth in the field, and so you were increased and grew, and came to the greatest beauty, even though you were naked and very bare, etc. 9. And I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you, and anointed you with balsam. 10. And I clothed you with embroidered garments, and put shoes of fine leather upon you, etc.

And this is also what is testified in Psalm 45:14: She is clothed with golden pieces; she is led in embroidered garments to the King. Likewise, pointing to the same thing, the Bridegroom In this context, the Bridegroom represents Christ. says in Song of Solomon 1:11: We will make you golden chains with silver studs. Also in Revelation 12, she is shown to be a Woman clothed with the Sun. By this, it is indicated that she receives all her glory and radiance from the Sun, namely Christ, who is called the Sun of Righteousness in Malachi 4:2. For it is He who has adorned and enriched her with gifts, both internal and external, with internal and external ornament and beauty; just as this twofold ornament can be gathered from the previously mentioned places: the internal is described in Psalm 45:14.