35. God will bless the Church in her last times with a manifold gathering of souls. — These things we believe to have been done historically, these we hope to be done mystically. For Job is blessed in his last state more than in his beginning, because, as far as pertains to the reception of the Israelite people, with the end of the present age pressing on, the Lord consoles the sorrow of holy Church with a manifold gathering of souls. For she shall be enriched by so much the more abundantly, as it becomes the more manifest that the temporality of the present life is hastening to its end. For the Psalmist had beheld the preachers of holy Church enriched by the blessing of the last time, when he said: They shall still be multiplied in a fruitful old age, and shall be well-enduring, that they may declare (Ps. 91:15-16).
They are multiplied, namely, in a fruitful old age, because when their life is prolonged, their fortitude is always brought forth to something better, and through the increase of times their gains of merits also grow for them. And they are well-enduring, that they may declare, because, preaching heavenly things, they tolerate adversities by so much the more robustly, as through their endurance they also bring back more richly the advantages of souls. There follows: