270. From all this it can be seen that the Word which is in the possession of the Protestant and Reformed churches, enlightens by spiritual communication all nations and peoples; also that the Lord provides that there shall always be on earth a church where the Word is read, and thereby the Lord is made known. Therefore when the Papists had almost wholly rejected the Word, by the Lord's Divine Providence the Reformation took place, whereby the Word was drawn as it were from concealment and brought into use. So when the Word had been wholly falsified and adulterated by the Jewish nation, and, as it were, made of no effect, it , pleased the Lord to descend from heaven, and to come as the Word, and fulfill it, and thereby to restore and reestablish it, and give light once more to the inhabitants of the earth, according to the words of the Lord:
The people that sit in darkness saw a great light; and to them that sit in the land and shadow of death, to them did the light spring up (Isa. 9:8; Matt. 4:16).
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