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| − | ON THE CITY OF GOD, BOOK XX
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| − | [[Directory:Logic Museum/Augustine City of God|Index]]
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| − | Translated by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Dods_%28theologian%29 Marcus Dods]
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| − | *[[#c0|Introduction]]
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| − | *[[#c1|Chapter 1]] That Although God is Always Judging, It is Nevertheless Reasonable to Confine Our Attention in This Book to His Last Judgment
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| − | *[[#c2|Chapter 2]] That in the Mingled Web of Human Affairs God's Judgment is Present, Though It Cannot Be Discerned
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| − | *[[#c3|Chapter 3]] What Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Says Regarding the Things Which Happen Alike to Good and Wicked Men
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| − | *[[#c4|Chapter 4]] That Proofs of the Last Judgment Will Be Adduced, First from the New Testament, and Then from the Old
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| − | *[[#c5|Chapter 5]] The Passages in Which the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the End of the World
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| − | *[[#c6|Chapter 6]] What is the First Resurrection, and What the Second
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| − | *[[#c7|Chapter 7]] What is Written in the Revelation of John Regarding the Two Resurrections, and the Thousand Years, and What May Reasonably Be Held on These Points
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| − | *[[#c8|Chapter 8]] Of the Binding and Loosing of the Devil
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| − | *[[#c9|Chapter 9]] What the Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thousand Years Is, and How It Differs from the Eternal Kingdom
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| − | *[[#c10|Chapter 10]] What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls
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| − | *[[#c11|Chapter 11]] Of Gog and Magog, Who are to Be Roused by the Devil to Persecute the Church, When He is Loosed in the End of the World
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| − | *[[#c12|Chapter 12]] Whether the Fire that Came Down Out of Heaven and Devoured Them Refers to the Last Punishment of the Wicked
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| − | *[[#c13|Chapter 13]] Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years
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| − | *[[#c14|Chapter 14]] Of the Damnation of the Devil and His Adherents; And a Sketch of the Bodily Resurrection of All the Dead, and of the Final Retributive Judgment
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| − | *[[#c15|Chapter 15]] Who the Dead are Who are Given Up to Judgment by the Sea, and by Death and Hell
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| − | *[[#c16|Chapter 16]] Of the New Heaven and the New Earth
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| − | *[[#c17|Chapter 17]] Of the Endless Glory of the Church
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| − | *[[#c18|Chapter 18]] What the Apostle Peter Predicted Regarding the Last Judgment
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| − | *[[#c19|Chapter 19]] What the Apostle Paul Wrote to the Thessalonians About the Manifestation of Antichrist Which Shall Precede the Day of the Lord
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| − | *[[#c20|Chapter 20]] What the Same Apostle Taught in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead
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| − | *[[#c21|Chapter 21]] Utterances of the Prophet Isaiah Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead and the Retributive Judgment
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| − | *[[#c22|Chapter 22]] What is Meant by the Good Going Out to See the Punishment of the Wicked
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| − | *[[#c23|Chapter 23]] What Daniel Predicted Regarding the Persecution of Antichrist, the Judgment of God, and the Kingdom of the Saints
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| − | *[[#c24|Chapter 24]] Passages from the Psalms of David Which Predict the End of the World and the Last Judgment
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| − | *[[#c25|Chapter 25]] Of Malachi's Prophecy, in Which He Speaks of the Last Judgment, and of a Cleansing Which Some are to Undergo by Purifying Punishments
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| − | *[[#c26|Chapter 26]] Of the Sacrifices Offered to God by the Saints, Which are to Be Pleasing to Him, as in the Primitive Days and Former Years
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| − | *[[#c27|Chapter 27]] Of the Separation of the Good and the Bad, Which Proclaim the Discriminating Influence of the Last Judgment
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| − | *[[#c28|Chapter 28]] That the Law of Moses Must Be Spiritually Understood to Preclude the Damnable Murmurs of a Carnal Interpretation
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| − | *[[#c29|Chapter 29]] Of the Coming of Elias Before the Judgment, that the Jews May Be Converted to Christ by His Preaching and Explanation of Scripture
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| − | *[[#c30|Chapter 30]] That in the Books of the Old Testament, Where It is Said that God Shall Judge the World, the Person of Christ is Not Explicitly Indicated, But It Plainly Appears from Some Passages in Which the Lord God Speaks that Christ is Meant
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| − | ||<div id="c0"><b>BOOK XX</b> [] ||The City of God (Book XX) Argument-Concerning the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the old and new testaments.
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| − | ||<div id="c1"><b>BOOK XX</b> [I] De die ultimi iudicii Dei quod ipse donaverit locuturi eumque adserturi adversus impios et incredulos tamquam in aedificii fundamento prius ponere testimonia divina debemus; quibus qui nolunt credere humanis ratiunculis falsis atque fallacibus contravenire conantur, ad hoc ut aut aliud significare contendant quod adhibetur testimonium de litteris sacris, aut omnino divinitus esse dictum negent. Nam nullum existimo esse mortalium, qui cum ea, sicut dicta sunt, intellexerit et a summo ac vero Deo per animas sanctas dicta esse crediderit, non eis cedat atque consentiat, sive id etiam ore fateatur sive aliquo vitio fateri erubescat aut metuat, vel etiam peruicacia simillima insaniae id, quod falsum esse novit aut credit, <contra id, quod verum esse novit aut credit,> etiam contentiosissime defendere moliatur. Quod ergo in confessione ac professione tenet omnis ecclesia Dei veri Christum de caelo esse venturum ad vivos ac mortuos iudicandos, hunc divini iudicii ultimum diem dicimus, id est novissimum tempus. Nam per quot dies hoc iudicium tendatur, incertum est; sed scripturarum more sanctarum diem poni solere pro tempore nemo, qui illas litteras quamlibet neglegenter legerit, nescit. Ideo autem, cum diem iudicii Dei dicimus, addimus ultimum vel novissimum, quia et nunc iudicat et ab humani generis initio iudicavit dimittens de paradiso et a ligno vitae separans primos homines peccati magni perpetratores; immo etiam quando angelis peccantibus non pepercit, quorum princeps homines a se ipso subuersus inuidendo subuertit, procul dubio iudicavit; nec sine illius alto iustoque iudicio et in hoc aerio caelo et in terris et daemonum et hominum miserrima est vita, erroribus aerumnisque plenissima. Verum etsi nemo peccasset, non sine bono rectoque iudicio universam rationalem creaturam perseuerantissime sibi suo Domino cohaerentem in aeterna beatitudine retineret. Iudicat etiam non solum universaliter de genere daemonum atque hominum, ut miseri sint propter primorum meritum peccatorum; sed etiam de singulorum operibus propriis, quae gerunt arbitrio voluntatis. Nam et daemones ne torqueantur precantur, nec utique iniuste vel parcitur eis vel pro sua quique inprobitate torquentur; et homines plerumque aperte, semper occulte, luunt pro suis factis divinitus poenas sive in hac vita sive post mortem: quamuis nullus hominum agat recte, nisi divino adivuetur auxilio; nullus daemonum aut hominum agat inique, nisi divino eodemque iustissimo iudicio permittatur. Sicut enim ait apostolus, non est iniquitas apud Deum; etiam sicut ipse alibi dicit, inscrutabilia sunt iudicia eius et investigabiles viae eius. Non igitur in hoc libro de illis primis nec de istis mediis Dei iudiciis, sed de ipso novissimo, quantum ipse tribuerit, disputabo, quando Christus de caelo venturus est vivos iudicaturus et mortuos. Iste quippe dies iudicii proprie iam vocatur, eo quod nullus ibi erit inperitae querellae locus, cur iniustus ille sit felix et cur ille iustus infelix. Omnium namque tunc nonnisi bonorum vera et plena felicitas et omnium nonnisi malorum digna et summa infelicitas apparebit. ||Intending to speak, in dependence on God's grace, of the day of His final judgment, and to affirm it against the ungodly and incredulous, we must first of all lay, as it were, in the foundation of the edifice the divine declarations. Those persons who do not believe such declarations do their best to oppose to them false and illusive sophisms of their own, either contending that what is adduced from Scripture has another meaning, or altogether denying that it is an utterance of God's. For I suppose no man who understands what is written, and believes it to be communicated by the supreme and true God through holy men, refuses to yield and consent to these declarations, whether he orally confesses his consent, or is from some evil influence ashamed or afraid to do so; or even, with an opinionativeness closely resembling madness, makes strenuous efforts to defend what he knows and believes to be false against what he knows and believes to be true.That, therefore, which the whole Church of the true God holds and professes as its creed, that Christ shall come from heaven to judge quick and dead, this we call the last day, or last time, of the divine judgment. For we do not know how many days this judgment may occupy; but no one who reads the Scriptures, however negligently, need be told that in them "day" is customarily used for "time." And when we speak of the day of God's judgment, we add the word last or final for this reason, because even now God judges, and has judged from the beginning of human history, banishing from paradise, and excluding from the tree of life, those first men who perpetrated so great a sin. Yea, He was certainly exercising judgment also when He did not spare the angels who sinned, whose prince, overcome by envy, seduced men after being himself seduced. Neither is it without God's profound and just judgment that the life of demons and men, the one in the air, the other on earth, is filled with misery, calamities, and mistakes. And even though no one had sinned, it could only have been by the good and right judgment of God that the whole rational creation could have been maintained in eternal blessedness by a persevering adherence to its Lord. He judges, too, not only in the mass, condemning the race of devils and the race of men to be miserable on account of the original sin of these races, but He also judges the voluntary and personal acts of individuals. For even the devils pray that they may not be tormented, Matthew 8:29 which proves that without injustice they might either be spared or tormented according to their deserts. And men are punished by God for their sins often visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after death, although no man acts rightly save by the assistance of divine aid; and no man or devil acts unrighteously save by the permission of the divine and most just judgment. For, as the apostle says, "There is no unrighteousness with God;" Romans 9:14 and as he elsewhere says, "His judgments are inscrutable, and His ways past finding out." Romans 11:33 In this book, then, I shall speak, as God permits, not of those first judgments, nor of these intervening judgments of God, but of the last judgment, when Christ is to come from heaven to judge the quick and the dead. For that day is properly called the day of judgment, because in it there shall be no room left for the ignorant questioning why this wicked person is happy and that righteous man unhappy. In that day true and full happiness shall be the lot of none but the good, while deserved and supreme misery shall be the portion of the wicked, and of them only.
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| − | ||<div id="c2"><b>BOOK XX</b> [II] Nunc autem et mala aequo animo ferre discimus, quae patiuntur et boni, et bona non magnipendere, quae adipiscuntur et mali; ac per hoc etiam in his rebus, in quibus non apparet divina iustitia, salutaris est divina doctrina. Nescimus enim quo iudicio Dei bonus ille sit pauper, malus ille sit dives; iste gaudeat, quem pro suis perditis moribus cruciari debuisse maeroribus arbitramur, contristetur ille, quem vita laudabilis gaudere debuisse persuadet; exeat de iudicio non solum inultus, verum etiam damnatus innocens, aut iniquitate iudicis pressus aut falsis obrutus testimoniis, e contrario scelestus adversarius eius non solum inpunitus, verum etiam vindicatus insultet; impius optime valeat, pius languore tabescat; latrocinentur sanissimi ivuenes, et qui nec verbo quemquam laedere potuerunt, diversa morborum atrocitate affligantur infantes; utilis rebus humanis inmatura morte rapiatur, et qui videtur nec nasci debuisse, diutissime insuper vivat; plenus criminibus sublimetur honoribus, et hominem sine querella tenebrae ignobilitatis abscondant, et cetera huius modi, quae quis colligit, quis enumerat? Quae si haberent in ipsa velut absurditate constantiam, ut in hac vita, in qua homo, sicut sacer psalmus eloquitur, uanitati similis factus est et dies eius velut umbra praetereunt, non nisi mali adipiscerentur transitoria bona ista atque terrena, nec nisi boni talia paterentur mala: posset hoc referri ad iudicium iustum Dei sive etiam benignum, ut, qui non erant adsecuturi bona aeterna, quae faciunt beatos, temporalibus vel deciperentur pro malitia sua vel pro Dei misericordia consolarentur bonis, et qui non erant passuri aeterna tormenta, temporalibus vel pro suis quibuscumque et quantiscumque peccatis affligerentur vel propter implendas virtutes exercerentur malis. Nunc vero, quando non solum in malo sunt boni et in bono mali, quod videtur iniustum, verum etiam plerumque et malis mala eveniunt et bonis bona proveniunt: magis inscrutabilia fiunt iudicia Dei et investigabiles viae eius. Quamuis ergo nesciamus quo iudicio Deus ista vel faciat vel fieri sinat, apud quem summa virtus est, summa sapientia, summa iustitia, nulla infirmitas, nulla temeritas, nulla iniquitas: salubriter tamen discimus non magnipendere seu bona seu mala, quae videmus esse bonis malisque communia, et illa bona quaerere, quae bonorum, atque illa mala maxime fugere, quae propria sunt malorum. Cum vero ad illud Dei iudicium venerimus, cuius tempus iam proprie dies iudicii et aliquando dies Domini nuncupatur: non solum quaecumque tunc iudicabuntur, verum etiam quaecumque ab initio iudicata et quaecumque usque ad illud tempus adhuc iudicanda sunt, apparebunt esse iustissima. Vbi hoc quoque manifestabitur, quam iusto iudicio Dei fiat, ut nunc tam multa ac paene omnia iusta iudicia Dei lateant sensus mentesque mortalium, cum tamen in hac re piorum fidem non lateat, iustum esse quod latet. ||In this present time we learn to bear with equanimity the ills to which even good men are subject, and to hold cheap the blessings which even the wicked enjoy. And consequently, even in those conditions of life in which the justice of God is not apparent, His teaching is salutary. For we do not know by what judgment of God this good man is poor and that bad man rich; why he who, in our opinion, ought to suffer acutely for his abandoned life enjoys himself, while sorrow pursues him whose praiseworthy life leads us to suppose he should be happy; why the innocent man is dismissed from the bar not only unavenged, but even condemned, being either wronged by the iniquity of the judge, or overwhelmed by false evidence, while his guilty adversary, on the other hand, is not only discharged with impunity, but even has his claims admitted; why the ungodly enjoys good health, while the godly pines in sickness; why ruffians are of the soundest constitution, while they who could not hurt any one even with a word are from infancy afflicted with complicated disorders; why he who is useful to society is cut off by premature death, while those who, as it might seem, ought never to have been so much as born have lives of unusual length; why he who is full of crimes is crowned with honors, while the blameless man is buried in the darkness of neglect. But who can collect or enumerate all the contrasts of this kind? But if this anomalous state of things were uniform in this life, in which, as the sacred Psalmist says, "Man is like to vanity, his days as a shadow that passes away,"-so uniform that none but wicked men won the transitory prosperity of earth, while only the good suffered its ills,-this could be referred to the just and even benign judgment of God. We might suppose that they who were not destined to obtain those everlasting benefits which constitute human blessedness were either deluded by transitory blessings as the just reward of their wickedness, or were, in God's mercy, consoled by them, and that they who were not destined to suffer eternal torments were afflicted with temporal chastisement for their sins, or were stimulated to greater attainment in virtue. But now, as it is, since we not only see good men involved in the ills of life, and bad men enjoying the good of it, which seems unjust, but also that evil often overtakes evil men, and good surprises the good, the rather on this account are God's judgments unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. Although, therefore, we do not know by what judgment these things are done or permitted to be done by God, with whom is the highest virtue, the highest wisdom, the highest justice, no infirmity, no rashness, no unrighteousness, yet it is salutary for us to learn to hold cheap such things, be they good or evil, as attach indifferently to good men and bad, and to covet those good things which belong only to good men, and flee those evils which belong only to evil men. But when we shall have come to that judgment, the date of which is called peculiarly the day of judgment, and sometimes the day of the Lord, we shall then recognize the justice of all God's judgments, not only of such as shall then be pronounced, but, of all which take effect from the beginning, or may take effect before that time. And in that day we shall also recognize with what justice so many, or almost all, the just judgments of God in the present life defy the scrutiny of human sense or insight, though in this matter it is not concealed from pious minds that what is concealed is just.
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| − | ||<div id="c3"><b>BOOK XX</b> [III] Nempe Salomon, sapientissimus rex Israel, qui regnavit in Hierusalem, librum, qui vocatur ecclesiastes et a Iudaeis quoque habetur in sacrarum canone litterarum, sic exorsus est: Vanitas uanitatum, dixit Ecclesiastes; uanitas uanitantium, omnia uanitas. Quae abundantia homini in omni labore suo, quo laborat sub sole? Et cum ex hac sententia conecteret cetera, commemorans aerumnas erroresque vitae huius et uanescentes interea temporum lapsus, ubi nihil solidum, nihil stabile retinetur: in ea rerum uanitate sub sole illud etiam deplorat quodam modo, quod, cum sit abundantia sapientiae super insipientiam, sicut abundantia lucis super tenebras, sapientisque oculi sint in capite ipsius et stultus in tenebris ambulet, unus tamen incursus incurrat omnibus, utique in hac vita quae sub sole agitur, significans videlicet ea mala, quae bonis et malis videmus esse communia. Dicit etiam illud, quod et boni patiantur mala, tamquam mali sint, et mali, tamquam boni sint, adipiscantur bona, ita loquens: Est, inquit, uanitas, quae facta est super terram, quia sunt iusti, super quos venit sicut factum impiorum, et sunt impii, super quos venit sicut factum iustorum. Dixi quoniam hoc quoque uanitas. In hac uanitate, cui quantum satis visum est intimandae totum istum librum vir sapientissimus deputavit (non utique ob aliud, nisi ut eam vitam desideremus, quae uanitatem non habet sub hoc sole, sed veritatem sub illo qui fecit hunc solem), _ in hac ergo uanitate numquid nisi iusto Dei rectoque iudicio similis eidem uanitati factus uanesceret homo? In diebus tamen uanitatis suae interest plurimum, utrum resistat an obtemperet veritati, et utrum sit expers verae pietatis an particeps; non propter vitae huius vel bona adquirenda vel mala vitanda uanescendo transeuntia, sed propter futurum iudicium, per quod erunt et bonis bona et malis mala sine fine mansura. Denique iste sapiens hunc librum sic conclusit, ut diceret: Deum time et mandata eius custodi, quia hoc est omnis homo; quia omne hoc opus Deus adducet in iudicium in omni despecto, sive bonum sive malum. Quid brevius, verius, salubrius dici potuit? Deum, inquit, time et mandata eius custodi, quia hoc est omnis homo. Quicumque enim est, hoc est, custos utique mandatorum Dei; quoniam qui hoc non est, nihil est; non enim ad veritatis imaginem reformatur, remanens in similitudine uanitatis. Quia omne hoc opus, id est, quod ab homine fit in hac vita, sive bonum sive malum, Deus adducet in iudicium in omni despecto, id est in omni etiam qui contemptibilis hic videtur et ideo nec videtur; quoniam Deus et ipsum videt nec eum despicit nec cum iudicat praeterit. ||Solomon, the wisest king of Israel, who reigned in Jerusalem, thus commences the book called Ecclesiastes, which the Jews number among their canonical Scriptures: "Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit has a man of all his labor which he has taken under the sun?" And after going on to enumerate, with this as his text, the calamities and delusions of this life, and the shifting nature of the present time, in which there is nothing substantial, nothing lasting, he bewails, among the other vanities that are under the sun, this also, that though wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness, and though the eyes of the wise man are in his head, while the fool walks in darkness, Ecclesiastes 2:13-14 yet one event happens to them all, that is to say, in this life under the sun, unquestionably alluding to those evils which we see befall good and bad men alike. He says, further, that the good suffer the ills of life as if they were evil doers, and the bad enjoy the good of life as if they were good. "There is a vanity which is done upon the earth; that there be just men unto whom it happens according to the work of the wicked: again, there be wicked men, to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said, that this also is vanity." Ecclesiastes 8:14 This wisest man devoted this whole book to a full exposure of this vanity, evidently with no other object than that we might long for that life in which there is no vanity under the sun, but verity under Him who made the sun. In this vanity, then, was it not by the just and righteous judgment of God that man, made like to vanity, was destined to pass away? But in these days of vanity it makes an important difference whether he resists or yields to the truth, and whether he is destitute of true piety or a partaker of it,-important not so far as regards the acquirement of the blessings or the evasion of the calamities of this transitory and vain life, but in connection with the future judgment which shall make over to good men good things, and to bad men bad things, in permanent, inalienable possession. In fine, this wise man concludes this book of his by saying, "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is every man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every despised person, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 What truer, terser, more salutary enouncement could be made? "Fear God, he says, and keep His commandments: for this is every man." For whosoever has real existence, is this, is a keeper of God's commandments; and he who is not this, is nothing. For so long as he remains in the likeness of vanity, he is not renewed in the image of the truth. "For God shall bring into judgment every work,"-that is, whatever man does in this life,-"whether it be good or whether it be evil, with every despised person,"-that is, with every man who here seems despicable, and is therefore not considered; for God sees even him and does not despise him nor pass him over in His judgment.
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| − | ||<div id="c4"><b>BOOK XX</b> [IV] Huius itaque ultimi iudicii Dei testimonia de scripturis sanctis, quae ponere institui, prius eligenda sunt de libris instrumenti novi, postea de ueteris. Quamuis enim uetera priora sint tempore, noua tamen anteponenda sunt dignitate, quoniam illa uetera praeconia sunt nouorum. Noua igitur ponentur prius, quae ut firmius probemus, adsumentur et uetera. In ueteribus habentur lex et prophetae, in novis euangelium et apostolicae litterae. Ait autem apostolus: Per legem enim cognitio peccati. Nunc autem sine lege iustitia Dei manifestata est, testificata per legem et prophetas; iustitia autem Dei per fidem Iesu Christi in omnes qui credunt. Haec iustitia Dei ad nouum pertinet testamentum et testimonium habet a ueteribus libris, hoc est lege ac prophetis. Prius igitur ipsa causa ponenda est, et postea testes introducendi. Hunc et ipse Christus Iesus ordinem servandum esse demonstrans: Scriba, inquit, eruditus in regno Dei similis est viro patri familias proferenti de thesauro suo noua et uetera. Non dixit: "Vetera et noua", quod utique dixisset, nisi maluisset meritorum ordinem servare quam temporum. ||The proofs, then, of this last judgment of God which I propose to adduce shall be drawn first from the New Testament, and then from the Old. For although the Old Testament is prior in point of time, the New has the precedence in intrinsic value; for the Old acts the part of herald to the New. We shall therefore first cite passages from the New Testament, and confirm them by quotations from the Old Testament. The Old contains the law and the prophets, the New the gospel and the apostolic epistles. Now the apostle says "By the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; now the righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ upon all them that believe." Romans 3:20-22 This righteousness of God belongs to the New Testament, and evidence for it exists in the old books, that is to say, in the law and the prophets. I shall first, then state the case, and then call the witnesses. This order Jesus Christ Himself directs us to observe, saying, "The scribe instructed in the kingdom of God is like a good householder, bringing out of his treasure things new and old." Matthew 13:52 He did not say "old and new," which He certainly would have said had He not wished to follow the order of merit rather than that of time.
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| − | ||<div id="c5"><b>BOOK XX</b> [V] Ergo ipse Saluator cum obiurgaret civitates, in quibus virtutes magnas fecerat neque crediderant, et eis alienigenas anteponeret: Verum tamen, inquit, dico vobis, Tyro et Sidoni remissius erit in die iudicii quam vobis; et paulo post alteri civitati: Amen, inquit, dico vobis, quia terrae Sodomorum remissius erit in die iudicii quam tibi (hic evidentissime praedicat diem iudicii esse venturum); et alio loco: Viri Ninevitae, inquit, surgent in iudicio cum generatione ista et condemnabunt eam; quia paenitentiam egerunt in praedicatione Ionae, et ecce plus quam Iona hic. Regina Austri surget in iudicio cum generatione ista et condemnabit eam; quia venit a finibus terrae audire sapientiam Salomonis, et ecce plus quam Salomon hic. Duas res hoc loco discimus, et venturum esse iudicium et cum mortuorum resurrectione venturum. De Ninevitis enim et regina Austri quando ista dicebat, de mortuis sine dubio loquebatur, quos tamen in die iudicii surrectoros esse praedixit. Nec ideo dixit "condemnabant", quia ipsi iudicabunt; sed quia ex ipsorum comparatione isti merito damnabuntur. Rursus alio loco, cum de hominum bonorum et malorum nunc permixtione, postea separatione, quae utique die iudicii futura est, loqueretur, adhibuit similitudinem de tritico seminato et superseminatis zizaniis, eamque suis exponens discipulis: Qui seminat, inquit, bonum semen, est filius hominis; ager autem est mundus; bonum vero semen hi sunt filii regno; zizania autem filii sunt nequam; inimicus autem, qui seminavit ea, est diabolus; messis vero consummatio saeculi est, messores autem angeli sunt. Sicut ergo colliguntur zizania et igni comburuntur; sic erit in consummatione saeculi. Mittet filius hominis angelos suos, et colligunt de regno eius omnia scandala et eos, qui faciunt iniquitatem, et mittunt eos in caminum ignis; ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. Tunc iusti fulgebunt sicut sol in regno patris eorum. Qui habet aures, audiat. Hic iudicium quidem vel diem iudicii non nominavit, sed eum multo clarius ipsis rebus expressit et in fine saeculi futurum esse praedixit. Item discipulis suis: Amen, inquit, dico vobis, quod vos, qui secuti estis me, in regeneratione, cum sederit filius hominis in sede maiestatis suae. sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim iudicantes duodecim tribus Israel. Hic discimus cum suis discipulis iudicaturum Iesum. Vnde et alibi Iudaeis dixit: Si ego in Beelzebub eicio daemonia, filii uestri in quo eiciunt? Ideo ipsi iudices erunt uestri. Nec quoniam super duodecim sedes sessuros esse ait, duodecim solos homines cum illo iudicaturos putare debemus. Duodenario quippe numero universa quaedam significata est iudicantium multitudo propter duas partes numeri septenarii, quo significatur plerumque universitas; quae duae partes, id est tria et quattuor, altera per alteram multiplicatae duodecim faciunt, nam et quattuor ter et tria quater duodecim sunt, et si qua alia huius duodenarii numeri, quae ad hoc valeat, ratio reperitur. Alioquin, quoniam in locum Iudae traditoris apostolum Matthiam legimus ordinatum, apostolus Paulus, qui plus omnibus illis laboravit, ubi ad iudicandum sedeat non habebit; qui profecto cum aliis sanctis ad numerum iudicum se pertinere demonstrat, cum dicit: Nescitis quia angelos iudicabimus? De ipsis quoque iudicandis in hoc numero duodenario similis causa est. Non enim quia dictum est: Iudicantes duodecim tribus Israel, tribus Levi, quae tertia decima est, ab eis iudicanda non erit, aut solum illum populum, non etiam gentes ceteras iudicabunt. Quod autem ait: In regeneratione, procul dubio mortuorum resurrectionem nomine voluit regenerationis intellegi. Sic enim caro nostra regenerabitur per incorruptionem, quem ad modum est anima nostra regenerata per fidem. Multa praetereo, quae de ultimo iudicio ita dici videntur, ut diligenter considerata reperiantur ambigua vel magis ad aliud pertinentia, sive scilicet ad eum Saluatoris adventum, quo per totum hoc tempus in ecclesia sua venit, hoc est in membris suis, particulatim atque paulatim, quoniam tota corpus est eius; sive ad excidium terrenae Hierusalem; quia et de illo cum loquitur, plerumque sic loquitur, tamquam de fine saeculi atque illo die iudicii novissimo et magno loquatur; ita ut dinosci non possit omnino, nisi ea, quae apud tres euangelistas Matthaeum, Marcum et Lucam de hac re similiter dicta sunt, inter se omnia conferantur. Quaedam quippe alter obscurius, alter explicat planius, ut ea, quae ad unam rem pertinentia dicuntur, appareat unde dicantur. Quod facere utcumque curavi in quadam epistula, quam rescripsi ad beatae memoriae virum Hesychium, Salonitanae urbis episcopum, cuius epistulae titulus est: De fine saeculi. Proinde iam illud hic dicam, quod in euangelio secundum Matthaeum de separatione bonorum et malorum legitur per iudicium praesentissimum atque novissimum Christi. Cum autem venierit, inquit, filius hominis in maiestate sua, et omnes angeli cum eo, tunc sedebit super sedem maiestatis suae, et congregabuntur ante eum omnes gentes, et separabit eos ab inuicem, sicut pastor segregat oves ab haedis, et statuet oves quidem a dextris suis, haedos autem a sinistris. Tunc dicet rex his, qui a dextris eius erunt: Venite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum a constitutione mundo. Esurivi enim, et dedistis mihi manducare; sitivi, et dedistis mihi bibere; hospes eram, et collegistis me; nudus, et operuistis me; <infirmus, et visitastis me;> in carcere eram, et venistis ad me. Tunc respondebunt ei iusti dicentes : Domine, quando te vidimus esurientem, et pavimus; sitientem, et dedimus potum? Quando autem te vidimus hospitem, et collegimus te; aut nudum, et cooperuimus te? Aut quando te vidimus infirmum aut in carcere, et venimus ad te? Et respondens rex dicet illis; Amen dico vobis, quamdiu fecistis uni de his fratribus meis minimis, mihi fecistis. Tunc dicet, inquit, et his qui a sinistris erunt: Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum, qui paratus est zabulo et angelis eius. Deinde similiter etiam his enumerat, quod illa non fecerint, quae dextros fecisse memoravit. Similiterque interrogantibus, quando eum viderint in horum indigentia constitutum: quod minimis suis non factum est, sibi factum non fuisse respondet; sermonemque concludens: Et ibunt, inquit, hi in supplicium aeternum, iusti autem in vitam aeternam. Iohannes vero euangelista apertissime narrat eum in resurrectione mortuorum futurum praedixisse iudicium. Cum enim dixisset: Neque enim Pater iudicat quemquam, sed iudicium omne dedit Filio, ut omnes honorificent Filium, sicut honorificant Patrem; qui non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem, qui misit illum; protinus addidit: Amen, amen dico vobis, quia, qui verbum meum audit et credit ei qui misit me, habet vitam aeternam, et in iudicium non venit, sed transiit a morte in vitam. Ecce hic dixit fideles suos in iudicium non venire. Quo modo ergo per iudicium separabuntur a malis et ad eius dexteram stabunt, nisi quia hoc loco iudicium pro damnatione posuit? In tale quippe iudicium non venient, qui audiunt verbum eius et credunt ei, qui misit illum. ||The Saviour Himself, while reproving the cities in which He had done great works, but which had not believed, and while setting them in unfavorable comparison with foreign cities, says, "But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you." Matthew 11:22 And a little after He says, "Verily, I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." Matthew 11:24 Here He most plainly predicts that a day of judgment is to come. And in another place He says, "The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the utter most parts of the earth to hear the words of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Matthew 12:41-42 Two things we learn from this passage, that a judgment is to take place, and that it is to take place at the resurrection of the dead. For when He spoke of the Ninevites and the queen of the south, He certainly spoke of dead persons, and yet He said that they should rise up in the day of judgment. He did not say, "They shall condemn," as if they themselves were to be the judges, but because, in comparison with them, the others shall be justly condemned.Again, in another passage, in which He was speaking of the present intermingling and future separation of the good and bad,-the separation which shall be made in the day of judgment,-He adduced a comparison drawn from the sown wheat and the tares sown among them, and gave this explanation of it to His disciples: "He that sowes the good seed is the Son of man," etc. Here, indeed, He did not name the judgment or the day of judgment, but indicated it much more clearly by describing the circumstances, and foretold that it should take place in the end of the world.In like manner He says to His disciples, "Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matthew 19:28 Here we learn that Jesus shall judge with His disciples. And therefore He said elsewhere to the Jews, "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges." Matthew 12:27 Neither ought we to suppose that only twelve men shall judge along with Him, though He says that they shall sit upon twelve thrones; for by the number twelve is signified the completeness of the multitude of those who shall judge. For the two parts of the number seven (which commonly symbolizes totality), that is to say four and three, multiplied into one another, give twelve. For four times three, or three times four, are twelve. There are other meanings, too, in this number twelve. Were not this the right interpretation of the twelve thrones, then since we read that Matthias was ordained an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor, the Apostle Paul, though he labored more than them all, 1 Corinthians 15:10 should have no throne of judgment; but he unmistakeably considers himself to be included in the number of the judges when he says, "Do you not know that we shall judge angels?" 1 Corinthians 6:3 The same rule is to be observed in applying the number twelve to those who are to be judged. For though it was said, "judging the twelve tribes of Israel," the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, shall not on this account be exempt from judgment, neither shall judgment be passed only on Israel and not on the other nations. And by the words "in the regeneration," He certainly meant the resurrection of the dead to be understood; for our flesh shall be regenerated by incorruption, as our soul is regenerated by faith.Many passages I omit, because, though they seem to refer to the last judgment, yet on a closer examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other event,-whether to that coming of the Saviour which continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of judgment, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another,-for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more plainly by another,-so that it becomes apparent what things are meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesychius of blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled, "Of the End of the World."I shall now cite from the Gospel according to Matthew the passage which speaks of the separation of the good from the wicked by the most efficacious and final judgment of Christ: "When the Son of man," he says, "shall come in His glory, . . . then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Then He in like manner recounts to the wicked the things they had not done, but which He had said those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when they had seen Him in need of these things, He replies that, inasmuch as they had not done it to the least of His brethren, they had not done it unto Him, and concludes His address in the words, "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." Moreover, the evangelist John most distinctly states that He had predicted that the judgment should be at the resurrection of the dead. For after saying, "The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father: he that honors not the Son, honors not the Father which has sent Him;" He immediately adds, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word and believes in Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death to life." John 5:22-24 Here He said that believers on Him should not come into judgment. How, then, shall they be separated from the wicked by judgment, and be set at His right hand, unless judgment be in this passage used for condemnation? For into judgment, in this sense, they shall not come who hear His word, and believe in Him that sent Him.
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| − | ||<div id="c6"><b>BOOK XX</b> [VI] Deinde adiungit et dicit: Amen, amen dico vobis, quia venit hora et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem filii Dei, et qui audierint vivent. Sicut enim Pater habet vitam in semet ipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in semet ipso. Nondum de secunda resurrectione, id est corporum, loquitur, quae in fine futura est, sed de prima, quae nunc est. Hanc quippe ut distingueret, ait: Venit hora, et nunc est. Non autem ista corporum, sed animarum est. Habent enim et animae mortem suam in impietate atque peccatis, secundum quam mortem mortui sunt, de quibus idem Dominus ait: Sine mortui mortuos suos sepeliant; ut scilicet in anima mortui in corpore mortuos sepelirent. Propter istos ergo impietate et iniquitate in anima mortuos: Venit, inquit, hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem filii Dei; et qui audierint, vivent. Qui audierint dixit "qui oboedierint, qui crediderint et usque in finem perseueraverint". Nec fecit hic ullam differentiam bonorum et malorum. Omnibus enim bonum.est audire vocem eius et vivere ad vitam pietatis ex impietatis morte transeundo. De qua morte ait apostolus Paulus: Ergo omnes mortui sunt, et pro omnibus mortuus est, ut qui vivunt iam non sibi vivant, sed ei, qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit. Omnes itaque mortui sunt in peccatis, nemine prorsus excepto, sive originalibus sive etiam voluntate additis, vel ignorando vel sciendo nec faciendo quod iustum est; et pro omnibus mortuis vivus mortuus est unus, id est nullum habens omnino peccatum; ut, qui per remissionem peccatorum vivunt, iam non sibi vivant, sed ei, qui pro omnibus mortuus est propter peccata nostra et resurrexit propter iustificationem nostram, ut credentes in eum, qui iustificat impium, ex impietate iustificati, tamquam ex morte vivificati, ad primam resurrectionem, quae nunc est; pertinere possemus. Ad hanc enim primam non pertinent, nisi qui beati erunt in aeternum; ad secundam vero, de qua mox locuturus est, et beatos pertinere docebit et miseros. Ista est misericordiae, illa iudicii. Propter quod in psalmo scriptum est: Misericordiam et iudicium cantabo tibi, Domine. De quo iudicio consequenter adiunxit atque ait: Et potestatem dedit ei iudicium facere, quia filius hominis est. Hic ostendit, quod in ea carne veniet iudicaturus, in qua venerat iudicandus. Ad hoc enim ait: Quoniam filius hominis est. Ac deinde subiungens unde agimus: Nolite, inquit, mirari hoc, quia veniet hora, in qua omnes, quo in monumentis sunt, audient vocem eius et procedent, qui bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae; qui vero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii. Hoc est illud iudicium, quod paulo ante, sicut nunc, pro damnatione posuerat dicens: Qui verbum meum audit et credit ei qui misit me, habet vitam aeternam et in iudicium non venit, sed transiit a morte in vitam, id est, pertinendo ad primam resurrectionem, qua nunc transitur a morte ad vitam, in damnationem non veniet, quam significavit appellatione iudicii, sicut etiam hoc loco, ubi ait: Qui mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii, id est damnationis. Resurgat ergo in prima, qui non uult in secunda resurrectione damnari. Venit enim hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient vocem filii Dei, et qui audierint, vivent, id est, in damnationem non venient, quae secunda mors dicitur; in quam mortem post secundam, quae corporum futura est, resurrectionem praecipitabuntur, qui in prima, quae animarum est, non resurgunt. Veniet enim hora (ubi non ait: Et nunc est, quia in fine erit saeculi, hoc est in ultimo et maximo iudicio Dei), quando omnes, qui in monumentis sunt, audient vocem eius et procedent. Non dixit quem ad modum in prima: Et qui audierint, vivent. Non enim omnes vivent, ea vita scilicet, quae, quoniam beata est, sola vita dicenda est. Nam utique non sine qualicumque vita possent audire et de monumentis resurgente carne procedere. Quare autem non omnes vivent, in eo quod sequitur docet; qui bona, inquit, fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae, hi sunt, qui vivent; qui vero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii, hi sunt qui non vivent, quia secunda morte morientur. Mala quippe egerunt, quoniam male vixerunt; male autem vixerunt, quia in prima, quae nunc est, animarum resurrectione non revixerunt aut in eo, quod revixerant, non in finem usque manserunt. Sicut ergo duae sunt regenerationes, de quibus iam supra locutus sum, una secundum fidem, quae nunc fit per baptismum; alia secundum carnem, quae fiet in eius incorruptione atque inmortalitate per iudicium magnum atque novissimum: ita sunt et resurrectiones duae, una prima<, quae> et nunc est et animarum est, quae venire non permittit in mortem secundam; alia secunda, quae non nunc, sed in saeculi fine futura est, nec animarum, sed corporum est, quae per ultimum iudicium alios mittit in secundam mortem, alios in eam vitam, quae non habet mortem. ||After that He adds the words, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in Himself; so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself." John 5:25-26 As yet He does not speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body, which shall be in the end, but of the first, which now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He says, "The hour is coming, and now is." Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, "Suffer the dead to bury their dead," Matthew 8:22 -that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body. It is of these dead, then-the dead in ungodliness and wickedness-that He says, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." "They that hear," that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness. Of this death the Apostle Paul says, "Therefore all are dead, and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again." 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 Thus all, without one exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge; and for all the dead there died the one only person who lived, that is, who had no sin whatever, in order that they who live by the remission of their sins should live, not to themselves, but to Him who died for all, for our sins, and rose again for our justification, that we, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and being justified from ungodliness or quickened from death, may be able to attain to the first resurrection which now is. For in this first resurrection none have a part save those who shall be eternally blessed; but in the second, of which He goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part, both the blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of mercy, the other of judgment. And therefore it is written in the psalm, "I will sing of mercy and of judgment: unto You, O Lord, will I sing."And of this judgment He went on to say, "And has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man." Here He shows that He will come to judge in that flesh in which He had come to be judged. For it is to show this He says, "because He is the Son of man." And then follow the words for our purpose: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." John 5:28-29 This judgment He uses here in the same sense as a little before, when He says, "He that hears my word, and believes in Him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life;" i.e., by having a part in the first resurrection, by which a transition from death to life is made in this present time, he shall not come into damnation, which He mentions by the name of judgment, as also in the place where He says, "but they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment," i.e., of damnation. He, therefore, who would not be damned in the second resurrection, let him rise in the first. For "the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live," i.e., shall not come into damnation, which is called the second death; into which death, after the second or bodily resurrection, they shall be hurled who do not rise in the first or spiritual resurrection. For "the hour is coming" (but here He does not say, "and now is," because it shall come in the end of the world in the last and greatest judgment of God) "when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth." He does not say, as in the first resurrection, "And they that Hear shall live." For all shall not live, at least with such life as ought alone to be called life because it alone is blessed. For some kind of life they must have in order to hear, and come forth from the graves in their rising bodies. And why all shall not live He teaches in the words that follow: "They that have done good, to the resurrection of life,"-these are they who shall live; "but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment,"-these are they who shall not live, for they shall die in the second death. They have done evil because their life has been evil; and their life has been evil because it has not been renewed in the first or spiritual resurrection which now is, or because they have not persevered to the end in their renewed life. As, then, there are two regenerations, of which I have already made mention,-the one according to faith, and which takes place in the present life by means of baptism; the other according to the flesh, and which shall be accomplished in its incorruption and immortality by means of the great and final judgment,-so are there also two resurrections,-the one the first and spiritual resurrection, which has place in this life, and preserves us from coming into the second death; the other the second, which does not occur now, but in the end of the world, and which is of the body, not of the soul, and which by the last judgment shall dismiss some into the second death, others into that life which has no death.
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| − | ||<div id="c7"><b>BOOK XX</b> [VII] De his duabus resurrectionibus idem Iohannes euangelista in libro, qui dicitur apocalypsis, eo modo locutus est, ut earum prima a quibusdam nostris non intellecta insuper etiam in quasdam ridiculas fabulas verteretur. Ait quippe in libro memorato Iohannes apostolus: Et vidi angelum descendentem de caelo, habentem clavem abyssi et catenam in manu sua. Et tenuit draconem illum serpentem antiquum, qui cognominatus est diabolus et satanas, <et> alligavit illum mille annis et misit illum in abyssum; et clusit et signavit super eum, ut non seduceret iam gentes, donec finiantur mille anni, post haec oportet eum solvi brevi tempore. Et vidi sedes et sedentes super eas, et iudicium datum est. Et animae occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter verbum Dei, et si qui non adoraverunt bestiam nec imaginem eius, neque acceperunt inscriptionem in fronte aut in manu sua, et regnaverunt cum Iesu mille annis; reliqui eorum non vixerunt, donec finiantur mille anni. Haec resurrectio prima est. Beatus et sanctus est, qui habet in hac prima resurrectione partem. In istis secunda mors non habet potestatem; sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi et regnabunt cum eo mille annis. Qui propter haec huius libri verba primam resurrectionem futuram suspicati sunt corporalem, inter cetera maxime numero annorum mille permoti sunt, tamquam oporteret in sanctis eo modo velut tanti temporis fieri sabbatismum, uacatione scilicet sancta post labores annorum sex milium, ex quo creatus est homo et magni illius peccati merito in huius mortalitatis aerumnas de paradisi felicitate dimissus est, ut, quoniam scriptum est: Vnus dies apud Dominum sicut mille anni, et mille anni sicut dies unus, sex annorum milibus tamquam sex diebus impletis, sequatur velut septimus sabbati in annis mille postremis, ad hoc scilicet sabbatum celebrandum resurgentibus sanctis. Quae opinio esset utcumque tolerabilis, si aliquae deliciae spiritales in illo sabbato adfuturae sanctis per Domini praesentiam crederentur. Nam etiam nos hoc opinati fuimus aliquando. Sed cum eos, qui tunc resurrexerint, dicant inmoderatissimis carnalibus epulis uacaturos, in quibus cibus sit tantus ac potus, ut non solum nullam modestiam teneant, sed modum quoque ipsius credulitatis excedant: nullo modo ista possunt nisi a carnalibus credi. Hi autem qui spiritales sunt, istos ista credentes *xiliasta\s appellant Graeco vocabulo; quos verbum e verbo exprimentes nos possemus miliarios nuncupare. Eos autem longum est refellere ad singula; sed potius, quem ad modum scriptura haec accipienda sit, iam debemus ostendere. Ait ipse Dominus Iesus Christus: Nemo potest introire in domum fortis et uasa eius eripere, nisi prius alligaverit fortem, diabolum volens intellegi fortem, quia ipse genus humanum potuit tenere captivum; uasa vero eius, quae fuerat erepturus, fideles suos futuros, quos ille in diversis peccatis atque impietatibus possidebat. Vt ergo alligaretur hic fortis, propterea vidit iste apostolus in apocalypsi angelum descendentem de caelo, habentem clavem abyssi et catenam in manu sua. Et tenuit, inquit, draconem illum serpentem antiquum, qui cognominatus est diabolus et satanas, et alligavit illum mille annis, hoc est, eius potestatem ab eis seducendis ac possidendis, qui fuerant liberandi, cohibuit atque frenavit. Mille autem anni duobus modis possunt, quantum mihi occurrit, intellegi: aut quia in ultimis annis mille ista res agitur, id est sexto annorum miliario tamquam sexto die, cuius nunc spatia posteriora voluuntur, secuturo deinde sabbato, quod non habet uesperam, requie scilicet sanctorum, quae non habet finem, ut huius miliarii tamquam diei novissimam partem, quae remanebat usque ad terminum saeculi, mille annos appellaverit eo loquendi modo, quo pars significatur a toto; aut certe mille annos pro annis omnibus huius saeculi posuit, ut perfecto numero notaretur ipsa temporis plenitudo. Millenarius quippe numerus denarii numeri quadratum solidum reddit. Decem quippe deciens ducta fiunt centum, quae iam figura quadrata, sed plana est; ut autem in altitudinem surgat et solida fiat, rursus centum deciens multiplicantur, et mille sunt. Porro si centum ipsa pro universitate aliquando ponuntur, quale illud est, quod Dominus omnia sua dimittenti et eum sequenti promisit dicens: Accipiet in hoc saeculo centuplum, quod exponens quodam modo apostolus ait: Quasi nihil habentes, et omnia possidentes; quia et ante iam dictum erat: Fidelis hominis totus mundus divitiarum est; quanto magis mille pro universitate ponuntur, ubi est soliditas ipsius denariae quadraturae? Vnde nec illud melius intellegitur, quod in psalmo legitur: Memor fuit in saeculum testamenti sui verbi, quod mandavit in mille generationes, id est in omnes. Et misit illum, inquit, in abyssum; utique diabolum misit in abyssum, quo nomine significata est multitudo innumerabilis impiorum, quorum in malignitate adversus ecclesiam Dei multum profunda sunt corda; non quia ibi diabolus ante non erat; sed ideo illuc dicitur missus, quia exclusus a credentibus plus coepit impios possidere. Plus namque possidetur a diabolo, qui non solum est alienatus a Deo, verum etiam gratis odit seruientes Deo. Et clusit, inquit, et signavit super eum, ut non seduceret iam gentes, donec finiantur mille anni. Clausit super eum dictum est "interdixit ei, ne posset exire," id est uetitum transgredi. Signavit autem, quod addidit, significasse mihi videtur, quod occultum esse voluit, qui pertineant ad partem diaboli; et qui non pertineant. Hoc quippe in saeculo isto prorsus latet, quia et qui videtur stare, utrum sit casurus, et qui videtur iacere, utrum sit surrecturus, incertum est. Ab eis autem gentibus seducendis huius interdicti vinculo et claustro diabolus prohibetur atque cohibetur, quas pertinentes ad Christum seducebat antea vel tenebat. Has enim Deus elegit ante mundi constitutionem eruere de potestate tenebrarum et transferre in regnum filii caritatis suae, sicut apostolus dicit. Nam seducere illum gentes etiam nunc et secum trahere in aeternam poenam, sed non praedestinatas in aeternam vitam, quis fidelis ignorat? Nec moveat, quod saepe diabolus seducit etiam illos, qui regenerati iam in Christo vias ingrediuntur Dei. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius; ex his in aeternam damnationem neminem ille seducit. Sic enim eos novit Dominus, ut Deus, quem nil latet etiam futurorum, non ut homo, qui hominem ad praesens videt (si tamen videt, cuius cor non videt), qualis autem postea sit futurus nec se ipsum videt. Ad hoc ergo ligatus est diabolus et inclusus in abysso, ut iam non seducat gentes, ex quibus constat ecclesia, quas antea seductas tenebat, antequam essent ecclesia. Neque enim dictum est " ut non seduceret aliquem", sed ut non seduceret, inquit, iam gentes, in quibus ecclesiam procul dubio voluit intellegi, donec finiantur, inquit, mille anni, id est, aut quod remanet de sexto die, qui constat ex mille annis, aut omnes anni, quibus deinceps hoc saeculum peragendum est. Nec sic accipiendum est quod ait: Vt non seduceret gentes, donec finiantur mille anni, quasi postea sit seducturus eas dumtaxat gentes, ex quibus praedestinata constat ecclesia, a quibus seducendis illo est vinculo claustroque prohibitus. Sed aut illa locutione dictum est, quae in scripturis aliquotiens invenitur, qualis est in psalmo: Sic oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri; neque enim, cum misertus fuerit, non erunt oculi seruorum eius ad Dominum Deum suum; aut certe iste est ordo verborum: Et clausit et signavit super eum, donec finiantur mille anni; quod vero interposuit: Vt non seduceret iam gentes, ita se habet, ut ab huius ordinis conexione sit liberum et seorsus intellegendum, velut si post adderetur, ut sic se haberet tota sententia: Et clausit et signavit super eum, donec finiantur mille anni, ut non seduceret iam gentes; id est, ideo clausit donec finiantur mille anni, ut non seduceret iam gentes. ||The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called the Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies. For the Apostle John says in the foresaid book, "And I saw an angel come down from heaven. . . . Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." Those who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labors of the six thousand years since man was created, and was on account of his great sin dismissed from the blessedness of paradise into the woes of this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day," 2 Peter 3:8 there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years; and that it is for this purpose the saints rise, viz., to celebrate this Sabbath. And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God; for I myself, too, once held this opinion. But, as they assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may literally reproduce by the name Millenarians. It were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point: we prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture should be understood.The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, "No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man"-meaning by the strong man the devil, because he had power to take captive the human race; and meaning by his goods which he was to take, those who had been held by the devil in various sins and iniquities, but were to become believers in Himself. It was then for the binding of this strong one that the apostle saw in the Apocalypse "an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a chain in his hand. And he laid hold," he says, "on the dragon, that old serpent, which is called the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,"-that is, bridled and restrained his power so that he could not seduce and gain possession of those who were to be freed. Now the thousand years may be understood in two ways, so far as occurs to me: either because these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium (the latter part of which is now passing), as if during the sixth day, which is to be followed by a Sabbath which has no evening, the endless rest of the saints, so that, speaking of a part under the name of the whole, he calls the last part of the millennium-the part, that is, which had yet to expire before the end of the world-a thousand years; or he used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world, employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time. For a thousand is the cube of ten. For ten times ten makes a hundred, that is; the square on a plane superficies. But to give this superficies height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is sometimes used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of promise to him that left all and followed Him "He shall receive in this world an hundredfold;" Matthew 19:29 of which the apostle gives, as it were, an explanation when he says, "As having nothing, yet possessing all things," 2 Corinthians 6:10 -for even of old it had been said, The whole world is the wealth of a believer,-with how much greater reason is a thousand put for totality since it is the cube, while the other is only the square? And for the same reason we cannot better interpret the words of the psalm, "He has been mindful of His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations," than by understanding it to mean "to all generations."And he cast him into the abyss,-i.e., cast the devil into the abyss. By the abyss is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; not that the devil was not there before, but he is said to be cast in thither, because, when prevented from harming believers, he takes more complete possession of the ungodly. For that man is more abundantly possessed by the devil who is not only alienated from God, but also gratuitously hates those who serve God. "And shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled." "Shut him up,"-i.e., prohibited him from going out, from doing what was forbidden. And the addition of "set a seal upon him" seems to me to mean that it was designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the devil's party and who did not. For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether even the man who seems to stand shall fall, or whether he who seems to lie shall rise again. But by the chain and prison-house of this interdict the devil is prohibited and restrained from seducing those nations which belong to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For before the foundation of the world God chose to rescue these from the power of darkness, and to translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, as the apostle says. Colossians 1:13 For what Christian is not aware that he seduces nations even now, and draws them with himself to eternal punishment, but not those predestined to eternal life? And let no one be dismayed by the circumstance that the devil often seduces even those who have been regenerated in Christ, and begun to walk in God's way. For "the Lord knows them that are His," 2 Timothy 2:19 and of these the devil seduces none to eternal damnation. For it is as God, from whom nothing is hid even of things future, that the Lord knows them; not as a man, who sees a man at the present time (if he can be said to see one whose heart he does not see), but does not see even himself so far as to be able to know what kind of person he is to be. The devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said "that he should not seduce any man," but "that he should not seduce the nations"-meaning, no doubt, those among which the Church exists-"till the thousand years should be fulfilled,"-i.e., either what remains of the sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are to elapse till the end of the world.The words, "that he should not seduce the nations till the thousand years should be fulfilled," are not to be understood as indicating that afterwards he is to seduce only those nations from which the predestined Church is composed, and from seducing whom he is restrained by that chain and imprisonment; but they are used in conformity with that usage frequently employed in Scripture and exemplified in the psalm, "So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us,"-not as if the eyes of His servants would no longer wait upon the Lord their God when He had mercy upon them. Or the order of the words is unquestionably this, "And he shut him up and set a seal upon him, till the thousand years should be fulfilled;" and the interposed clause, "that he should seduce the nations no more," is not to be understood in the connection in which it stands, but separately, and as if added afterwards, so that the whole sentence might be read, "And He shut him up and set a seal upon him till the thousand years should be fulfilled, that he should seduce the nations no more,"-i.e., he is shut up till the thousand years be fulfilled, on this account, that he may no more deceive the nations.
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| − | ||<div id="c8"><b>BOOK XX</b> [VIII] Post haec, inquit, oportet eum solvi brevi tempore. Si hoc est diabolo ligari et includi, ecclesiam non posse seducere, haec ergo erit solutio eius, ut possit? Absit; numquam enim ab illo ecclesia seducetur praedestinata et electa ante mundi constitutionem, de qua dictum est: Novit Dominus qui sunt eius. Et tamen hic erit etiam illo tempore, quo soluendus est diabolus, sicut, ex quo est instituta, hic fuit et erit omni tempore, in suis utique qui succedunt nascendo morientibus. Nam paulo post dicit, quod solutus diabolus seductas gentes toto orbe terrarum adtrahet in bellum adversus eam, quorum hostium numerus erit ut harena maris. Et ascenderunt, inquit, supra terrae latitudinem, et cinxerunt castra sanctorum et dilectam civitatem, et descendit ignis de caelo a Deo et comedit eos; et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris, ubi et bestia et pseudopropheta; et cruciabuntur die et nocte in saecula saeculorum. Sed hoc iam ad iudicium novissimum pertinet, quod nunc propterea commemorandum putavi, ne quis existimet eo ipso paruo tempore, quo soluetur diabolus, in hac terra ecclesiam non futuram, illo hic eam vel non inveniente, cum fuerit solutus, vel absumente, cum fuerit modis omnibus persecutus. Non itaque per totum hoc tempus, quod liber iste complectitur, a primo scilicet adventu Christi usque in saeculi finem, qui erit secundus eius adventus, ita diabolus alligatur, ut eius haec ipsa sit alligatio, per hoc interuallum, quod mille annorum numero appellat, non seducere ecclesiam, quando quidem illam nec solutus utique seducturus est. Nam profecto ei si alligari est non posse seducere sive non permitti: quid erit solvi nisi posse seducere sive permitti? Quod absit ut fiat; sed alligatio diaboli est non permitti exserere totam temptationem, quam potest vel vi vel dolo ad seducendos homines in partem suam cogendo violenter fraudulenterue fallendo. Quod si permitteretur in tam longo tempore et tanta infirmitate multorum, plurimos tales, quales Deus id perpeti non uult, et fideles deiceret et ne crederent impediret; quod ne faceret, alligatus est. Tunc autem soluetur, quando et breue tempus erit (nam tribus annis et sex mensibus legitur totis suis suorumque viribus saeviturus) et tales erunt, cum quibus ei belligerandum est, ut vinci tanto eius impetu insidiisque non possint. Si autem numquam solueretur, minus appareret eius maligna potentia, minus sanctae civitatis fidelissima patientia probaretur, minus denique perspiceretur, quam magno eius malo tam bene fuerit usus Omnipotens, qui eum nec omnino abstulit a temptatione sanctorum, quamuis ab eorum interioribus hominibus, ubi in Deum creditur, foras missum, ut eius forinsecus oppugnatione proficerent; et in eis, qui sunt ex parte ipsius, alligavit, ne quantam posset effundendo et exercendo malitiam innumerabiles infirmos, ex quibus ecclesiam multiplicari et impleri oportebat, alios credituros, alios iam credentes, a fide pietatis hos deterreret, hos frangeret; et soluet in fine, ut, quam fortem adversarium Dei civitas superaverit, cum ingenti gloria sui redemptoris adiutoris liberatoris aspiciat. In eorum sane, qui tunc futuri sunt, sanctorum atque fidelium comparatione quid sumus? Quando quidem ad illos probandos tantus soluetur inimicus, cum quo nos ligato tantis periculis dimicamus. Quamuis et hoc temporis interuallo quosdam milites Christi tam prudentes et fortes fuisse atque esse non dubium est, ut, etiamsi tunc in ista mortalitate viverent, quando ille soluetur, omnes insidias eius atque impetus et caverent sapientissime et patientissime sustinerent. Haec autem alligatio diaboli non solum facta est, ex quo coepit ecclesia praeter Iudaeam terram in nationes alias atque alias dilatari; sed etiam nunc fit et fiet usque ad terminum saeculi, quo soluendus est, quia et nunc homines ab infidelitate, in qua eos ipse possidebat, convertuntur ad fidem et usque in illum finem sine dubio convertentur; et utique unicuique iste fortis tunc alligatur, quando ab illo tamquam uas eius eripitur; et abyssus, ubi inclusus est, non in eis consumpta est, quando sunt mortui, qui tunc erant quando esse coepit inclusus; sed successerunt eis alii nascendo atque succedunt, donec finiatur hoc saeculum, qui oderint Christianos, in quorum cotidie, velut in abysso, caecis et profundis cordibus includatur. Vtrum autem etiam illis ultimis tribus annis et mensibus sex, quando solutus totis viribus saeviturus est, aliquis, in qua non fuerat, sit accessurus ad fidem, nonnulla quaestio est. Quo modo enim stabit quod dictum est: Quis intrat in domum fortis, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius alligaverit fortem, si etiam soluto eripiuntur? Ac per hoc ad hoc cogere videtur ista sententia, ut credamus illo licet exiguo tempore neminem accessurum esse populo Christiano, sed cum eis, qui iam Christiani reperti fuerint, diabolum pugnaturum; ex quibus etiamsi aliqui victi secuti eum fuerint, non eos ad praedestinatum filiorum Dei numerum pertinere. Neque enim frustra idem Iohannes apostolus, qui et hanc apocalypsin scripsit, in epistula sua de quibusdam dicit: Ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; nam si fuissent ex nobis, mansissent utique nobiscum. Sed quid fit de paruulis? Nimium quippe incredibile est nullos iam natos et nondum baptizatos praeoccupari Christianorum filios illo tempore infantes, nullos etiam ipsis nasci iam diebus; aut si erunt, non eos a parentibus suis ad lauacrum regenerationis modo quocumque perduci. Quod si fiet, quo pacto soluto iam diabolo uasa ista eripientur, in cuius domum nemo intrat, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius alligaverit eum? Immo vero id potius est credendum, nec qui cadant de ecclesia nec qui accedant ecclesiae illo tempore defuturos; sed profecto tam fortes erunt et parentes pro baptizandis paruulis suis et hi, qui tunc primitus credituri sunt, ut illum fortem vincant etiam non ligatum, id est omnibus, qualibus antea numquam, vel artibus insidiantem vel urgentem viribus et vigilanter intellegant et toleranter ferant, ac sic illi etiam non ligato eripiantur. Nec ideo falsa erit euangelica illa sententia: Quis intrat in domum fortis, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius alligaverit fortem? Secundum eius enim sententiae veritatem ordo iste servatus est, ut prius alligaretur fortis ereptisque uasis eius longe lateque in omnibus gentibus ex firmis et infirmis ita multiplicaretur ecclesia, ut ex ipsa rerum divinitus praedictarum et impletarum robustissima fide etiam soluto uasa posset auferre. Sicut enim fatendum est multorum refrigescere caritatem, cum abundat iniquitas, et inusitatis maximisque persecutionibus atque fallaciis diaboli iam soluti eos, qui in libro vitae scripti non sunt, multos esse cessuros: ita cogitandum est non solum quos bonos fideles illud tempus inveniet, sed nonnullus etiam, qui foris adhuc erunt, adivuante Dei gratia per considerationem scripturarum, in quibus et alia et finis ipse praenuntiatus est, quem venire iam sentiunt, ad credendum quod non credebant futuros esse firmiores et ad vincendum etiam non ligatum diabolum fortiores. Quod si ita erit, propterea praecessisse dicenda est eius alligatio, ut et ligati et soluti expoliatio sequeretur; quoniam de hac re dictum est: Quis intrabit in domum fortis, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius alligaverit fortem? ||After that, says John, "he must be loosed a little season." If the binding and shutting up of the devil means his being made unable to seduce the Church, must his loosing be the recovery of this ability? By no means. For the Church predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, the Church of which it is said, "The Lord knows them that are His," shall never be seduced by him. And yet there shall be a Church in this world even when the devil shall be loosed, as there has been since the beginning, and shall be always, the places of the dying being filled by new believers. For a little after John says that the devil, being loosed, shall draw the nations whom he has seduced in the whole world to make war against the Church, and that the number of these enemies shall be as the sand of the sea. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." Revelation 20:9-10 This relates to the last judgment, but I have thought fit to mention it now, lest any one might suppose that in that short time during which the devil shall be loose there shall be no Church upon earth, whether because the devil finds no Church, or destroys it by manifold persecutions. The devil, then, is not bound during the whole time which this book embraces,-that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, when He shall come the second time,-not bound in this sense, that during this interval, which goes by the name of a thousand years, he shall not seduce the Church, for not even when loosed shall he seduce it. For certainly if his being bound means that he is not able or not permitted to seduce the Church, what can the loosing of him mean but his being able or permitted to do so? But God forbid that such should be the case! But the binding of the devil is his being prevented from the exercise of his whole power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or fraudulently deceiving them into taking part with him. If he were during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of men, very many persons, such as God would not wish to expose to such temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or would be prevented from believing; and that this might not happen, he is bound.But when the short time comes he shall be loosed. For he shall rage with the whole force of himself and his angels for three years and six months; and those with whom he makes war shall have power to withstand all his violence and stratagems. And if he were never loosed, his malicious power would be less patent, and less proof would be given of the steadfast fortitude of the holy city: it would, in short, be less manifest what good use the Almighty makes of his great evil. For the Almighty does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation, but shelters only their inner man, where faith resides, that by outward temptation they may grow in grace. And He binds him that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing or yet to believe, from whom the Church must be increased and completed; and he will in the end loose him, that the city of God may see how mighty an adversary it has conquered, to the great glory of its Redeemer, Helper, Deliverer. And what are we in comparison with those believers and saints who shall then exist, seeing that they shall be tested by the loosing of an enemy with whom we make war at the greatest peril even when he is bound? Although it is also certain that even in this intervening period there have been and are some soldiers of Christ so wise and strong, that if they were to be alive in this mortal condition at the time of his loosing, they would both most wisely guard against, and most patiently endure, all his snares and assaults.Now the devil was thus bound not only when the Church began to be more and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of the world, when he is to be loosed. Because even now men are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall be, converted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them. And this strong one is bound in each instance in which he is spoiled of one of his goods; and the abyss in which he is shut up is not at an end when those die who were alive when first he was shut up in it, but these have been succeeded, and shall to the end of the world be succeeded, by others born after them with a like hate of the Christians, and in the depth of whose blind hearts he is continually shut up as in an abyss. But it is a question whether, during these three years and six months when he shall be loose, and raging with all his force, any one who has not previously believed shall attach himself to the faith. For how in that case would the words hold good, "Who enters into the house of a strong one to spoil his goods, unless first he shall have bound the strong one?" Consequently this verse seems to compel us to believe that during that time, short as it is, no one will be added to the Christian community, but that the devil will make war with those who have previously become Christians, and that, though some of these may be conquered and desert to the devil, these do not belong to the predestinated number of the sons of God. For it is not without reason that John, the same apostle as wrote this Apocalypse, says in his epistle regarding certain persons, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us." 1 John 2:19 But what shall become of the little ones? For it is beyond all belief that in these days there shall not be found some Christian children born, but not yet baptized, and that there shall not also be some born during that very period; and if there be such, we cannot believe that their parents shall not find some way of bringing them to the laver of regeneration. But if this shall be the case, how shall these goods be snatched from the devil when he is loose, since into his house no man enters to spoil his goods unless he has first bound him? On the contrary, we are rather to believe that in these days there shall be no lack either of those who fall away from, or of those who attach themselves to the Church; but there shall be such resoluteness, both in parents to seek baptism for their little ones, and in those who shall then first believe, that they shall conquer that strong one, even though unbound,-that is, shall both vigilantly comprehend, and patiently bear up against him, though employing such wiles and putting forth such force as he never before used; and thus they shall be snatched from him even though unbound. And yet the verse of the Gospel will not be untrue, "Who enters into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one?" For in accordance with this true saying that order is observed-the strong one first bound, and then his goods spoiled; for the Church is so increased by the weak and strong from all nations far and near, that by its most robust faith in things divinely predicted and accomplished, it shall be able to spoil the goods of even the unbound devil. For as we must own that, "when iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold," Matthew 24:12 and that those who have not been written in the book of life shall in large numbers yield to the severe and unprecedented persecutions and stratagems of the devil now loosed, so we cannot but think that not only those whom that time shall find sound in the faith, but also some who till then shall be without, shall become firm in the faith they have hitherto rejected and mighty to conquer the devil even though unbound, God's grace aiding them to understand the Scriptures, in which, among other things, there is foretold that very end which they themselves see to be arriving. And if this shall be so, his binding is to be spoken of as preceding, that there might follow a spoiling of him both bound and loosed; for it is of this it is said, "Who shall enter into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one?"
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| − | ||<div id="c9"><b>BOOK XX</b> [IX] Interea dum mille annis ligatus est diabolus, sancti regnant cum Christo etiam ipsi mille annis, eisdem sine dubio et eodem modo intellegendis, id est isto iam tempore prioris eius adventus. Excepto quippe illo regno, de quo in fine dicturus est: Venite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum, nisi alio aliquo modo, longe quidem impari, iam nunc regnarent cum illo sancti eius, quibus ait: Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque in consummationem saeculi; profecto non etiam nunc diceretur ecclesia regnum eius regnumue caelorum. Nam utique isto tempore in regno Dei eruditur scriba ille, qui profert de thensauro suo noua et uetera, de quo supra locuti sumus; et de ecclesia collecturi sunt zizania messores illi, quae permisit cum tritico simul crescere usque ad messem; quod exponens ait: Messis est finis saeculi, messores autem angeli sunt. Sicut ergo colliguntur zizania et igni comburuntur, sic erit in consummatione saeculi; mittet filius hominis angelos suos, et colligent de regno eius omnia scandala. Numquid de regno illo, ubi nulla sunt scandala? De isto ergo regno eius, quod est hic ecclesia, colligentur. Item dicit: Qui soluerit unum de mandatis istis minimis et docuerit sic homines, minimus vocabitur in regno caelorum; qui autem fecerit et sic docuerit, magnus vocabitur in regno caelorum. Vtrumque dicit in regno caelorum, et qui non facit mandata quae docet (hoc est enim soluere: non servare, non facere), et illum qui facit et sic docet; sed istum minimum, illum magnum. Et continuo secutus adiungit: Dico enim vobis quia, nisi abundaverit iustitia uestra super scribarum et Pharisaeorum, id est super eos, qui soluunt quod docent (de scribis enim et Pharisaeis dicit alio loco: Quoniam dicunt, et non faciunt), _ nisi ergo super hos abundaverit iustitia uestra, id est, ut vos non solvatis, sed faciatis potius quod docetis, non intrabitis, inquit, in regnum caelorum. Alio modo igitur intellegendum est regnum caelorum, ubi ambo sunt, et ille scilicet qui solvit quod docet, et ille qui facit; sed ille minimus, ille magnus: alio modo autem regnum caelorum dicitur, quo non intrat nisi ille qui facit. Ac per hoc ubi utrumque genus est, ecclesia est, qualis nunc est; ubi autem illud solum erit, ecclesia est, qualis tunc erit, quando malus in ea non erit. Ergo et nunc ecclesia regnum Christi est regnumque caelorum. Regnant itaque cum illo etiam nunc sancti eius, aliter quidem, quam tunc regnabunt; nec tamen cum illo regnant zizania, quamuis in ecclesia cum tritico crescant. Regnant enim cum illo, qui faciunt quod ait apostolus: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt sapite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens; quae sursum sunt quaerite, non quae super terram; de qualibus item dicit, quod eorum conversatio sit in caelis. Postremo regnant cum illo, qui eo modo sunt in regno eius, ut sint etiam ipsi regnum eius. Quo modo autem sunt regnum Christi, qui, ut alia taceam, quamuis ibi sint donec colligantur in fine saeculi de regno eius omnia scandala, tamen illic sua quaerunt, non quae Iesu Christi? De hoc ergo regno militiae, in quo adhuc cum hoste confligitur et aliquando repugnatur pugnantibus vitiis, aliquando cedentibus imperatur, donec veniatur ad illud pacatissimum regnum, ubi sine hoste regnabitur, et de hac prima resurrectione, quae nunc est, liber iste sic loquitur. Cum enim dixisset alligari diabolum mille annis, et postea solvi brevi tempore, tum recapitulando quid in istis mille annis agat ecclesia vel agatur in ea: Et vidi, inquit, sedes et sedentes super eas, et iudicium datum est. Non hoc putandum est de ultimo iudicio dici; sed sedes praepositorum et ipsi praepositi intellegendi sunt, per quos nunc ecclesia gubernatur. Iudicium autem datum nullum melius accipiendum videtur, quam id quod dictum est: Quae ligaveritis in terra, ligata erunt et in caelo; et quae solueritis in terra, soluta erunt et in caelo. Vnde apostolus: Quid enim mihi est, inquit, de his, qui foris sunt, iudicare? Nonne de his qui intus sunt vos iudicatis? Et animae, inquit, occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter verbum Dei; subauditur quod postea dicturus est: Regnaverunt cum Iesu mille annis; animae scilicet martyrum non dum sibi corporibus suis redditis. Neque enim piorum animae mortuorum separantur ab ecclesia, quae nunc etiam est regnum Christi. Alioquin nec ad altare Dei fieret eorum memoria in communicatione corporis Christi; nec aliquid prodesset ad eius baptismum in periculis currere, ne sine illo finiatur haec vita; nec ad reconciliationem, si forte per paenitentiam malamue conscientiam quisque ab eodem corpore separatus est. Cur enim fiunt ista, nisi quia fideles etiam defuncti membra sunt eius? Quamuis ergo cum suis corporibus nondum, iam tamen eorum animae regnant cum illo, dum isti anni mille decurrunt. Vnde in hoc eodem libro et alibi legitur: Beati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur. Amodo etiam dicit Spiritus, ut requiescant a laboribus suis; nam opera eorum sequuntur eos. Regnat itaque cum Christo nunc primum ecclesia in vivis et mortuis. Propterea enim, sicut dicit apostolus, mortuus est Christus, ut et vivorum et mortuorum dominetur. Sed ideo tantummodo martyrum animas commemoravit, quia ipsi praecipue regnant mortui, qui usque ad mortem pro veritate certarunt. Sed a parte totum etiam ceteros mortuos intellegimus pertinentes ad ecclesiam, quod est regnum Christi. Quod vero sequitur: Et si qui non adoraverunt bestiam nec imaginem eius, neque acceperunt inscriptionem in fronte aut in manu sua, simul de vivis et mortuis debemus accipere. Quae sit porro ista bestia, quamuis sit diligentius requirendum, non tamen abhorret a fide recta, ut ipsa impia civitas intellegatur et populus infidelium contrarius populo fideli et civitati Dei. Imago vero eius simulatio eius mihi videtur, in eis videlicet hominibus, qui velut fidem profitentur et infideliter vivunt. Fingunt enim se esse quod non sunt, vocanturque non veraci effigie, sed fallaci imagine Christiani. Ad eandem namque bestiam pertinent non solum aperte inimici nominis Christi et eius gloriosissimae civitatis, sed etiam zizania, quae de regno eius, quod est ecclesia, in fine saeculi colligenda sunt. Et qui sunt qui non adorant bestiam nec imaginem eius, nisi qui faciunt quod ait apostolus: Ne sitis iugum ducentes cum infidelibus? "Non adorant" enim est non consentiunt, non subiciuntur; "neque accipiunt inscriptionem," notam scilicet criminis, "in fronte" propter professionem, "in manu" propter operationem. Ab his igitur malis alieni, sive adhuc in ista mortali carne viventes sive defuncti, regnant cum Christo iam nunc modo quodam huic tempori congruo per totum hoc interuallum, quod numero mille significatur annorum. Reliqui eorum, inquit, non vixerunt. Hora enim nunc est, cum mortui audiunt vocem filii Dei, et qui audierint vivent; reliqui ergo eorum non vivent. Quod vero subdidit: Donec finiantur mille anni, intellegendum est, quod eo tempore non vixerunt, quo vivere debuerunt, ad vitam scilicet de morte transeundo. Et ideo cum dies venerit, quo fiat et corporum resurrectio, non ad vitam de monumentis procedent, sed ad iudicium; ad damnationem scilicet, quae secunda mors dicitur. Donec finiantur enim mille anni, quicumque non vixerit, id est, toto isto tempore, quo agitur prima resurrectio, non audierit vocem filii Dei et ad vitam de morte transierit, profecto in secunda resurrectione, quae carnis est, in mortem secundam cum ipsa carne transibit. Sequitur enim et dicit: Haec resurrectio prima est. Beatus et sanctus qui habet in hac prima resurrectione partem, id est particeps eius est. Ipse est autem particeps eius, qui non solum a morte, quae in peccatis est, revivescit, verum etiam in eo, quod revixerit, permanebit. In istis, inquit, secunda mors non habet potestatem. Habet ergo in reliquis, de quibus superius ait: Reliqui eorum non vixerunt, donec finiantur mille anni; quoniam toto isto temporis interuallo, quod mille annos vocat, quantumcumque in eo quisque eorum vixit in corpore, non revixit a morte, in qua eum tenebat impietas, ut sic revivescendo primae resurrectionis particeps fieret atque in eo potestatem secunda mors non haberet. ||But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming. For, leaving out of account that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the end, "Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you," Matthew 25:34 the Church could not now be called His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven unless His saints were even now reigning with Him, though in another and far different way; for to His saints He says, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Matthew 28:20 Certainly it is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure things new and old. And from the Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains in the words "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offenses." Matthew 13:39-41 Can He mean out of that kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered. So He says, "He that breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but he that does and teaches thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19 He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does not perform the commandments which He teaches,-for "to break" means not to keep, not to perform,-and the man who does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least, the other great. And He immediately adds, "For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,"-that is, the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, "For they say and do not;" Matthew 23:3 -unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is, so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, "you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:20 We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, "If you be risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth." Colossians 3:1-2 Of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven. Philippians 3:20 In fine, they reign with Him who are so in His kingdom that they themselves are His kingdom. But in what sense are those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more, though they are in it until all offenses are gathered out of it at the end of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the things that are Christ's? Philippians 2:21 It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict with the enemy is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in the present life, that the Apocalypse speaks in the words just quoted. For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in the Church in those days, in the words, "And I saw seats and them that sat upon them, and judgment was given." It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, "What ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matthew 18:18 Whence the apostle says, "What have I to do with judging them that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?" 1 Corinthians 5:12 "And the souls," says John, "of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,"-understanding what he afterwards says, "reigned with Christ a thousand years," Revelation 20:4 -that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from His body. For why are these things practised, if not because the faithful, even though dead, are His members? Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. And therefore in another part of this same book we read, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth and now, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works do follow them." Revelation 14:13 The Church, then, begins its reign with Christ now in the living and in the dead. For, as the apostle says, "Christ died that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead." Romans 14:9 But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only, because they who have contended even to death for the truth, themselves principally reign after death; but, taking the part for the whole, we understand the words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ.As to the words following, "And if any have not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his inscription on their forehead, or on their hand," we must take them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the ungodly city itself, and the community of unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of God. "His image" seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from a true likeness but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, "Be not yoked with unbelievers?" 2 Corinthians 6:14 For such do not worship, i.e., do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice. They, then, who are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ even now, through this whole interval which is indicated by the thousand years, in a fashion suited to this time.The rest of them, he says, "did not live." For now is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live; and the rest of them shall not live. The words added, "until the thousand years are finished," mean that they did not live in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from death to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection arrives, they shall come out of their graves, not to life, but to judgment, namely, to damnation, which is called the second death. For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished, i.e., during this whole time in which the first resurrection is going on,-whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of God, and passed from death to life,-that man shall certainly in the second resurrection, the resurrection of the flesh, pass with his flesh into the second death. For he goes to say "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection," or who experiences it. Now he experiences it who not only revives from the death of sin, but continues in this renewed life. "In these the second death has no power." Therefore it has power in the rest, of whom he said above, "The rest of them did not live until the thousand years were finished;" for in this whole intervening time called a thousand years, however lustily they lived in the body, they were not quickened to life out of that death in which their wickedness held them, so that by this revived life they should become partakers of the first resurrection, and so the second death should have no power over them.
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| − | ||<div id="c10"><b>BOOK XX</b> [X] Sunt qui putant resurrectionem dici non posse nisi corporum ideoque istam quoque primam in corporibus futuram esse contendunt. Quorum enim est, inquiunt, cadere, eorum est resurgere. Cadunt autem corpora moriendo; nam et a cadendo cadavera nuncupantur. Non ergo animarum, inquiunt, resurrectio potest esse, sed corporum. Sed quid contra apostolum dicunt, qui eam resurrectionem appellat? Nam secundum interiorem, non secundum exteriorem hominem utique resurrexerant, quibus ait: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt sapite. Quem sensum verbis aliis alibi posuit dicens: Vt, quem ad modum Christus resurrexit a mortuis per gloriam Patris, sic et nos in novitate vitae ambulemus. Hinc est et illud: Surge qui dormis et exurge a mortuis, et inluminabit te Christus. Quod autem dicunt non posse resurgere, nisi qui cadunt, et ideo putant resurrectionem ad corpora, non ad animas pertinere, quia corporum est cadere: cur non audiunt: Non recedatis ab illo, ne cadatis, et: Suo Domino stat aut cadit; et: Qui se putat stare, caveat ne cadat? Puto enim quod in anima, non in corpore casus iste cavendus est. Si igitur cadentium est resurrectio, cadunt autem et animae: profecto et animas resurgere confitendum est. Quod autem, cum dixisset: In istis secunda mors non habet potestatem, adiunxit atque ait: Sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi et regnabunt cum eo mille annis: non utique de solis episcopis et presbyteris dictum est, qui proprie iam vocantur in ecclesia sacerdotes; sed sicut omnes christos dicimus propter mysticum chrisma, sic omnes sacerdotes, quoniam membra sunt unius sacerdotis; de quibus apostolus Petrus: Plebs, inquit, sancta, regale sacerdotium. Sane, licet breviter atque transeunter, insinuavit esse Deum Christum dicendo: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi, hoc est Patris et Filii; quamuis propter formam serui sicut hominis filius, ita etiam sacerdos Christus effectus sit in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech. De qua re in hoc opere non semel diximus. ||There are some who suppose that resurrection can be predicated only of the body, and therefore they contend that this first resurrection (of the Apocalypse) is a bodily resurrection. For, say they, "to rise again" can only be said of things that fall. Now, bodies fall in death. There cannot, therefore, be a resurrection of souls, but of bodies. But what do they say to the apostle who speaks of a resurrection of souls? For certainly it was in the inner and not the outer man that those had risen again to whom he says, "If you have risen with Christ, mind the things that are above." Colossians 3:1 The same sense he elsewhere conveyed in other words, saying, "That as Christ has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4 So, too, "Awake you that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. Ephesians 5:14 " As to what they say about nothing being able to rise again but what falls, whence they conclude that resurrection pertains to bodies only, and not to souls, because bodies fall, why do they make nothing of the words, "You that fear the Lord, wait for His mercy; and go not aside lest ye fall;" Sirach 2:7 and "To his own Master he stands or falls;" Romans 14:4 and "He that thinks he stands, let him take heed lest he fall?" 1 Corinthians 10:12 For I fancy this fall that we are to take heed against is a fall of the soul, not of the body. If, then, rising again belongs to things that fall, and souls fall, it must be owned that souls also rise again. To the words, "In them the second death has no power," are added the words, "but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years;" and this refers not to the bishops alone, and presbyters, who are now specially called priests in the Church; but as we call all believers Christians on account of the mystical chrism, so we call all priests because they are members of the one Priest. Of them the Apostle Peter says, "A holy people, a royal priesthood." 1 Peter 2:9 Certainly he implied, though in a passing and incidental way, that Christ is God, saying priests of God and Christ, that is, of the Father and the Son, though it was in His servant-form and as Son of man that Christ was made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. But this we have already explained more than once.
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| − | ||<div id="c11"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XI] Et cum finiti fuerint, inquit, mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua, et exibit ad seducendas nationes, quae sunt in quattuor angulis terrae, Gog et Magog, et trahet eos in bellum, quorum numerus est ut harena maris. Ad hoc ergo tunc seducet, ut in hoc bellum trahat. Nam et antea modis quibus poterat par mala multa et varia seducebat. Exibit autem dictum est "in apertam persecutionem de latebris erumpet odiorum." Haec enim erit novissima persecutio, novissimo inminente iudicio, quam sancta ecclesia toto terrarum orbe patietur, universa scilicet civitas Christi ab universa diaboli civitate, quantacumque erit utraque super terram. Gentes quippe istae, quas appellat Gog et Magog, non sic sunt accipiendae, tamquam sint aliqui in aliqua parte terrarum barbari constituti, sive quos quidam suspicantur Getas et Massagetas propter litteras horum nominum primas, sive aliquos alios alienigenas et a Romano iure seiunctos. Toto namque orbe terrarum significati sunt isti esse, cum dictum est nationes quae sunt in quattuor angulis terrae, easque subiecit esse Gog et Magog. Quorum interpretationem nominum esse comperimus Gog tectum, Magog de tecto; tamquam domus et ipse qui procedit de domo. Gentes ergo sunt, in quibus diabolum velut in abysso superius intellegebamus inclusum, et ipse de illis quodam modo sese efferens et procedens; ut illae sint tectum, ipse de tecto. Si autem utrumque referamus ad gentes, non unum horum ad illas, alterum ad diabolum: et tectum ipsae sunt, quia in eis nunc includitur et quodam modo tegitur inimicus antiquus; et de tecto ipsae erunt, quando in apertum odium de operto erupturae sunt. Quod vero ait: Et ascenderunt supra terrae latitudinem et cinxerunt castra sanctorum et dilectam civitatem: non utique ad unum locum venisse vel venturi esse significati sunt, quasi uno aliquo loco futura sint castra sanctorum et dilecta civitas, cum haec non sit nisi Christi ecclesia toto terrarum orbe diffusa; ac per hoc ubicumque tunc erit, quae in omnibus gentibus erit, quod significatum est nomine latitudinis terrae, ibi erunt castra sanctorum, ibi erit dilecta Deo civitas eius, ibi ab omnibus inimicis suis, quia et ipsi in omnibus cum illa gentibus erunt, persecutionis illius inmanitate cingetur, hoc est, in angustias tribulationis artabitur urguebitur concludetur; nec militiam suam deseret, quae vocabulo est appellata castrorum. ||And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. This then, is his purpose in seducing them, to draw them to this battle. For even before this he was wont to use as many and various seductions as he could continue. And the words "he shall go out" mean, he shall burst forth from lurking hatred into open persecution. For this persecution, occurring while the final judgment is imminent, shall be the last which shall be endured by the holy Church throughout the world, the whole city of Christ being assailed by the whole city of the devil, as each exists on earth. For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Getж and Massagetж, as some conclude from the initial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government. For John marks that they are spread over the whole earth, when he says, "The nations which are in the four corners of the earth," and he added that these are Gog and Magog. The meaning of these names we find to be, Gog, "a roof," Magog, "from a roof,"-a house, as it were, and he who comes out of the house. They are therefore the nations in which we found that the devil was shut up as in an abyss, and the devil himself coming out from them and going forth, so that they are the roof, he from the roof. Or if we refer both words to the nations, not one to them and one to the devil, then they are both the roof, because in them the old enemy is at present shut up, and as it were roofed in; and they shall be from the roof when they break forth from concealed to open hatred. The words, "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city," do not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,-and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by "the breadth of the earth,"-there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,-that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word "camp."
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| − | ||<div id="c12"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XII] Quod vero ait: Et descendit ignis de caelo et comedit eos; non extremum putandum est id esse supplicium, quod erit, cum dicetur: Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum. Tunc quippe in ignem mittentur ipsi non ignis de caelo veniet in ipsos. Hic autem bene intellegitur ignis de caelo de ipsa firmitate sanctorum, qua non cessuri sunt saevientibus, ut eorum faciant voluntatem. Firmamentum est enim caelum, cuius firmitate illi cruciabuntur ardentissimo zelo, quoniam non poterunt adtrahere in partes Antichristi sanctos Christi. Et ipse erit ignis, qui comedet eos, et hoc a Deo, quia Dei munere insuperabiles fiunt sancti, unde excruciantur inimici. Sicut enim in bono positum est: Zelus domus tuae comedit me; ita e contrario: Zelus occupavit plebem ineruditam, et nunc ignis contrarios comedet. Et nunc utique, excepto scilicet ultimi illius igne iudicii. Aut si eam plagam, qua percutiendi sunt ecclesiae persecutores veniente iam Christo, quos viventes inveni et super terram, quando interficiet Antichristum spiritu oris sui, ignem appellavit descendentem de caelo eosque comedentem: neque hoc ultimum supplicium erit impiorum, sed illud quod facta corporum resurrectione passuri sunt. ||The words, "And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them," are not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire;" Matthew 25:41 for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. In this place "fire out of heaven" is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is "heaven," by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is "from God;" for it is by God's grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, "The zeal of Your house has consumed me," so in a bad sense it is said, "Zeal has possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies." Isaiah 26:11 "And now," that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. Or if by this fire coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John meant that blow wherewith Christ in His coming is to strike those persecutors of the Church whom He shall then find alive upon earth, when He shall kill Antichrist with the breath of His mouth, then even this is not the last judgment of the wicked; but the last judgment is that which they shall suffer when the bodily resurrection has taken place.
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| − | ||<div id="c13"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XIII] Haec persecutio novissima, quae futura est ab Antichristo (sicut iam diximus, quia et in hoc libro superius et apud Danielem prophetam positum est), tribus annis et sex mensibus erit. Quod tempus, quamuis exiguum, utrum ad mille annos pertineat, quibus et diabolum ligatum dicit et sanctos regnare cum Christo, an eisdem annis hoc paruum spatium superaddatur atque extra sit, merito ambigitur; quia, si dixerimus ad eosdem annos hoc pertinere, non tanto tempore, sed prolixiore cum Christo regnum sanctorum reperietur extendi quam diabolus alligari. Profecto enim sancti cum suo rege etiam in ipsa praecipue persecutione regnabunt mala tanta vincent es, quando diabolus iam non erit alligatus, ut eos persequi omnibus viribus possit. Quo modo ergo ista scriptura eisdem mille annis utrumque determinat, diaboli scilicet alligationem regnumque sanctorum, cum trium annorum et sex mensum interuallo prius desinat alligatio diaboli quam regnum sanctorum in his annis mille cum Christo? Si autem dixerimus paruum persecutionis huius hoc spatium non computandum in mille annis, sed eis impletis potius adiciendum, ut proprie possit intellegi, quod, cum dixisset: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi regnabunt cum eo mille annis, adiecit: Et cum finiti fuerint mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua; isto enim modo et regnum sanctorum et vinculum diaboli simul cessatura esse significat, ut deinde persecutionis illius tempus nec ad sanctorum regnum nec ad custodiam satanae, quorum utrumque in mille annis est, pertinere, sed superadditum et extra computandum esse credatur: cogemur fateri sanctos in illa persecutione regnaturos non esse cum Christo. Sed quis audiat tunc cum illo non regnatura sua membra, quando ei maxime atque fortissime cohaerebunt, et quo tempore, quanto erit acrior impetus belli, tanto maior gloria non cedendi, tanto densior corona martyrii? Aut si propter tribulationes, quas passuri sunt, non dicendi sunt regnaturi: consequens erit, ut etiam superioribus diebus in eisdem mille annis, quicumque tribulabantur sanctorum, eo ipso tempore tribulationis suae cum Christo non regnasse dicantur; ac per hoc et illi, quorum animas auctor libri huius vidisse se scribit occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter verbum Dei, non regnabant cum Christo, quando patiebantur persecutionem, et ipsi regnum Christi non erant, quos Christus excellentius possidebat. Absurdissimum id quidem et omni modo aversandum. Sed certe animae victrices gloriosissimorum martyrum omnibus doloribus ac laboribus superatis atque finitis, postea quam mortalia membra posuerunt, cum Christo utique regnaverunt et regnant, donec finiantur mille anni, ut postea receptis etiam corporibus iam inmortalibus regnent. Proinde tribus illis annis atque dimidio animae occisorum pro eius martyrio, et quae antea de corporibus exierunt, et quae ipsa novissima persecutione sunt exiturae, regnabunt cum illo, donec finiatur mortale saeculum et ad illud regnum, ubi mors non erit, transeatur. Quocirca cum Christo regnantium sanctorum plures anni erunt quam vinculi diaboli atque custodiae, quia illi cum suo rege Dei filio iam diabolo non ligato etiam per tres illos annos ac semissem regnabunt. Remanet igitur, ut, cum audimus: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi regnabunt cum eo mille annis, et cum finiti fuerint mille anni, soluetur Satanas de custodia sua, aut non regni huius sanctorum intellegamus annos mille finiri, sed vinculi diaboli atque custodiae, ut annos mille, id est annos omnes suos, quaeque pars habeat diversis ac propriis prolixitatibus finiendos, ampliore sanctorum regno, breviore diaboli vinculo; aut certe, quoniam trium annorum et sex mensum brevissimum spatium est, computari noluisse credatur, sive quod minus satanae vinculum, sive quod amplius videtur regnum habere sanctorum, sicut de quadringentis annis in sexto decimo huius operis volumine disputavi; quoniam plus aliquid erant, et tamen quadringenti sunt nuncupati; et talia saepe reperiuntur in litteris sacris, si quis advertat. ||This last persecution by Antichrist shall last for three years and six months, as we have already said, and as is affirmed both in the book of Revelation and by Daniel the prophet. Though this time is brief, yet not without reason is it questioned whether it is comprehended in the thousand years in which the devil is bound and the saints reign with Christ, or whether this little season should be added over and above to these years. For if we say that they are included in the thousand years, then the saints reign with Christ during a more protracted period than the devil is bound. For they shall reign with their King and Conqueror mightily even in that crowning persecution when the devil shall now be unbound and shall rage against them with all his might. How then does Scripture define both the binding of the devil and the reign of the saints by the same thousand years, if the binding of the devil ceases three years and six months before this reign of the saints with Christ? On the other hand, if we say that the brief space of this persecution is not to be reckoned as a part of the thousand years, but rather as an additional period, we shall indeed be able to interpret the words, "The priests of God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years; and when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison;" for thus they signify that the reign of the saints and the bondage of the devil shall cease simultaneously, so that the time of the persecution we speak of should be contemporaneous neither with the reign of the saints nor with the imprisonment of Satan, but should be reckoned over and above as a superadded portion of time. But then in this case we are forced to admit that the saints shall not reign with Christ during that persecution. But who can dare to say that His members shall not reign with Him at that very juncture when they shall most of all, and with the greatest fortitude, cleave to Him, and when the glory of resistance and the crown of martyrdom shall be more conspicuous in proportion to the hotness of the battle? Or if it is suggested that they may be said not to reign, because of the tribulations which they shall suffer, it will follow that all the saints who have formerly, during the thousand years, suffered tribulation, shall not be said to have reigned with Christ during the period of their tribulation, and consequently even those whose souls the author of this book says that he saw, and who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, did not reign with Christ when they were suffering persecution, and they were not themselves the kingdom of Christ, though Christ was then pre-eminently possessing them. This is indeed perfectly absurd, and to be scouted. But assuredly the victorious souls of the glorious martyrs having overcome and finished all griefs and toils, and having laid down their mortal members, have reigned and do reign with Christ till the thousand years are finished, that they may afterwards reign with Him when they have received their immortal bodies. And therefore during these three years and a half the souls of those who were slain for His testimony, both those which formerly passed from the body and those which shall pass in that last persecution, shall reign with Him till the mortal world come to an end, and pass into that kingdom in which there shall be no death. And thus the reign of the saints with Christ shall last longer than the bonds and imprisonment of the devil, because they shall reign with their King the Son of God for these three years and a half during which the devil is no longer bound. It remains, therefore, that when we read that "the priests of God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years; and when the thousand years are finished, the devil shall be loosed from his imprisonment," that we understand either that the thousand years of the reign of the saints does not terminate, though the imprisonment of the devil does,-so that both parties have their thousand years, that is, their complete time, yet each with a different actual duration approriate to itself, the kingdom of the saints being longer, the imprisonment of the devil shorter, -or at least that, as three years and six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned as either deducted from the whole time of Satan's imprisonment, or as added to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we have shown above in the sixteenth book regarding the round number of four hundred years, which were specified as four hundred, though actually somewhat more; and similar expressions are often found in the sacred writings, if one will mark them.
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| − | ||<div id="c14"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XIV] Post hanc autem commemorationem novissimae persecutionis breviter complectitur totum, quod ultimo iam iudicio diabolus et cum suo principe civitas inimica passura est. Dicit enim: Et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris, quo et bestiae et pseudopropheta; et cruciabuntur die et nocte in saecula saeculorum. Bestiam bene intellegi ipsam impiam civitatem supra diximus. Pseudopropheta vero eius aut Antichristus est aut imago illa, id est figmentum, de quo ibi locuti sumus. Post haec ipsum novissimum iudicium, quod erit in secunda resurrectione mortuorum, quae corporum est, recapitulando narrans quo modo sibi fuerit reuelatum: Et vidi, inquit, thronum magnum et candidum et sedentem super eum, cuius a facie fugit caelum et terra, et locus eorum inventus non est. Non ait: "Vidi thronum magnum et candidum et sedentem super eum, et ab eius facie fugit caelum et terra", quoniam non tunc factum est, id est, antequam esset de vivis et mortuis iudicatum; sed eum se vidisse dixit in throno sedentem, a cuius facie fugit caelum et terra, sed postea. Peracto quippe iudicio, tunc esse desinet hoc caelum et haec terra, quando incipiet esse caelum nouum et terra noua. Mutatione namque rerum, non omni modo interitu transibit hic mundus. Vnde et apostolus dicit: Praeterit enim figura huius mundi, volo vos sine sollicitudine esse. Figura ergo praeterit, non natura. Cum ergo se Iohannes vidisse dixisset sedentem super thronum, cuius a facie, quod postea futurum est, fugit caelum et terra: Et vidi, inquit mortuos magnos et pusillos, et aperti sunt libri; et alius liber apertus est, qui est vitae uniuscuiusque; et iudicati sunt mortui ex ipsis scripturis librorum secundum facta sua. Libros dixit esse apertos et librum; sed librum cuius modi non tacuit: Qui est, inquit, vitae uniuscuiusque. Ergo illi libri, quos priore loco posuit, intellegendi sunt sancti, et ueteres et novi, ut in illis ostenderetur, quae Deus fieri sua mandata iussisset; in illo autem, qui est vitae uniuscuiusque, quid horum quisque non fecisset sive fecisset. Qui liber si carnaliter cogitetur, quis eius magnitudinem aut longitudinem valeat aestimare? Aut quanto tempore legi poterit liber, in quo scriptae sunt universae vitae universorum? An tantus angelorum numerus aderit, quantus hominum erit, et vitam suam quisque ab angelo sibi adhibito audiet recitari? Non ergo unus liber erit omnium, sed singuli singulorum. Scriptura vero ista unum volens intellegi: Et alius, inquit, liber apertus est. Quaedam igitur vis est intellegenda divina, qua fiet, ut cuique opera sua, vel bona vel mala, cuncta in memoriam reuocentur et mentis intuitu mira celeritate cernantur, ut accuset vel excuset scientia conscientiam atque ita simul et omnes et singuli iudicentur. Quae nimirum vis divina libri nomen accepit. In ea quippe quodam modo legitur, quidquid ea faciente recolitur. Vt autem ostendat, qui mortui iudicandi sint, pusilli et magni, recapitulando dicit tamquam ad id rediens, quod praeterierat potiusue distulerat: Et exhibuit mortuos mare, qui in eo erant, et mors et infernus reddiderunt mortuos, quos in se habebant. Hoc procul dubio prius factum est, quam essent mortui iudicati; et tamen illud prius dictum est. Hoc est ergo quod dixi, recapitulando eum ad id redisse quod intermiserat. Nunc autem ordinem tenuit, atque ut explicaretur ipse ordo, commodius etiam de iudicatis mortuis, quod iam dixerat, suo repetivit loco. Cum enim dixisset: Et exhibuit mortuos mare, qui in eo erant, et mors et infernus reddio derunt mortuos, quos in se habebant; mox addidit quod paulo ante posuerat: Et iudicati sunt singuli secundum facta sua. Hoc est enim quod supra dixerat: Et iudicati sunt mortui secundum facta sua. ||After this mention of the closing persecution, he summarily indicates all that the devil, and the city of which he is the prince, shall suffer in the last judgment. For he says, "And the devil who seduced them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, in which are the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." We have already said that by the beast is well understood the wicked city. His false prophet is either Antichrist or that image or figment of which we have spoken in the same place. After this he gives a brief narrative of the last judgment itself, which shall take place at the second or bodily resurrection of the dead, as it had been revealed to him: "I saw a throne great and white, and One sitting on it from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, and their place was not found." He does not say, "I saw a throne great and white, and One sitting on it, and from His face the heaven and the earth fled away," for it had not happened then, i.e., before the living and the dead were judged; but he says that he saw Him sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled away, but afterwards. For when the judgment is finished, this heaven and earth shall cease to be, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For this world shall pass away by transmutation, not by absolute destruction. And therefore the apostle says, "For the figure of this world passes away. I would have you be without anxiety." 1 Corinthians 7:31-32 The figure, therefore, passes away, not the nature. After John had said that he had seen One sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled, though not till afterwards, he said, "And I saw the dead, great and small: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of the life of each man: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their deeds." He said that the books were opened, and a book; but he left us at a loss as to the nature of this book, "which is," he says, "the book of the life of each man." By those books, then, which he first mentioned, we are to understand the sacred books old and new, that out of them it might be shown what commandments God had enjoined; and that book of the life of each man is to show what commandments each man has done or omitted to do. If this book be materially considered, who can reckon its size or length, or the time it would take to read a book in which the whole life of every man is recorded? Shall there be present as many angels as men, and shall each man hear his life recited by the angel assigned to him? In that case there will be not one book containing all the lives, but a separate book for every life. But our passage requires us to think of one only. "And another book was opened," it says. We must therefore understand it of a certain divine power, by which it shall be brought about that every one shall recall to memory all his own works, whether good or evil, and shall mentally survey them with a marvellous rapidity, so that this knowledge will either accuse or excuse conscience, and thus all and each shall be simultaneously judged. And this divine power is called a book, because in it we shall as it were read all that it causes us to remember. That he may show who the dead, small and great, are who are to be judged, he recurs to this which he had omitted or rather deferred, and says, "And the sea presented the dead which were in it; and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them." This of course took place before the dead were judged, yet it is mentioned after. And so, I say, he returns again to what he had omitted. But now he preserves the order of events, and for the sake of exhibiting it repeats in its own proper place what he had already said regarding the dead who were judged. For after he had said, "And the sea presented the dead which were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them," he immediately subjoined what he had already said, "and they were judged every man according to their works." For this is just what he had said before, "And the dead were judged according to their works."
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| − | ||<div id="c15"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XV] Sed qui sunt mortui, quos exhibuit mare, qui in eo erant? Neque enim qui in mari moriuntur, non sunt in inferno, aut corpora, eorum servantur in mari, aut, quod est absurdius, mare habebat bonos mortuos et infernus malos. Quis hoc putaverit? Sed profecto convenienter quidam hoc loco mare pro isto saeculo positum accipiunt. Cum ergo et quos hic inveniet Christus in corpore constitutos simul significaret cum eis, qui resurrecturi sunt,udicandos, etiam ipsos mortuos appellavit, et bonos, quibus dicitur: Mortui enim estis, et vita uestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo, et malos, de quibus dicitur: Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos. Possunt mortui etiam propter hoc dici, quod mortalia gerunt corpora; unde apostolus: Corpus quidem, inquit, mortuum est propter peccatum; spiritus autem vita est propter iustitiam, utrumque in homine vivente atque in hoc corpore constituto esse demonstrans, et corpus mortuum et spiritum vitam. Nec tamen dixit corpus mortale, sed mortuum, quamuis eadem paulo post etiam mortalia corpora, sicut usitatius vocantur, appellet. Hos ergo mortuos exhibuit mare, qui in eo erant, id est, exhibuit homines hoc saeculum, quicumque in eo erant, quia nondum obierant. Et mors et infernus, inquit, reddiderunt mortuos, quos in se habebant. Mare exhibuit, quia, sicut inventi sunt, adfuerunt; mors vero et infernus reddiderunt, quoniam vitae, de qua iam exierant, reuocarunt. Nec frustra fortasse non satis fuit ut diceret mors aut infernus, sed utrumque dictum est: mors propter bonos, qui tantummodo mortem perpeti potuerunt, non et infernum; infernus autem propter malos, qui etiam poenas apud inferos pendunt. Si enim non absurde credi videtur antiquos etiam sanctos, qui venturi Christi tenuerunt fidem, locis quidem a tormentis impiorum remotissimis, sed apud inferos fuisse, donec eos inde Christi sanguis et ad ea loca descensus erueret, profecto deinceps boni fideles effuso illo pretio iam redempti prorsus inferos nesciunt, donec etiam receptis corporibus bona recipiant, quae merentur. Cum autem dixisset: Et iudicati sunt singuli secundum facta sua, breviter subiecit, quem ad modum fuerint iudicati: Et mors et infernus, inquit, missi sunt in stagnum ignis, his nominibus significans diabolum, quoniam mortis est auctor infernarumque poenarum, universamque simul daemonum societatem. Hoc est enim quod supra evidentius praeoccupando iam dixerat: Et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris. Quod vero ibi obscurius adiunxerat dicens: Quo et bestia et pseudopropheta, hic apertius: Et qui non sunt, inquit, inventi in libro vitae scripti, missi sunt in stagnum ignis. Non Deum liber iste commemorat, ne oblivione fallatur; sed praedestinationem significat eorum, quibus aeterna dabitur vita. Neque enim nescit eos Deus et in hoc libro legitur, ut sciat; sed potius ipsa eius praescientia de illis, quae falli non potest, liber est vitae, in quo sunt scripti, id est ante praecogniti. || But who are the dead which were in the sea, and which the sea presented? For we cannot suppose that those who die in the sea are not in hell, nor that their bodies are preserved in the sea; nor yet, which is still more absurd, that the sea retained the good, while hell received the bad. Who could believe this? But some very sensibly suppose that in this place the sea is put for this world. When John then wished to signify that those whom Christ should find still alive in the body were to be judged along with those who should rise again, he called them dead, both the good to whom it is said, "For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God," Colossians 3:3 and the wicked of whom it is said, "Let the dead bury their dead." Matthew 8:22 They may also be called dead, because they wear mortal bodies, as the apostle says, "The body indeed is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness;" Romans 8:10 proving that in a living man in the body there is both a body which is dead, and a spirit which is life. Yet he did not say that the body was mortal, but dead, although immediately after he speaks in the more usual way of mortal bodies. These, then, are the dead which were in the sea, and which the sea presented, to wit, the men who were in this world, because they had not yet died, and whom the world presented for judgment. "And death and hell," he says, "gave up the dead which were in them." The sea presented them because they had merely to be found in the place where they were; but death and hell gave them up or restored them, because they called them back to life, which they had already quitted. And perhaps it was not without reason that neither death nor hell were judged sufficient alone, and both were mentioned,-death to indicate the good, who have suffered only death and not hell; hell to indicate the wicked, who suffer also the punishment of hell. For if it does not seem absurd to believe that the ancient saints who believed in Christ and His then future coming, were kept in places far removed indeed from the torments of the wicked, but yet in hell, until Christ's blood and His descent into these places delivered them, certainly good Christians, redeemed by that precious price already paid, are quite unacquainted with hell while they wait for their restoration to the body, and the reception of their reward. After saying, "They were judged every man according to their works," he briefly added what the judgment was: "Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire;" by these names designating the devil and the whole company of his angels, for he is the author of death and the pains of hell. For this is what he had already, by anticipation, said in clearer language: "The devil who seduced them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone." The obscure addition he had made in the words, "in which were also the beast and the false prophet," he here explains, "They who were not found written in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire." This book is not for reminding God, as if things might escape Him by forgetfulness, but it symbolizes His predestination of those to whom eternal life shall be given. For it is not that God is ignorant, and reads in the book to inform Himself, but rather His infallible prescience is the book of life in which they are written, that is to say, known beforehand.
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| − | ||<div id="c16"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XVI] Finito autem iudicio, quo praenuntiavit iudicandos malos, restat ut etiam de bonis dicat. Iam enim explicavit quos breviter a Domino dictum est: Sic ibunt isti in supplicium aeternum; sequitur ut explicet, quod etiam ibi conectitur: Iusti autem in vitam aeternam. Et vidi, inquit, caelum nouum et terram nouam. Nam primum caelum et terra recesserunt, et mare iam non est. Isto fiet ordine, quod superius praeoccupando iam dixit, vidisse se super thronum sedentem, cuius a facie fugit caelum et terra. Iudicatis quippe his, qui scripti non sunt in libro vitae, et in aeternum ignem missis (qui ignis cuius modi et in qua mundi vel rerum parte futurus sit, hominem scire arbitror neminem, nisi forte cui Spiritus divinus ostendit), tunc figura huius mundi mundanorum ignium conflagratione praeteribit, sicut factum est mundanarum aquarum inundatione diluuium. Illa itaque, ut dixi, conflagratione mundana elementorum corruptibilium qualitates, quae corporibus nostris corruptibilibus congruebant, ardendo penitus interibunt, atque ipsa substantia eas qualitates habebit, quae corporibus inmortalibus mirabili mutatione conveniant; ut scilicet mundus in melius innouatus apte adcommodetur hominibus etiam carne in melius innouatis. Quod autem ait: Et mare iam non est; utrum maximo illo ardore siccetur an et ipsum vertatur in melius, non facile dixerim. Caelum quippe nouum et terram nouam futuram legimus, de mari autem nouo aliquid me uspiam legisse non recolo; nisi quod in hoc eodem libro reperitur: Tamquam mare vitreum simile crystallo . Sed tunc non de isto fine saeculi loquebatur, nec proprie dixisse videtur mare, sed tamquam mare. Quamuis et nunc, sicut amat prophetica locutio propriis verbis translata miscere ac sic quodam modo velare quod dicitur, potuit de illo mari dicere: Et mare iam non est, de quo supra dixerat: Et exhibuit mortuos mare, qui in eo erant. Iam enim tunc non erit hoc saeculum vita mortalium turbulentum et procellosum, quod maris nomine figuravit. ||Having finished the prophecy of judgment, so far as the wicked are concerned, it remains that he speak also of the good. Having briefly explained the Lord's words, "These will go away into everlasting punishment," it remains that he explain the connected words, "but the righteous into life eternal." Matthew 25:46 "And I saw," he says, "a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away; and there is no more sea." Revelation 21:1 This will take place in the order which he has by anticipation declared in the words, "I saw One sitting on the throne, from whose face heaven and earth fled." For as soon as those who are not written in the book of life have been judged and cast into eternal fire,-the nature of which fire, or its position in the world or universe, I suppose is known to no man, unless perhaps the divine Spirit reveal it to some one,-then shall the figure of this world pass away in a conflagration of universal fire, as once before the world was flooded with a deluge of universal water. And by this universal conflagration the qualities of the corruptible elements which suited our corruptible bodies shall utterly perish, and our substance shall receive such qualities as shall, by a wonderful transmutation, harmonize with our immortal bodies, so that, as the world itself is renewed to some better thing, it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in their flesh to some better thing. As for the statement, "And there shall be no more sea," I would not lightly say whether it is dried up with that excessive heat, or is itself also turned into some better thing. For we read that there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, but I do not remember to have anywhere read anything of a new sea, unless what I find in this same book, "As it were a sea of glass like crystal." Revelation 15:2 But he was not then speaking of this end of the world, neither does he seem to speak of a literal sea, but "as it were a sea." It is possible that, as prophetic diction delights in mingling figurative and real language, and thus in some sort veiling the sense, so the words "And there is no more sea" may be taken in the same sense as the previous phrase, "And the sea presented the dead which were in it." For then there shall be no more of this world, no more of the surgings and restlessness of human life, and it is this which is symbolized by the sea.
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| − | ||<div id="c17"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XVII] Et civitatem, inquit, magnam Hierusalem nouam vidi descendentem de caelo a Deo, aptatam, quasi nouam nuptam ornatam marito suo. Et audivi vocem magnam de throno dicentem. Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, et habitabit cum eis, et erunt ipsi populus eius, et ipse Deus erit cum eis. Et absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum; et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus, quia priora abierunt. Et dixit sedens in throno: Ecce noua facio omnia. De caelo descendere ista civitas dicitur, quoniam caelestis est gratia, qua Deus eam fecit. Propter quod ei dicit etiam per Esaiam: Ego sum Dominus faciens te. Et de caelo quidem ab initio sui descendit, ex quo per huius saeculi tempus gratia Dei desuper veniente per lauacrum regenerationis in Spiritu sancto misso de caelo subinde cives eius adcrescunt. Sed per iudicium Dei, quod erit novissimum per eius filium Iesum Christum, tanta eius et tam noua de Dei munere claritas apparebit, ut nulla remaneant uestigia uetustatis; quando quidem et corpora ad incorruptionem atque inmortalitatem nouam ex uetere corruptione ac mortalitate transibunt. Nam hoc de isto tempore accipere, quo regnat cum rege suo mille annis, inpudentiae nimiae mihi videtur, cum apertissime dicat: Absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum; et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus. Quis vero tam sit absurdus et obstinatissima contentione uesanus, qui audeat adfirmare in huius mortalitatis aerumnis, non dico populum sanctum, sed unumquemque sanctorum, qui hanc vel ducat vel ducturus sit vel duxerit vitam, nullas habentem lacrimas et dolores; cum potius quanto est quisque sanctior et desiderii sancti plenior, tanto sit eius in orando fletus uberior? An non est vox civis supernae Hierusalem: Factae sunt mihi lacrimae meae panis die ac nocte, et: Lauabo per singulas noctes lectum meum, in lacrimis meis stratum meum rigabo, et: Gemitus meus non est absconditus a te, et: Dolor meus renouatus est? Aut vero non eius filii sunt, qui ingemescunt grauati, in quo nolunt spoliari, sed superuest i, ut absorbeatur mortale hoc a vita? Nonne ipsi sunt, qui primitias habentes Spiritus in semet ipsis ingemescunt, adoptionem expectantes, redemptionem corporis sui? An ipse apostolus Paulus non erat supernus Hierosolymitanus, vel non multo magis hoc erat, quando pro Israelitis carnalibus fratribus suis tristitia illi erat magna et continuus dolor cordi eius? Quando autem mors non erit in ista civitate, nisi quando dicetur: Vbi est, mors, contentio tua? Vbi est, mors, aculeus tuus? Aculeus autem mortis est peccatum. Quod tunc utique non erit, quando dicetur: Vbi est? Nunc vero non quilibet infirmus civis illius civitatis, sed idem ipse Iohannes in epistula sua clamat: Si dixerimus, quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus et veritas in nobis non est. Et in hoc quidem libro, cuius nomen est apocalypsis, obscure multa dicuntur, ut mentem legentis exerceant, et pauca in eo sunt, ex quorum manifestatione indagentur cetera cum labore; maxime quia sic eadem multis modis repetit, ut alia atque alia dicere videatur, cum aliter atque aliter haec ipsa dicere uestigetur. Verum in his verbis, ubi ait: Absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum, et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus, tanta luce dicta sunt de saeculo futuro et de inmortalitate atque aeternitate sanctorum (tunc enim solum atque ibi solum ista non erunt), ut nulla debeamus in litteris sacris quaerere vel legere manifesta, si haec putaverimus obscura. ||And I saw, he says, "a great city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but neither shall there be any more pain: because the former things have passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Revelation 21:2-5 This city is said to come down out of heaven, because the grace with which God formed it is of heaven. Wherefore He says to it by Isaiah, "I am the Lord that formed you." Isaiah 45:8 It is indeed descended from heaven from its commencement, since its citizens during the course of this world grow by the grace of God, which comes down from above through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But by God's final judgment, which shall be administered by His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by God's grace be manifested a glory so pervading and so new, that no vestige of what is old shall remain; for even our bodies shall pass from their old corruption and mortality to new incorruption and immortality. For to refer this promise to the present time, in which the saints are reigning with their King a thousand years, seems to me excessively barefaced, when it is most distinctly said, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more pain." And who is so absurd, and blinded by contentious opinionativeness, as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state, God's people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain,-the fact being that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication? Are not these the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem: "My tears have been my meat day and night;" and "Every night shall I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water my couch;" and "My groaning is not hid from You;" and "My sorrow was renewed?" Or are not those God's children who groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life? 2 Corinthians 5:4 Do not they even who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of their body? Romans 8:23 Was not the Apostle Paul himself a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and was he not so all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow of heart for his Israelitish brethren? Romans 9:2 But when shall there be no more death in that city, except when it shall be said, "O death, where is your contention? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin." Obviously there shall be no sin when it can be said, "Where is"-But as for the present it is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but this same Apostle John himself who says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 No doubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse, there are in it many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the reader, and there are few passages so plain as to assist us in the interpretation of the others, even though we take pains; and this difficulty is increased by the repetition of the same things, in forms so different, that the things referred to seem to be different, although in fact they are only differently stated. But in the words, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more pain," there is so manifest a reference to the future world and the immortality and eternity of the saints,-for only then and only there shall such a condition be realized,-that if we think this obscure, we need not expect to find anything plain in any part of Scripture.
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| − | ||<div id="c18"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XVIII] Nunc iam videamus, quid etiam apostolus Petrus de hoc iudicio scripserit: Venient, inquit, in novissimo dierum inlusione inludentes, secundum proprias concupiscentias suas euntes et dicentes: Vbi est promissum praesentiae ipsius? Ex quo enim patres dormierunt, sic omnia perseuerant ab initio creaturae. Latet enim illos hoc volentes, quia caeli erant olim et terra de aqua, et per aquam constituta Dei verbo, per quae, qui tunc erat mundus, aqua inundatus deperiit. Qui autem nunc sunt caeli et terra, eodem verbo repositi sunt, igni reservandi in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum impiorum. Hoc unum vero non lateat vos, carissimi, quia unus dies apud Dominum sicut mille anni et mille anni sicut dies unus. Non tardat Dominus promissum, sicut quidam tarditatem existimant; sed patienter fert propter vos, nolens aliquem perire, sed omnes in paenitentiam converti. Veniet autem dies Domini ut fur, in quo caeli magno impetu transcurrent, elementa autem ardentia resoluentur et terra et quae in ipsa sunt opera exurentur. His ergo omnibus pereuntibus quales oportet esse vos in sanctis conversationibus expectantes et properantes ad praesentiam diei Domini, per quam caeli ardentes soluentur et elementa ignis ardore decoquentur? Nouos vero caelos et terram nouam secundum promissa ipsius expectamus, in quibus iustitia inhabitat. Nihil hic dixit de resurrectione mortuorum, sed sane de perditione mundi huius satis. Vbi etiam commemorans factum ante diluuium videtur admonuisse quodam modo, quatenus in fine huius saeculi mundum istum periturum esse credamus. Nam et illo tempore perisse dixit, qui tunc erat, mundum; nec solum orbem terrae, verum etiam caelos, quos utique istos aerios intellegimus, quorum locum ac spatium tunc aqua crescendo superaverat. Ergo totus aut paene totus aer iste ventosus (quod caelum vel potius caelos vocat, sed utique istos imos, non illos supremos, ubi sol et luna et sidera constituta sunt) conversus fuerat in umidam qualitatem atque hoc modo cum terra perierat, cuius terrae utique prior facies fuerat deleta diluuio. Qui autem nunc sunt, inquit, caeli et terra, eodem verbo repositi sunt, igni reservandi in diem iudicii et perditionis homo num impiorum. Proinde qui caeli et quae terra, id est, qui, mundus pro eo mundo, qui diluuio periit, ex eadem aqua repositus est, ipse igni novissimo reservatur in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum impiorum. Nam et hominum propter magnam quandam commutationem non dubitat dicere perditionem futuram, cum tamen eorum quamuis in aeternis poenis sit mansura natura. Quaerat forsitan aliquis, si post factum iudicium iste mundus ardebit, antequam pro illo caelum nouum et terra noua reponatur, eo ipso tempore conflagrationis eius ubi erunt sancti, cum eos habentes corpora in aliquo corporali loco esse necesse sit. Possumus respondere futuros eos esse in superioribus partibus, quo ita non ascendet flamma illius incendii, quem ad modum nec unda diluuii. Talia quippe illis inerunt corpora, ut illic sint, ubi esse voluerint. Sed nec ignem conflagrationis illius pertimescent inmortales atque incorruptibiles facti, si virorum trium corruptibilia corpora atque mortalia in camino ardenti inlaesa vivere potuerunt. ||Let us now see what the Apostle Peter predicted concerning this judgment. "There shall come," he says, "in the last days scoffers. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness." There is nothing said here about the resurrection of the dead, but enough certainly regarding the destruction of this world. And by his reference to the deluge he seems as it were to suggest to us how far we should believe the ruin of the world will extend in the end of the world. For he says that the world which then was perished, and not only the earth itself, but also the heavens, by which we understand the air, the place and room of which was occupied by the water. Therefore the whole, or almost the whole, of the gusty atmosphere (which he calls heaven, or rather the heavens, meaning the earth's atmosphere, and not the upper air in which sun, moon, and stars are set) was turned into moisture, and in this way perished together with the earth, whose former appearance had been destroyed by the deluge. "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Therefore the heavens and the earth, or the world which was preserved from the water to stand in place of that world which perished in the flood, is itself reserved to fire at last in the day of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men. He does not hesitate to affirm that in this great change men also shall perish: their nature, however, shall notwithstanding continue, though in eternal punishments. Some one will perhaps put the question, If after judgment is pronounced the world itself is to burn, where shall the saints be during the conflagration, and before it is replaced by a new heavens and a new earth, since somewhere they must be, because they have material bodies? We may reply that they shall be in the upper regions into which the flame of that conflagration shall not ascend, as neither did the water of the flood; for they shall have such bodies that they shall be wherever they wish. Moreover, when they have become immortal and incorruptible, they shall not greatly dread the blaze of that conflagration, as the corruptible and mortal bodies of the three men were able to live unhurt in the blazing furnace.
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| − | ||<div id="c19"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XIX] Multas euangelicas apostolicasque sententias de divino isto iudicio novissimo video mihi esse praetereundas, ne hoc volumen in nimiam longitudinem prouoluatur; sed nullo modo est praetereundus apostolus Paulus, qui scribens ad Thessalonicenses: Rogamus, inquit, vos, fratres, per adventum Domini nostri Iesu Christi et nostrae congregationis in ipsum, ut non cito moveamini mente neque terreamini neque per spiritum neque per verbum neque per epistulam tamquam per nos, quasi instet dies Domini, ne quos vos seducat ullo modo; quoniam nisi venerit refuga primum et reuelatus fuerit homo peccati, filius interitus, qui adversatur et superextollitur supra omne, quod dicitur Deus aut quod colitur, ita ut in templo Dei sedeat, ostentans se tamquam sit Deus. Non retinetis in memoria, quod adhuc cum essem apud vos haec dicebantur vobis? et nunc quid detineat scitis, ut reueletur in suo tempore. Iam enim mysterium iniquitatis operatur. Tantum qui modo tenet teneat, donec de medio fiat; et tunc reuelabitur iniquus, quem Dominus Iesus interficiet spiritu oris sui, et euacuabit inluminatione praesentiae suae eum, cuius est praesentia secundum operationem satanae, in omni virtute et signis et prodigiis mendacii et, in omni seductione iniquitatis his, qui pereunt, pro eo, quod dilectionem veritatis non receperunt, ut salui fierent. Et ideo mittet illis Deus operationem erroris, ut credant mendacio et iudicentur omnes, quo non crediderunt veritati, sed consenserunt iniquitati. Nulli dubium est eum de Antichristo ista dixisse, diemque iudicii (hunc enim appellat diem Domini) non esse venturum, nisi ille prior venerit, quem refugam vocat, utique a Domino Deo. Quod si de omnibus impiis merito dici potest, quanto magis de isto! Sed in quo templo Dei sit sessurus, incertum est; utrum in illa ruina templi, quod a Salomone rege constructum est, an vero in ecclesia. Non enim templum alicuius idoli aut daemonis templum Dei apostolus diceret. Vnde nonnulli non ipsum principem, sed universum quodam modo corpus eius, id est ad eum pertinentem hominum multitudinem, simul cum ipso suo principe hoc loco intellegi Antichristum volunt; rectiusque putant etiam Latine dici, sicut in Graeco est, non in templo Dei, sed in templum Dei sedeat, tamquam ipse sit templum Dei, quod est ecclesia; sicut dicimus: "Sedet in amicum", id est velut amicus, vel si quid aliud isto locutionis genere dici solet. Quod autem ait: Et nunc quid detineat scitis, id est, quid sit in mora, quae causa sit dilationis eius, ut reueletur in suo tempore, scitis: quoniam scire illos dixit, aperte hoc dicere noluit. Et ideo nos, qui nescimus quod illi sciebant, pervenire cum labore ad id, quod sensit apostolus, cupimus nec valemus; praesertim quia et illa, quae addidit, hunc sensum faciunt obscuriorem. Nam quid est: Iam enim mysterium iniquitatis operatur. Tantum qui modo tenet teneat, donec de medio fiat; et tunc reuelabitur iniquus? Ego prorsus quid dixerit me fateor ignorare. Suspiciones tamen hominum, quas vel audire vel legere potui, non tacebo. Quidam putant hoc de imperio dictum fuisse Romano, et propterea Paulum apostolum non id aperte scribere voluisse, ne calumniam videlicet incurreret, quod Romano imperio male optaverit, cum speraretur aeternum; ut hoc quod dixit: Iam enim mysterium iniquitatis operatur, Neronem voluerit intellegi, cuius iam facta velut Antichristi videbantur. Vnde nonnulli ipsum resurrecturum et futurum Antichristum suspicantur; alii vero nec occisum putant, sed subtractum potius, ut putaretur occisus, et vivum occultari in vigore ipsius aetatis, in qua fuit, cum crederetur extinctus, donec suo tempore reueletur et restituatur in regnum. Sed multum mihi mira est haec opinantium tanta praesumptio. Illud tamen, quod ait apostolus: Tantum qui modo tenet teneat, donec de medio fiat, non absurde de ipso Romano imperio creditur dictum, tamquam dictum sit: "Tantum qui modo imperat imperet, donec de medio fiat", id est de medio tollatur. Et tunc reuelabitur iniquus, quem significari Antichristum nullus ambigit. Alii vero et quod ait: Quid detineat scitis et mysterium operari iniquitatis non putant dictum nisi de malis et fictis, qui sunt in ecclesia, donec perveniant ad tantum numerum, qui Antichristo magnum populum faciat; et hoc esse mysterium iniquitatis, quia videtur occultum; hortari autem apostolum fideles, ut in fide quam tenent tenaciter perseuerent, dicendo: Tantum qui modo tenet teneat, donec de medio fiat, hoc est, donec exeat de medio ecclesiae mysterium iniquitatis, quod nunc occultum est. Ad ipsum enim mysterium pertinere arbitrantur, quod ait in epistula sua Iohannes euangelista: Puero, novissima hora est; et sicut audistis, quod Antichristus sit venturus, nunc autem Antichristi multi facti sunt; unde cognoscimus quod novissima sit hora. Ex nobis exierunt; sed non erant ex nobis. Quod si fuissent ex nobis, permansissent utique nobiscum. Sicut ergo ante finem in hac hora, inquiunt, quam Iohannes novissimam dicit, exierunt multi haeretici de medio ecclesiae, quos multos dicit Antichristos: ita omnes tunc inde exibunt, qui non ad Christum, sed ad illum novissimum Antichristum pertinebunt, et tunc reuelabitur. Alius ergo sic, alius autem sic apostoli obscura verba coniectat; quod tamen eum dixisse non dubium est: non veniet ad vivos et mortuos iudicandos Christus, nisi prius venerit ad seducendos in anima mortuos adversarius eius Antichristus; quamuis ad occultum iam iudicium Dei pertineat, quod ab illo seducentur. Praesentia quippe eius erit, sicut dictum est, secundum operationem satanae in omni virtute et signis et prodigiis mendacii et in omni seductione iniquitatis his, qui pereunt. Tunc enim soluetur satanas et per illum Antichristum in omni sua virtute mirabiliter quidem, sed mendaciter operabitur. Quae solet ambigi utrum propterea dicta sint signa et prodigia mendacii, quoniam mortales sensus per phantasmata decepturus est, ut quod non facit facere videatur, an quia illa ipsa, etiamsi erunt vera prodigia, ad mendacium pertrahent credituros non ea potuisse nisi divinitus fieri, virtutem diaboli nescientes, maxime quando tantam, quantam numquam habuit, acceperit potestatem. Non enim quando de caelo ignis cecidit et tantam familiam cum tantis gregibus pecorum sancti Iob uno impetu absumpsit et turbo inruens et domum deiciens filios eius occidit, phantasmata fuerunt; quae tamen fuerunt opera satanae, cui Deus dederat hanc potestatem. Propter quid horum ergo dicta sint prodigia et signa mendacii, tunc potius apparebit. Sed propter quodlibet horum dictum sit, seducentur eis signis atque prodigiis, qui seduci merebuntur, pro eo quod dilectionem, inquit, veritatis non receperunt, ut salui fierent. Nec dubitavit apostolus addere ac dicere: Ideo mittet illis Deus operationem erroris ut credant mendacio. Deus enim mittet, quia Deus diabolum facere ista permittet, iusto ipse iudicio, quamuis faciat ille iniquo malignoque consilio. Vt iudicentur, inquit, omnes, qui non crediderunt veritati, sed consenserunt iniquitati. Proinde iudicati seducentur et seducti iudicabuntur. Sed iudicati seducentur illis iudiciis Dei occulte iustis, iuste occultis, quibus ab initio peccati rationalis creaturae numquam iudicare cessavit; seducti autem iudicabuntur novissimo manifestoque iudicio per Christum Iesum, iustissime iudicaturum, iniustissime iudicatum. ||I see that I must omit many of the statements of the gospels and epistles about this last judgment, that this volume may not become unduly long; but I can on no account omit what the Apostle Paul says, in writing to the Thessalonians, "We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc.No one can doubt that he wrote this of Antichrist and of the day of judgment, which he here calls the day of the Lord, nor that he declared that this day should not come unless he first came who is called the apostate -apostate, to wit, from the Lord God. And if this may justly be said of all the ungodly, how much more of him? But it is uncertain in what temple he shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by Solomon, or in the Church; for the apostle would not call the temple of any idol or demon the temple of God. And on this account some think that in this passage Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read, not "in the temple of God," but "for" or "as the temple of God," as if he himself were the temple of God, the Church. Then as for the words, "And now ye know what withholds," i.e., you know what hindrance or cause of delay there is, "that he might be revealed in his own time;" they show that he was unwilling to make an explicit statement, because he said that they knew. And thus we who have not their knowledge wish and are not able even with pains to understand what the apostle referred to, especially as his meaning is made still more obscure by what he adds. For what does he mean by "For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now holds, let him hold until he be taken out of the way: and then shall the wicked be revealed?" I frankly confess I do not know what he means. I will nevertheless mention such conjectures as I have heard or read.Some think that the Apostle Paul referred to the Roman empire, and that he was unwilling to use language more explicit, lest he should incur the calumnious charge of wishing ill to the empire which it was hoped would be eternal; so that in saying, "For the mystery of iniquity does already work," he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be as the deeds of Antichrist. And hence some suppose that he shall rise again and be Antichrist. Others, again, suppose that he is not even dead, but that he was concealed that he might be supposed to have been killed, and that he now lives in concealment in the vigor of that same age which he had reached when he was believed to have perished, and will live until he is revealed in his own time and restored to his kingdom. But I wonder that men can be so audacious in their conjectures. However, it is not absurd to believe that these words of the apostle, "Only he who now holds, let him hold until he be taken out of the way," refer to the Roman empire, as if it were said, "Only he who now reigns, let him reign until he be taken out of the way." "And then shall the wicked be revealed:" no one doubts that this means Antichrist. But others think that the words, "You know what withholds," and "The mystery of iniquity works," refer only to the wicked and the hypocrites who are in the Church, until they reach a number so great as to furnish Antichrist with a great people, and that this is the mystery of iniquity, because it seems hidden; also that the apostle is exhorting the faithful tenaciously to hold the faith they hold when he says, "Only he who now holds, let him hold until he be taken out of the way," that is, until the mystery of iniquity which now is hidden departs from the Church. For they suppose that it is to this same mystery John alludes when in his epistle he says, "Little children, it is the last time: and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us." 1 John 2:18-19 As therefore there went out from the Church many heretics, whom John calls "many antichrists," at that time prior to the end, and which John calls "the last time," so in the end they shall go out who do not belong to Christ, but to that last Antichrist, and then he shall be revealed.Thus various, then, are the conjectural explanations of the obscure words of the apostle. That which there is no doubt he said is this, that Christ will not come to judge quick and dead unless Antichrist, His adversary, first come to seduce those who are dead in soul; although their seduction is a result of God's secret judgment already passed. For, as it is said "his presence shall be after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all seduction of unrighteousness in them that perish." For then shall Satan be loosed, and by means of that Antichrist shall work with all power in a lying though a wonderful manner. It is commonly questioned whether these works are called "signs and lying wonders" because he is to deceive men's senses by false appearances, or because the things he does, though they be true prodigies, shall be a lie to those who shall believe that such things could be done only by God, being ignorant of the devil's power, and especially of such unexampled power as he shall then for the first time put forth. For when he fell from heaven as fire, and at a stroke swept away from the holy Job his numerous household and his vast flocks, and then as a whirlwind rushed upon and smote the house and killed his children, these were not deceitful appearances, and yet they were the works of Satan to whom God had given this power. Why they are called signs and lying wonders, we shall then be more likely to know when the time itself arrives. But whatever be the reason of the name, they shall be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall deserve to be seduced, "because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved." Neither did the apostle scruple to go on to say, "For this cause God shall send upon them the working of error that they should believe a lie." For God shall send, because God shall permit the devil to do these things, the permission being by His own just judgment, though the doing of them is in pursuance of the devil's unrighteous and malignant purpose, "that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Therefore, being judged, they shall be seduced, and, being seduced, they shall be judged. But, being judged, they shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secret judgments of God, with which He has never ceased to judge since the first sin of the rational creatures; and, being seduced, they shall be judged in that last and manifest judgment administered by Jesus Christ, who was Himself most unjustly judged and shall most justly judge.
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| − | ||<div id="c20"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XX] Sed hic apostolus tacuit de resurrectione mortuorum; ad eosdem autem scribens in epistula prima: Nolumus, inquit, ignorare vos, fratres, de dormientibus, ut non contristemini, sicut et ceteri, qui spem non habent. Nam si credimus, quod Iesus mortuus est et resurrexit: ita et Deus eos, qui dormierunt per Iesum, adducet cum illo. Hoc enim vobis dicimus in verbo Domini, quia nos viventes, qui reliqui sumus in adventum Domini, non praeveniemus eos, qui ante dormierunt; quoniam ipse Dominus in iussu et in voce archangeli et in tuba Dei descendet de caelo, et mortui in Christo resurgent primo; deinde nos viventes, qui reliqui sumus, simul cum illis rapiemur in nubibus in obuiam Christo in aera, et ita semper cum Domino erimus. Haec verba apostolica resurrectionem mortuorum futuram, quando veniet Christus, utique ad vivos et mortuos iudicandos, praeclarissime ostendunt. Sed quaeri solet, utrum illi, quos hic viventes inventurus est Christus, quorum personam in se atque illos, qui tunc secum vivebant, transfigurabat apostolus, numquam omnino morituri sint, an ipso temporis puncto, quo cum resurgentibus rapientur in nubibus in obuiam Christo in aera, ad inmortalitatem per mortem mira celeritate transibunt. Neque enim dicendum est fieri non posse, ut, dum per aera in sublime portantur, in illo spatio et moriantur et revivescant. Quod enim ait: Et ita semper cum Domino erimus, non sic accipiendum est, tamquam in aere nos dixerit semper cum Domino esse mansuros; quia nec ipse utique ibi manebit, quia veniens transiturus est; venienti quippe ibitur obuiam, non manenti; sed ita cum Domino erimus, id est, sic erimus habentes corpora sempiterna, ubicumque cum illo fuerimus. Ad hunc autem sensum, quo existimemus etiam illos, quos hic vivos inventurus est Dominus, in ipso paruo spatio et passuros mortem et accepturos inmortalitatem, ipse apostolus nos videtur urgere, ubi dicit: In Christo omnes vivificabuntur; cum alio loco de ipsa loquens resurrectione corporum dicat: Tu quod seminas, non vivificatur, nisi moriatur. Quo modo igitur, quos viventes hic Christus inveniet, per inmortalitatem in illo vivificabuntur, etsi non moriantur, cum videamus propter hoc esse dictum: Tu quod seminas, non vivificatur, nisi moriatur? Aut si recte non dicimus seminari nisi ea corpora hominum, quae moriendo quoquo modo reuertuntur in terram (sicut sese habet etiam illa in transgressorem patrem generis humani divinitus prolata sententia: Terra es et in terram ibis): fatendum est istos, quos nondum de corporibus egressos cum veniet Christus inveniet, et istis verbis apostoli et illis de genesi non teneri; quoniam sursum in nubibus rapti non utique seminantur, quia nec eunt in terram nec redeunt, sive nullam prorsus experiantur mortem sive paululum in aere moriantur. Sed aliud rursus occurrit, quod idem dixit apostolus, cum de resurrectione corporum ad Corinthios loqueretur: Omnes resurgemus, vel sicut alii codices habent: Omnes dormiemus. Cum ergo nec resurrectio fieri, nisi mors praecesserit, possit, nec dormitionem possimus illo loco intellegere nisi mortem: quomodo omnes vel dormient vel resurgent, si tam multi, quos in corpore inventurus est Christus, nec dormient nec resurgent? Si ergo sanctos, qui reperientur Christo veniente viventes eique in obuiam rapientur, crediderimus in eodem raptu de mortalibus corporibus exituros et ad eadem mox inmortalia redituros, nullas in verbis apostoli patiemur angustias, sive ubi dicit: Tu quod seminas, non vivificatur, nisi moriatur, sive ubi dicit: Omnes resurgemus aut: Omnes dormiemus; quia nec illi per inmortalitatem vivificabuntur, nisi, quamlibet paululum, tamen ante moriantur, ac per hoc et a resurrectione non erunt alieni, quam dormitione praecedunt, quamuis brevissima, non tamen nulla. Cur autem nobis incredibile videatur illam multitudinem corporum in aere quodam modo seminari atque ibi protinus inmortaliter atque incorruptibiliter revivescere, cum credamus, quod idem ipse apostolus apertissime dicit, in ictu oculi futuram resurrectionem et in membra sine fine victura tanta facilitate tamque inaestimabili velocitate rediturum antiquissimorum cadaverum puluerem? Nec ab illa sententia, qua homini dictum est: Terra es et in terram ibis, futuros illos sanctos arbitremur inmunes, si eorum morientium in terram non reccident corpora, sed, sicut in ipso raptu morientur, ita et resurgent, dum feruntur in aera. In terram quippe ibis est "in hoc ibis amissa vita, quod eras antequam sumeres vitam"; id est, hoc eris exanimatus, quod eras antequam esses animatus (terrae quippe insufflavit Deus in faciem flatum vitae, cum factus est homo in animam vivam); tamquam diceretur: "Terra es animata, quod non eras; terra eris exanimis, sicut eras"; quod sunt et antequam putrescant omnia corpora mortuorum; quod erunt et illa, si morientur, ubicumque moriantur, cum vita carebunt, quam continuo receptura sunt. Sic ergo ibunt in terram, quia ex vivis hominibus terra erunt, quem ad modum it in cinerem, quod fit cinis; it in uetustatem, quod fit uetus; it in testam, quod ex luto fit testa; et alia sescenta sic loquimur. Quo modo autem sit futurum, quod nunc pro nostrae ratiunculae viribus utcumque conicimus, tunc erit potius, ut nosse possimus. Resurrectionem quippe mortuorum futuram et in carne, quando Christus venturus est vivos iudicaturus et mortuos, oportet, si Christiani esse volumus, ut credamus; sed non ideo de hac re inanis est fides nostra si, quem ad modum futura sit, perfecte conprehendere non valemus. Verum iam, sicut <supra> promisimus, de hoc iudicio Dei novissimo etiam prophetici ueteres libri quid praenuntiaverint, quantum satis esse videbitur, debemus ostendere; quae, sicut arbitror, non tanta mora necesse erit tractari et exponi, si istis, quae praemisimus, lector curaverit adivuari. ||But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resurrection of the dead; but in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians he says, "We would not have you to be ignorant brethren, concerning them which are asleep," etc. These words of the apostle most distinctly proclaim the future resurrection of the dead, when the Lord Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead.But it is commonly asked whether those whom our Lord shall find alive upon earth, personated in this passage by the apostle and those who were alive with him, shall never die at all, or shall pass with incomprehensible swiftness through death to immortality in the very moment during which they shall be caught up along with those who rise again to meet the Lord in the air? For we cannot say that it is impossible that they should both die and revive again while they are carried aloft through the air. For the words, "And so shall we ever be with the Lord," are not to be understood as if he meant that we shall always remain in the air with the Lord; for He Himself shall not remain there, but shall only pass through it as He comes. For we shall go to meet Him as He comes, not where He remains; but "so shall we be with the Lord," that is, we shall be with Him possessed of immortal bodies wherever we shall be with Him. We seem compelled to take the words in this sense, and to suppose that those whom the Lord shall find alive upon earth shall in that brief space both suffer death and receive immortality: for this same apostle says, "In Christ shall all be made alive;" 1 Corinthians 15:22 while, speaking of the same resurrection of the body, he elsewhere says, "That which you sow is not quickened, except it die." 1 Corinthians 15:36 How, then, shall those whom Christ shall find alive upon earth be made alive to immortality in Him if they die not, since on this very account it is said, "That which you sow is not quickened, except it die?" Or if we cannot properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as by dying they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the sentence pronounced by God against the sinning father of the human race runs, "Earth you are, and unto earth shall you return," Genesis 3:19 we must acknowledge that those whom Christ at His coming shall find still in the body are not included in these words of the apostle nor in those of Genesis; for, being caught up into the clouds, they are certainly not sown, neither going nor returning to the earth, whether they experience no death at all or die for a moment in the air.But, on the other hand, there meets us the saying of the same apostle when he was speaking to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the body, "We shall all rise," or, as other manuscripts read, "We shall all sleep." 1 Corinthians 15:51 Since, then, there can be no resurrection unless death has preceded, and since we can in this passage understand by sleep nothing else than death, how shall all either sleep or rise again if so many persons whom Christ shall find in the body shall neither sleep nor rise again? If, then, we believe that the saints who shall be found alive at Christ's coming, and shall be caught up to meet Him, shall in that same ascent pass from mortal to immortal bodies, we shall find no difficulty in the words of the apostle, either when he says, "That which you sow is not quickened, except it die," or when he says, "We shall all rise," or "all sleep," for not even the saints shall be quickened to immortality unless they first die, however briefly; and consequently they shall not be exempt from resurrection which is preceded by sleep, however brief. And why should it seem to us incredible that that multitude of bodies should be, as it were, sown in the air, and should in the air forthwith revive immortal and incorruptible, when we believe, on the testimony of the same apostle, that the resurrection shall take place in the twinkling of an eye, and that the dust of bodies long dead shall return with incomprehensible facility and swiftness to those members that are now to live endlessly? Neither do we suppose that in the case of these saints the sentence, "Earth you are, and unto earth shall you return," is null, though their bodies do not, on dying, fall to earth, but both die and rise again at once while caught up into the air. For "You shall return to earth" means, You shall at death return to that which you were before life began. You shall, when examinate, be that which you were before you were animate. For it was into a face of earth that God breathed the breath of life when man was made a living soul; as if it were said, You are earth with a soul, which you were not; you shall be earth without a soul, as you were. And this is what all bodies of the dead are before they rot; and what the bodies of those saints shall be if they die, no matter where they die, as soon as they shall give up that life which they are immediately to receive back again. In this way, then, they return or go to earth, inasmuch as from being living men they shall be earth, as that which becomes cinder is said to go to cinder; that which decays, to go to decay; and so of six hundred other things. But the manner in which this shall take place we can now only feebly conjecture, and shall understand it only when it comes to pass. For that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the dead when Christ comes to judge quick and dead, we must believe if we would be Christians. But if we are unable perfectly to comprehend the manner in which it shall take place, our faith is not on this account vain. Now, however, we ought, as we formerly promised, to show, as far as seems necessary, what the ancient prophetic books predicted concerning this final judgment of God; and I fancy no great time need be spent in discussing and explaining these predictions, if the reader has been careful to avail himself of the help we have already furnished.
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| − | ||<div id="c21"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXI] Propheta Esaias: Resurgent, inquit, mortui et resurgent qui erant in sepulcris, et laetabuntur omnes qui sunt in terra; ros enim, qui abs te est, sanitas illis est; terra vero impiorum cadet. Totum illud superius ad resurrectionem pertinet beatorum. Quod autem ait: Terra vero impiorum cadet, bene intellegitur dictum: "Corpora vero impiorum ruina damnationis excipiet." Iam porro si de bonorum resurrectione quod dictum est diligentius et distinctius velimus intueri, ad primam referendum est quod dictum est: Resurgent mortui; ad secundam vero quod sequitur: Et resurgent qui erant in sepulcris. Iam si et illos inquiramus sanctos, quos hic vivos inventurus est Dominus, eis congrue deputabitur quod adiunxit: Et laetabuntur omnes qui sunt in terra; ros enim, qui abs te est, sanitas illis est. Sanitatem loco isto inmortalitatem rectissime accipimus; ea namque est plenissima sanitas, quae non reficitur alimentis tamquam cotidianis medicamentis. Item de iudicii die spem prius dans bonis, deinde terrens malos idem propheta sic loquitur: Haec dicit Dominus: Ecce ego declino in eos ut flumen pacis et ut torrens inundans gloriam gentium. Filii eorum super umeros portabuntur et super genua consolabuntur. Quem ad modum si quem mater consoletur, ita ego vos consolabor; et in Hierusalem consolabimini, et videbitis, et gaudebit cor uestrum et ossa uestra ut herba exorientur. Et cognoscetur manus Domini colentibus eum, et comminabitur contumacibus. Ecce enim Dominus ut ignis veniet, et ut tempestas currus eius, reddere in indignatione vindictam et uastationem in flamma ignis. In igne enim Domini iudicabitur omnis terra et in gladio eius omnis caro; multi uulnerati erunt a Domino. In bonorum promissione flumen pacis profecto abundantiam pacis illius debemus accipere, qua maior esse non possit. Hac utique in fine rigabimur; de qua in praecedenti libro abundanter locuti sumus. Hoc flumen se in eos declinare dicit, quibus tantam beatitudinem pollicetur, ut intellegamus in illius felicitatis regione, quae in caelis est, hoc flumine omnia satiari; sed quia et terrenis corporibus pax incorruptionis atque inmortalitatis inde influet, ideo declinare se dixit hoc flumen, ut de supernis quodam modo etiam inferiora perfundat et homines aequales angelis reddat. Hierusalem quoque, non illam quae seruit cum filiis suis, sed liberam matrem nostram intellegamus secundum apostolum aeternam in caelis. Ibi post labores aerumnarum curarumque mortalium consolabimur, tamquam paruuli eius in umeris genibusque portati. Rudes enim nos et nouos blandissimis adiutoriis insolita nobis beatitudo illa suscipiet. Ibi videbimus, et gaudebit cor nostrum. Nec expressit quid videbimus; sed quid nisi Deum? ut impleatur in nobis promissum euangelicum: Beati mundicordes, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt, et omnia illa, quae nunc non videmus, credentes autem pro modulo capacitatis humanae longe minus quam sunt atque incomparabiliter cogitamus. Et videbitis, inquit, et gaudebit cor uestrum. Hic creditis, ibi videbitis. Sed quoniam dixit: Et gaudebit cor uestrum, ne putaremus illa bona Hierusalem ad nostrum tantummodo spiritum pertinere: Et ossa, inquit, uestra ut herba exorientur; ubi resurrectionem corporum strinxit, velut quod non dixerat reddens; neque enim cum viderimus fiet, sed cum fuerit facta videbimus. Nam et de caelo nouo ac terra noua iam supra dixerat, dum ea, quae sanctis promittuntur in fine, saepe ac multiformiter diceret. Erit, inquit, caelum nouum et terra noua, et non erunt memores priorum, nec ascendet in cor ipsorum, sed laetitiam et exultationem invenient in ea. Ecce ego faciam Hierusalem exultationem et populum meum laetitiam; et exultabo in Hierusalem et laetabor in populo meo; et ultra non audietur in illa vox fletus, et cetera, quae quidam ad illos carnales mille annos referre conantur. Locutiones enim tropicae propriis prophetico more miscentur, ut ad intellectum spiritalem intentio sobria cum quodam utili ac salubri labore perveniat; pigritia vero carnalis vel ineruditae atque inexercitatae tarditas mentis contenta litterae superficie nihil putat interius requirendum. Haec de propheticis verbis, quae ante istum locum scripta sunt, satis dixerim. In hoc autem loco, unde ad illa digressi sumus, cum dixisset: Et ossa uestra ut herba exorientur, ut resurrectionem carnis quidem, sed tamen bonorum se nunc commemorare monstraret, adiunxit: Et cognoscetur manus Domini colentibus eum. Quid est hoc nisi manus distinguentis cultores suos a contemptoribus suis? De quibus sequentia contexens: Et comminabitur, inquit, contumacibus, sive, ut ait alius interpres, incredulis. Nec tunc comminabitur, sed quae nunc dicuntur minaciter, tunc efficaciter implebuntur. Ecce enim Dominus, inquit, ut ignis veniet et ut tempestas currus eius, reddere in indignatione vindictam et uastationem in flamma ignis. In igne enim Domini iudicabitur omnis terra et in gladio eius omnis caro; multi uulnerati erunt a Domino. Sive igne sive tempestate sive gladio poenam iudicii significat; quando quidem ipsum Dominum quasi ignem dicit esse venturum, eis profecto quibus poenalis erit eius adventus. Currus vero eius (nam pluraliter dicti sunt) angelica ministeria non inconvenienter accipimus. Quod autem ait omnem terram et omnem carnem in eius igne et gladio iudicari, non etiam hic spiritales intellegamus et sanctos, sed terrenos atque carnales, de qualibus dictum est: Qui terrena sapiunt, et: Sapere secundum carnem mors est; et quales omnino caro appellantur a Domino, ubi dicit: Non permanebit spiritus meus, in hominibus istis, quoniam caro sunt. Quod vero hic positum est: Multi uulnerati erunt a Domino, isto fiet uulnere mors secunda. Potest quidem et ignis et gladius et uulnus accipi in bono. Nam et ignem Dominus velle se dixit mittere in mundum, et visae sunt illis linguae divisae velut ignis, quando venit Spiritus sanctus, et: Non veni, inquit idem Dominus, pacem mittere in terram, sed gladium, et sermonem Dei dicit scriptura gladium bis acutum propter aciem geminam testamentorum duorum, et in cantico canticorum caritate se dicit sancta ecclesia uulneratam, velut amoris impetu sagittatam. Sed hic cum legimus vel audimus ultorem Dominum esse venturum, quem ad modum haec intellegenda sint, clarum est. Deinde breviter commemoratis eis, qui per hoc iudicium consumentur, sub figura ciborum in lege uetere uetitorum, a quibus se non abstinverunt, peccatores impiosque significans recapitulat ab initio gratiam novi testamenti a primo Saluatoris adventu usque ad ultimum iudicium, de quo nunc agimus, perducens finiensque sermonem. Narrat namque Dominum dicere se venire, ut congreget omnes gentes, easque venturas et visuras eius gloriam. Omnes enim, sicut dicit apostolus, peccaverunt et egent gloria Dei. Et relicturum se dicit super eos signa, quae utique mirantes credant in eum; et emissurum ex illis saluatos in gentes diversas et longinquas insulas, quae non audierunt nomen eius neque viderunt eius gloriam; et adnuntiaturos gloriam eius in gentibus et adducturos fratres istorum, quibus loquebatur, id est in fide sub Deo Patre fratres Israelitarum electorum; adducturos autem ex omnibus gentibus munus Domino in iumentis et uehiculis (quae iumenta et uehicula bene intelleguntur adiutoria esse divina per cuiusque generis ministeria Dei, vel angelica vel humana) in sanctam civitatem Hierusalem, quae nunc in sanctis fidelibus est diffusa per terras. Vbi enim divinitus adivuantur, ibi credunt, et ubi credunt, ibi veniunt. Comparavit autem illos Dominus tamquam per similitudinem filiis Israel offerentibus ei suas hostias cum psalmis in domo eius, quod ubique iam facit ecclesia; et promisit ab ipsis se accepturum sibi sacerdotes et Levitas; quod nihilo minus fieri nunc videmus. Non enim ex genere carnis et sanguinis, sicut erat primum secundum ordinem Aaron; sed, sicut oportebat in testamento nouo, ubi secundum ordinem Melchisedech summus sacerdos est Christus, pro cuiusque merito, quod in eum gratia divina contulerit, sacerdotes et Levitas eligi nunc videmus, qui non isto nomine, quod saepe adsequuntur indigni, sed ea, quae non est bonis malisque communis, sanctitate pensandi sunt. Haec cum de ista, quae nunc inpertitur ecclesiae, perspicua nobisque notissima Dei miseratione dixisset, promisit et fines, ad quos per ultimum iudicium facta bonorum malorumque discretione venietur, dicens per prophetam, vel de Domino dicens ipse propheta: Quo modo enim caelum nouum et terra noua manebit coram me, dicit Dominus, sic stabit semen uestrum et nomen uestrum, et erit mensis ex mense et sabbatum ex sabbato. Veniet omnis caro in conspectu meo adorare in Hierusalem, dixit Dominus; et egredientur et videbunt membra hominum, qui praeuaricati sunt in me. Vermis eorum non morietur, et ignis eorum non extinguetur, et erunt visui omni carni. Ad hoc iste propheta terminavit librum, ad quod terminabitur saeculum. Quidam sane non interpretati sunt: Membra hominum, sed cadavera virorum, per cadavera significantes evidentem corporum poenam; quamuis cadaver nisi caro exanimis non soleat nuncupari, illa vero animata erunt corpora, alioquin nulla poterunt sentire tormenta; nisi forte, quia mortuorum erunt corpora, id est eorum, qui in secundam mortem cadent, ideo non absurde etiam cadavera dici possunt. Vnde est et illud, quod ab eodem propheta dictum iam supra posui: Terra vero impiorum cadet. Quis autem non videat a cadendo esse appellata cadavera? Virorum autem pro eo posuisse illos interpretes, quod est " hominum ", manifestum est. Neque enim quisquam dicturus est praeuaricatrices feminas in illo supplicio non futuras; sed ex potiore, praesertim de quo femina facta est, uterque sexus accipitur. Verum, quod ad rem maxime pertinet, cum et in bonis dicitur: Veniet omnis caro, quia ex omni genere hominum populus ille constabit (non enim omnes homines ibi erunt, quando in poenis plures erunt), _ sed, ut dicere coeperam, cum et in bonis caro et in malis membra vel cadavera nominantur: profecto post resurrectionem carnis, cuius fides his rerum vocabulis omnino firmatur, illud, quo boni et mali suis finibus dirimentur, futurum esse iudicium declaratur. ||The prophet Isaiah says, "The dead shall rise again, and all who were in the graves shall rise again; and all who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew which is from You is their health, and the earth of the wicked shall fall." Isaiah 26:19 All the former part of this passage relates to the resurrection of the blessed; but the words, "the earth of the wicked shall fall," is rightly understood as meaning that the bodies of the wicked shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we would more exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which refer to the resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first resurrection the words, "the dead shall rise again," and to the second the following words, "and all who were in the graves shall rise again." And if we ask what relates to those saints whom the Lord at His coming shall find alive upon earth, the following clause may suitably be referred to them; "All who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew which is from You is their health." By "health" in this place it is best to understand immortality. For that is the most perfect health which is not repaired by nourishment as by a daily remedy. In like manner the same prophet, affording hope to the good and terrifying the wicked regarding the day of judgment, says, "Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will flow down upon them as a river of peace, and upon the glory of the Gentiles as a rushing torrent; their sons shall be carried on the shoulders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so shall I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall rise up like a herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known by His worshippers, and He shall threaten the contumacious. For, behold, the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord." In His promise to the good he says that He will flow down as a river of peace, that is to say, in the greatest possible abundance of peace. With this peace we shall in the end be refreshed; but of this we have spoken abundantly in the preceding book. It is this river in which he says He shall flow down upon those to whom He promises so great happiness, that we may understand that in the region of that felicity, which is in heaven, all things are satisfied from this river. But because there shall thence flow, even upon earthly bodies, the peace of incorruption and immortality, therefore he says that He shall flow down as this river, that He may as it were pour Himself from things above to things beneath, and make men the equals of the angels. By "Jerusalem," too, we should understand not that which serves with her children, but that which, according to the apostle, is our free mother, eternal in the heavens. Galatians 4:26 In her we shall be comforted as we pass toilworn from earth's cares and calamities, and be taken up as her children on her knees and shoulders. Inexperienced and new to such blandishments, we shall be received into unwonted bliss. There we shall see, and our heart shall rejoice. He does not say what we shall see; but what but God, that the promise in the Gospel may be fulfilled in us, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God?" Matthew 5:8 What shall we see but all those things which now we see not, but believe in, and of which the idea we form, according to our feeble capacity, is incomparably less than the reality? "And you shall see," he says, "and your heart shall rejoice." Here ye believe, there you shall see.But because he said, "Your heart shall rejoice," lest we should suppose that the blessings of that Jerusalem are only spiritual, he adds, "And your bones shall rise up like a herb," alluding to the resurrection of the body, and as it were supplying an omission he had made. For it will not take place when we have seen; but we shall see when it has taken place. For he had already spoken of the new heavens and the new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures, of the things promised to the saints, and saying,"There shall be new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind; but they shall find in it gladness and exultation. Behold, I will make Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a joy. And I will exult in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her;" Isaiah 65:17-19 and other promises, which some endeavor to refer to carnal enjoyment during the thousand years. For, in the manner of prophecy, figurative and literal expressions are mingled, so that a serious mind may, by useful and salutary effort, reach the spiritual sense; but carnal sluggishness, or the slowness of an uneducated and undisciplined mind, rests in the superficial letter, and thinks there is nothing beneath to be looked for. But let this be enough regarding the style of those prophetic expressions just quoted. And now, to return to their interpretation. When he had said, "And your bones shall rise up like a herb," in order to show that it was the resurrection of the good, though a bodily resurrection, to which he alluded, he added, "And the hand of the Lord shall be known by His worshippers." What is this but the hand of Him who distinguishes those who worship from those who despise Him? Regarding these the context immediately adds, "And He shall threaten the contumacious," or, as another translator has it, "the unbelieving." He shall not actually threaten then, but the threats which are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in effect. "For behold," he says, "the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord." By fire, whirlwind, sword, he means the judicial punishment of God. For he says that the Lord Himself shall come as a fire, to those, that is to say, to whom His coming shall be penal. By His chariots (for the word is plural) we suitably understand the ministration of angels. And when he says that all flesh and all the earth shall be judged with His fire and sword, we do not understand the spiritual and holy to be included, but the earthly and carnal, of whom it is said that they "mind earthly things," Philippians 3:19 and "to be carnally minded is death," Romans 8:6 and whom the Lord calls simply flesh when He says, "My Spirit shall not always remain in these men, for they are flesh." Genesis 6:3 As to the words, "Many shall be wounded by the Lord," this wounding shall produce the second death. It is possible, indeed, to understand fire, sword, and wound in a good sense. For the Lord said that He wished to send fire on the earth. Luke 12:49 And the cloven tongues appeared to them as fire when the Holy Spirit came. Acts 2:3 And our Lord says, "I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword." Matthew 10:34 And Scripture says that the word of God is a doubly sharp sword, Hebrews 4:12 on account of the two edges, the two Testaments. And in the Song of Songs the holy Church says that she is wounded with love, Song of Songs 2:5 -pierced, as it were, with the arrow of love. But here, where we read or hear that the Lord shall come to execute vengeance, it is obvious in what sense we are to understand these expressions.After briefly mentioning those who shall be consumed in this judgment, speaking of the wicked and sinners under the figure of the meats forbidden by the old law, from which they had not abstained, he summarily recounts the grace of the new testament, from the first coming of the Saviour to the last judgment, of which we now speak; and herewith he concludes his prophecy. For he relates that the Lord declares that He is coming to gather all nations, that they may come and witness His glory. Isaiah 66:18 For, as the apostle says, "All have sinned and are in want of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 And he says that He will do wonders among them, at which they shall marvel and believe in Him; and that from them He will send forth those that are saved into various nations, and distant islands which have not heard His name nor seen His glory, and that they shall declare His glory among the nations, and shall bring the brethren of those to whom the prophet was speaking, i.e., shall bring to the faith under God the Father the brethren of the elect Israelites; and that they shall bring from all nations an offering to the Lord on beasts of burden and waggons (which are understood to mean the aids furnished by God in the shape of angelic or human ministry), to the holy city Jerusalem, which at present is scattered over the earth, in the faithful saints. For where divine aid is given, men believe, and where they believe, they come. And the Lord compared them, in a figure, to the children of Israel offering sacrifice to Him in His house with psalms, which is already everywhere done by the Church; and He promised that from among them He would choose for Himself priests and Levites, which also we see already accomplished. For we see that priests and Levites are now chosen, not from a certain family and blood, as was originally the rule in the priesthood according to the order of Aaron, but as befits the new testament, under which Christ is the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, in consideration of the merit which is bestowed upon each man by divine grace. And these priests are not to be judged by their mere title, which is often borne by unworthy men, but by that holiness which is not common to good men and bad.After having thus spoken of this mercy of God which is now experienced by the Church, and is very evident and familiar to us, he foretells also the ends to which men shall come when the last judgment has separated the good and the bad, saying by the prophet, or the prophet himself speaking for God, "For as the new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain, and there shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, said the Lord. And they shall go out, and shall see the members of the men who have sinned against me: their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh." Isaiah 66:22-24 At this point the prophet closed his book, as at this point the world shall come to an end. Some, indeed, have translated "carcasses" instead of "members of the men," meaning by carcasses the manifest punishment of the body, although carcass is commonly used only of dead flesh, while the bodies here spoken of shall be animated, else they could not be sensible of any pain; but perhaps they may, without absurdity, be called carcasses, as being the bodies of those who are to fall into the second death. And for the same reason it is said, as I have already quoted, by this same prophet, "The earth of the wicked shall fall." It is obvious that those translators who use a different word for men do not mean to include only males, for no one will say that the women who sinned shall not appear in that judgment; but the male sex, being the more worthy, and that from which the woman was derived, is intended to include both sexes. But that which is especially pertinent to our subject is this, that since the words "All flesh shall come," apply to the good, for the people of God shall be composed of every race of men,-for all men shall not be present, since the greater part shall be in punishment,-but, as I was saying, since flesh is used of the good, and members or carcasses of the bad, certainly it is thus put beyond a doubt that that judgment in which the good and the bad shall be allotted to their destinies shall take place after the resurrection of the body, our faith in which is thoroughly established by the use of these words.
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| − | ||<div id="c22"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXII] Sed quo modo egredientur boni ad videndas poenas malorum? Numquid corporis motu beatas illas relicturi sunt sedes et ad loca poenalia perrecturi, ut malorum tormenta conspiciant praesentia corporali? Absit; sed egredientur per scientiam. Hoc enim verbo significatum est eos qui cruciabuntur extra futuros. Propter quod et Dominus ea loca tenebras exteriores vocat, quibus contrarius est ille ingressus, de quo dicitur seruo bono: Intra in gaudium Domini tui; ne illuc mali putentur ingredi, ut sciantur, sed ad illos potius velut egredi scientia, qua eos cognituri sunt, boni, quia id quod extra est cognituri sunt. Qui enim erunt in poenis, quid agatur intus in gaudio Domini nescient; qui vero erunt in illo gaudio, quid agatur foris in illis tenebris exterioribus scient. Ideo dictum est: Egredientur, quia eos etiam quae foris ab eis erunt utique non latebunt. Si enim haec prophetae nondum facta nosse potuerunt per hoc, quod erat Deus, quantulumcumque erat, in eorum mortalium mentibus: quo modo inmortales sancti iam facta tunc nescient, cum Deus erit omnia in omnibus? Stabit ergo in illa beatitudine sanctorum semen et nomen; semen scilicet de quo Iohannes ait: Et semen eius in ipso manet; nomen vero de quo per hunc Esaiam dictum est: Nomen aeternum dabo eis. Erit eis mensis ex mense et sabbatum ex sabbato, tamquam luna ex luna et requies ex requie, quorum utrumque ipsi erunt cum ex his umbris ueteribus et temporalibus in illa lumina noua ac sempiterna transibunt. In poenis autem malorum et inextinguibilis ignis et vivacissimus vermis ab aliis atque aliis aliter atque aliter est expositus. Alii quippe utrumque ad corpus, alii utrumque ad animum rettulerunt; alii proprie ad corpus ignem, tropice ad animum vermem, quod esse credibilius videtur. Sed nunc de hac differentia non est temporis disputare. De iudicio namque ultimo, quo fiet diremptio bonorum et malorum, hoc volumen implere suscepimus; de ipsis vero praemiis et poenis alias diligentius disserendum est. ||But in what way shall the good go out to see the punishment of the wicked? Are they to leave their happy abodes by a bodily movement, and proceed to the places of punishment, so as to witness the torments of the wicked in their bodily presence? Certainly not; but they shall go out by knowledge. For this expression, go out, signifies that those who shall be punished shall be without. And thus the Lord also calls these places "the outer darkness," Matthew 25:30 to which is opposed that entrance concerning which it is said to the good servant, "Enter into the joy of your Lord," that it may not be supposed that the wicked can enter thither and be known, but rather that the good by their knowledge go out to them, because the good are to know that which is without. For those who shall be in torment shall not know what is going on within in the joy of the Lord; but they who shall enter into that joy shall know what is going on outside in the outer darkness. Therefore it is said, "They shall go out," because they shall know what is done by those who are without. For if the prophets were able to know things that had not yet happened, by means of that indwelling of God in their minds, limited though it was, shall not the immortal saints know things that have already happened, when God shall be all in all? 1 Corinthians 15:28 The seed, then, and the name of the saints shall remain in that blessedness,-the seed, to wit, of which John says, "And his seed remains in him;" 1 John 3:9 and the name, of which it was said through Isaiah himself, "I will give them an everlasting name." Isaiah 56:5 "And there shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath," as if it were said, Moon after moon, and rest upon rest, both of which they shall themselves be when they shall pass from the old shadows of time into the new lights of eternity. The worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, which constitute the punishment of the wicked, are differently interpreted by different people. For some refer both to the body, others refer both to the soul; while others again refer the fire literally to the body, and the worm figuratively to the soul, which seems the more credible idea. But the present is not the time to discuss this difference, for we have undertaken to occupy this book with the last judgment, in which the good and the bad are separated: their rewards and punishments we shall more carefully discuss elsewhere.
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| − | ||<div id="c23"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXIII] Daniel de hoc ultimo iudicio sic prophetat, ut Antichristum quoque prius venturum esse praenuntiet atque ad aeternum regnum sanctorum perducat narrationem suam. Cum enim visione prophetica quattuor bestias significantes quattuor regna vidisset, ipsumque quartum a quodam rege superatum, qui Antichristus agnoscitur, et post haec aeternum regnum filii hominis, qui intellegitur Christus: Horruit, inquit, spiritus meus, ego Daniel, in habitudine mea, et visus capitis mei conturbabant me. Et accessi, inquit, ad unum de stantibus, et veritatem quaerebam ab eo de omnibus his, et dixit mihi veritatem. Deinde, quid audierit ab illo, a quo de omnibus his quaesivit, tamquam eo sibi exponente sic loquitur: Hae bestiae magnae quattuor quattuor regna surgent in terra, quae auferentur, et accipient regnum sancti Altissimi et obtinebunt illud usque in saeculum et usque in saeculum saeculorum. Et quaerebam, inquit, diligenter de bestia quarta, quae erat differens prae omni bestia, terribilis amplius _ dentes eius ferrei et ungues eius aerei, manducans et comminvens et reliqua pedibus suis conculcans _ , et de cornibus eius decem, quae erant in capite eius, et de altero, quod ascendit et excussit de prioribus tria; cornu illud in quo erant oculi et os loquens magna, et visus eius maior ceteris. Videbam, et cornu illud faciebat bellum cum sanctis, et praeualebat ad ipsos, donec venit uetustus dierum, et regnum dedit sanctis Altissimi; et tempus pervenit, et regnum obtinverunt sancti. Haec Daniel quaesisse se dixit. Deinde quid audierit continuo subiungens: Et dixit, inquit (id est ille, a quo quaesierat, respondit et dixit): Bestia quarta quartum regnum erit in terra, quod praeualebit omnibus regnis; et manducabit omnem terram, et conculcabit eam et concidet. Et decem cornua eius decem reges surgent; et post eos surget alius, qui superabit malis omnes, qui ante eum fuerunt; et tres reges humiliabit et verba adversus Altissimum loquetur et sanctos Altissimi conteret et suspicabitur mutare tempora et legem; et dabitur in manu eius usque ad tempus et tempora et dimidium tempus. Et iudicium sedebit, et principatum removebunt ad exterminandum et perdendum usque in finem; et regnum et potestas et magnitudo regum, qui sub omni caelo sunt, data est sanctis Altissimi. Et regnum eius regnum sempiternum; et omnes principatus ipsi seruient et obaudient. Hoc usque, inquit, finis sermonis. Ego Daniel; multum cogitationes meae conturbabant me, et forma mea inmutata est super me, et verbum in corde meo conservavi. Quattuor illa regna exposuerunt quidam Assyriorum, Persarum, Macedonum et Romanorum. Quam vero convenienter id fecerint, qui nosse desiderant, legant presbyteri Hieronymi librum in Danielem satis erudite diligenterque conscriptum. Antichristi tamen adversus ecclesiam saevissimum regnum licet exiguo spatio temporis sustinendum, donec Dei ultimo iudicio regnum sancti accipiant sempiternum, qui vel dormitans haec legit, dubitare non sinitur. Tempus quippe et tempora et dimidium temporis unum annum esse et duo et dimidium ac per hoc tres annos et semissem etiam numero dierum posterius posito dilucescit, aliquando in scripturis et mensum numero declaratur; Videntur enim tempora indefinite hic dicta lingua Latina; sed per dualem numerum dicta sunt, quem Latini non habent. Sicut autem Graeci, ita hunc dicuntur habere et Hebraei. Sic ergo dicta sunt tempora, tamquam dicerentur duo tempora. Vereri me sane fateor, ne in decem regibus, quos tamquam decem homines videtur inventurus Antichristus, forte fallamur, atque ita ille inopinatus adveniat, non existentibus tot regibus in orbe Romano. Quid si enim numero isto denario universitas regum significata est, post quos ille venturus est; sicut millenario, centenario, septenario significatur plerumque universitas, et aliis atque aliis numeris, quos nunc commemorare non est necesse? Alio loco idem Daniel: Et erit, inquit, tempus tribulationis, qualis non fuit ex quo nata est gens super terram usque ad tempus illud. Et in tempore illo saluabitur populus tuus omnis, qui inventus fuerit scriptus in libro. Et multi dormientium in terrae aggere exurgent; hi in vitam aeternam, et hi in opprobrium et in confusionem aeternam. Et intellegentes fulgebunt sicut claritas firmamenti, et ex iustis multi sicut stellae in saecula et adhuc. Sententiae illi euangelicae est locus iste simillimus de resurrectione dumtaxat corporum mortuorum. Nam qui illic dicti sunt esse in monumentis, ipsi hic dormientes in terrae aggere, vel, sicut alii interpretati sunt, in terrae puluere; et sicut ibi procedent dictum est, ita hic exurgent, sicut ibi quo bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem vitae, qui autem mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii; ita et isto loco hi in vitam aeternam, et hi in opprobrium et in confusionem aeternam. Non autem diversum putetur, quod, cum ibi positum sit omnes qui sunt in monumentis, hic non ait propheta omnes, sed multi dormientium in terrae aggere. Ponit enim aliquando scriptura pro omnibus multos. Propterea et Abrahae dictum est: Patrem multarum gentium posui te, cui tamen alio loco: In semine, inquit, tuo benedicentur omnes gentes. De tali autem resurrectione huic quoque ipsi prophetae Danieli paulo post dicitur: Et tu veni et requiesce; adhuc enim dies in completionem consummationis, et requiesces et resurges in sorte tua in fine dierum. ||Daniel prophesies of the last judgment in such a way as to indicate that Antichrist shall first come, and to carry on his description to the eternal reign of the saints. For when in prophetic vision he had seen four beasts, signifying four kingdoms, and the fourth conquered by a certain king, who is recognized as Antichrist, and after this the eternal kingdom of the Son of man, that is to say, of Christ, he says, "My spirit was terrified, I Daniel in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me," etc. Some have interpreted these four kingdoms as signifying those of the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. They who desire to understand the fitness of this interpretation may read Jerome's book on Daniel, which is written with a sufficiency of care and erudition. But he who reads this passage, even half asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church before the last judgment of God shall introduce the eternal reign of the saints. For it is patent from the context that the time, times, and half a time, means a year, and two years, and half a year, that is to say, three years and a half. Sometimes in Scripture the same thing is indicated by months. For though the word times seems to be used here in the Latin indefinitely, that is only because the Latins have no dual, as the Greeks have, and as the Hebrews also are said to have. Times, therefore, is used for two times. As for the ten kings, whom, as it seems, Antichrist is to find in the person of ten individuals when he comes, I own I am afraid we may be deceived in this, and that he may come unexpectedly while there are not ten kings living in the Roman world. For what if this number ten signifies the whole number of kings who are to precede his coming, as totality is frequently symbolized by a thousand, or a hundred, or seven, or other numbers, which it is not necessary to recount?In another place the same Daniel says, "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as was not since there was born a nation upon earth until that time: and in that time all Your people which shall be found written in the book shall be delivered. And many of them that sleep in the mound of earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and many of the just as the stars for ever." Daniel 12:1-3 This passage is very similar to the one we have quoted from the Gospel, John 5:28 at least so far as regards the resurrection of dead bodies. For those who are there said to be "in the graves" are here spoken of as "sleeping in the mound of earth," or, as others translate, "in the dust of earth." There it is said, "They shall come forth;" so here, "They shall arise." There, "They that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment;" here, "Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion." Neither is it to be supposed a difference, though in place of the expression in the Gospel, "All who are in their graves," the prophet does not say "all," but "many of them that sleep in the mound of earth." For many is sometimes used in Scripture for all. Thus it was said to Abraham, "I have set you as the father of many nations," though in another place it was said to him, "In your seed shall all nations be blessed." Of such a resurrection it is said a little afterwards to the prophet himself, "And come and rest: for there is yet a day till the completion of the consummation; and you shall rest, and rise in your lot in the end of the days." Daniel 12:13
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| − | ||<div id="c24"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXIV] Multa de iudicio novissimo dicuntur in psalmis, sed eorum plura transeunter et strictim. Hoc tamen quod de fine huius saeculi apertissime ibi dictum est, nequaquam silentio praeteribo. Principio terram tu fundasti, Domine, et opera manuum tuarum sunt caeli. Ipsi peribunt, tu autem permanes; et omnes sicut uestimentum ueterescent, et sicut opertorium mutabis eos, et mutabuntur; tu autem idem ipse es, et anni tui non deficient. Quid est quod Porphyrius, cum pietatem laudet Hebraeorum, qua magnus et verus et ipsis numinibus terribilis ab eis colitur Deus, Christianos ob hoc arguit maximae stultitiae etiam ex oraculis deorum suorum, quod istum mundum dicunt esse periturum? Ecce in litteris pietatis Hebraeorum dicitur Deo, quem confitente tanto philosopho etiam ipsa numina perhorrescunt: Opera manuum tuarum sunt caeli, ipsi peribunt. Numquid quando caeli peribunt, mundus, cuius idem caeli superior pars est et tutior, non peribit? Si haec sententia Iovi displicet, cuius, ut scribit iste philosophus, velut gravioris auctoritatis oraculo in Christianorum credulitate culpatur: cur non similiter sapientiam tamquam stultitiam culpat Hebraeorum, in quorum libris piissimis invenitur? Porro si in illa sapientia, quae Porphyrio tam multum placet, ut eam deorum quoque suorum vocibus praedicet, legitur caelos esse perituros: cur usque adeo uana est ista fallacia, ut in fide Christianorum vel inter cetera vel prae ceteris hoc detestentur, quod in ea periturus creditur mundus, quo utique nisi pereunte caeli perire non possunt? Et in litteris quidem sacris, quae proprie nostrae sunt, non Hebraeis nobis e communes, id est in euangelicis et apostolicis libris legitur: Praeterit figura huius mundi; legitur: Mundus transit; legitur: Caelum et terra transibunt. Sed puto, quod praeterit, transit, transibunt aliquanto mitius dicta sunt quam peribunt. In epistula quoque apostoli Petri, ubi aqua inundatus qui tunc erat perisse dictus est mundus, satis clarum est, et quae pars mundi a toto significata, et quatenus perisse sit dicta, et qui caeli repositi igni reservandi in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum impiorum; et in eo quod paulo post ait: Veniet dies Domini ut fur, in quo caeli magno impetu transcurrent, elementa autem ardentia resoluentur, et terra et quae in ipsa sunt opera exurentur; ac deinde subiecit: His omnibus pereuntibus quales oportet esse vos? possunt illi caeli intellegi perituri, quos dixit repositos igni reservandos, et ea elementa accipi arsura, quae in hac ima mundi parte subsistunt procellosa et turbulenta, in qua eosdem caelos dixit esse repositos, saluis illis superioribus et in sua integritate manentibus, in quorum firmamento sunt sidera constituta. Nam et illud quod scriptum est, stellas de caelo esse casuras, praeter quod potest multo probabilius et aliter intellegi, magis ostendit mansuros esse illos caelos, si tamen stellae inde casurae sunt; cum vel tropica sit locutio, quod est credibilius, vel in isto imo caelo futurum sit, utique mirabilius quam nunc fit. Vnde et illa stella Vergiliana facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit, et Idaea se condidit silua. Hoc autem quod de psalmo commemoravi, nullum caelorum videtur relinquere, quod periturum esse non dixerit. Vbi enim dicitur: Opera manuum tuarum sunt caeli, ipsi peribunt, quam nullum eorum ab opere Dei, tam nullum eorum a perditione secernitur. Non enim dignabuntur de Petri apostoli locutione, quem uehementer oderunt, Hebraeorum defendere pietatem, deorum suorum oraculis adprobatam, ut saltem, ne totus mundus periturus esse credatur, sic a toto pars accipiatur in eo, quod dictum est: Ipsi peribunt, cum soli caeli infimi perituri sint, quem ad modum in apostolica illa epistula a toto pars accipitur, quod diluuio perisse dictus est mundus, quamuis sola eius cum suis caelis pars ima perierit. Sed quia hoc, ut dixi, non dignabuntur, ne vel apostoli Petri adprobent sensum, vel tantum concedant conflagrationi novissimae, quantum dicimus valuisse diluuium, qui nullis aquis, nullis flammis totum genus humanum perire posse contendunt: restat ut dicant, quod propterea dii eorum Hebraeam sapientiam laudaverint, quia istum psalmum non legerant. In psalmo etiam quadragensimo nono de iudicio Dei novissimo intellegitur dictum: Deus manifestus veniet, Deus noster, et non silebit. Ignis in conspectu eius ardebit, et in circuitu eius tempestas valida. Aduocabit caelum sursum et terram discernere populum suum. Congregate illi iustos eius, qui disponunt testamentum eius super sacrificia. Hoc nos de Domino Iesu Christo intellegimus, quem speramus de caelo esse venturum ad vivos et mortuos iudicandos. Manifestus enim veniet inter iustos et iniustos iudicaturus iuste, qui prius venit occultus ab iniustis iudicandus iniuste. Ipse, inquam, manifestus veniet et non silebit, id est, in voce iudicis evidens apparebit, qui prius cum venisset occultus, ante iudicem siluit, quando sicut ovis ad immolandum ductus est et sicut agnus coram tondente fuit sine voce, quem ad modum de illo per Esaiam legimus prophetatum et in euangelio videmus impletum. De igne vero et tempestate, cum in Esaiae prophetia tale aliquid tractaremus, quo modo essent haec intellegenda, iam diximus. Quod vero dictum est: Aduocabit caelum sursum; quoniam sancti et iusti recte caelum appellantur, nimirum hoc est, quod ait apostolus: Simul cum illis rapiemur in nubibus in obuiam Christo in aera. Nam secundum litterae superficiem, quo modo aduocatur caelum sursum, quasi possit esse nisi sursum? Quod autem adiunctum est: Et terram discernere populum suum, si tantummodo subaudiatur aduocabit, id est aduocabit et terram, nec subaudiatur sursum, hunc videtur habere sensum secundum rectam fidem, ut caelum intellegatur in eis, qui cum illo iudicaturi sunt, et terra in eis, qui iudicandi sunt; ut aduocabit caelum sursum non hic intellegamus "rapiet in aera", sed "in iudiciarias eriget sedes". Potest et illud intellegi aduocabit caelum sursum "aduocabit angelos in supernis et excelsis locis, cum quibus descendat ad faciendum iudicium"; aduocabit et terram, id est homines in terra utique iudicandos. Si autem utrumque subaudiendum est, cum dicitur et terram, id est et aduocabit et sursum, ut iste sit sensus: Aduocabit caelum sursum, et terram aduocabit sursum: nihil melius intellegi existimo quam omnes qui rapientur in obuiam Christo in aera, sed caelum dictum propter animas, terram propter corpora. Discernere porro populum populum, quid est nisi per iudicium separare bonos a malis, tamquam oves ab haedis? Deinde conversio sermonis ad angelos facta est: Congregate illi iustos eius; profecto enim per angelicum ministerium res tanta peragenda est. Si autem quaerimus, quos iustos ei congregaturi sint angeli: Qui disponunt, inquit, testamentum eius super sacrificia. Haec est omnis vita iustorum: disponere testamentum Dei super sacrificia. Aut enim opera misericordiae sunt super sacrificia, id est sacrificiis praeponenda, iuxta sententiam Dei dicentis: Misericordiam volo quam sacrificium; aut si super sacrificia "in sacrificiis" intellegitur dictum, quo modo super terram fieri dicitur quod fit utique in terra: profecto ipsa opera misericordiae sunt sacrificia, quibus placetur Deo, sicut in libro huius operis decimo me disseruisse reminiscor; in quibus operibus disponunt iusti testamentum Dei, quia propter promissiones, quae nouo eius testamento continentur, haec faciunt. Vnde congregatis sibi iustis suis et ad suam dexteram constitutis novissimo utique iudicio dicturus est Christus: Venite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum vobis regnum a constitutione mundi. Esurivi enim, et dedistis mihi manducare, et cetera quae ibi proferuntur de bonorum operibus bonis et eorum praemiis sempiternis per ultimam sententiam iudicantis. ||There are many allusions to the last judgment in the Psalms, but for the most part only casual and slight. I cannot, however, omit to mention what is said there in express terms of the end of this world: "In the beginning have You laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord; and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They shall perish, but You shall endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; and as a vesture You shall change them, and they shall be changed: but You are the same, and Your years shall not fail." Why is it that Porphyry, while he lauds the piety of the Hebrews in worshipping a God great and true, and terrible to the gods themselves, follows the oracles of these gods in accusing the Christians of extreme folly because they say that this world shall perish? For here we find it said in the sacred books of the Hebrews, to that God whom this great philosopher acknowledges to be terrible even to the gods themselves, "The heavens are the work of Your hands; they shall perish." When the heavens, the higher and more secure part of the world, perish, shall the world itself be preserved? If this idea is not relished by Jupiter, whose oracle is quoted by this philosopher as an unquestionable authority in rebuke of the credulity of the Christians, why does he not similarly rebuke the wisdom of the Hebrews as folly, seeing that the prediction is found in their most holy books? But if this Hebrew wisdom, with which Porphyry is so captivated that he extols it through the utterances of his own gods, proclaims that the heavens are to perish, how is he so infatuated as to detest the faith of the Christians partly, if not chiefly, on this account, that they believe the world is to perish?-though how the heavens are to perish if the world does not is not easy to see. And, indeed, in the sacred writings which are peculiar to ourselves, and not common to the Hebrews and us,-I mean the evangelic and apostolic books,-the following expressions are used: "The figure of this world passes away;" 1 Corinthians 7:31 "The world passes away;" 1 John 2:17 "Heaven and earth shall pass away," Matthew 24:35 -expressions which are, I fancy, somewhat milder than "They shall perish." In the Epistle of the Apostle Peter, too, where the world which then was is said to have perished, being overflowed with water, it is sufficiently obvious what part of the world is signified by the whole, and in what sense the word perished is to be taken, and what heavens were kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 2 Peter 3:6 And when he says a little afterwards, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great rush, and the elements shall melt with burning heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burned up and then adds, "Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?" 2 Peter 3:10-11 -these heavens which are to perish may be understood to be the same which he said were kept in store reserved for fire; and the elements which are to be burned are those which are full of storm and disturbance in this lowest part of the world in which he said that these heavens were kept in store; for the higher heavens in whose firmament are set the stars are safe, and remain in their integrity. For even the expression of Scripture, that "the stars shall fall from heaven," Matthew 24:29 not to mention that a different interpretation is much preferable, rather shows that the heavens themselves shall remain, if the stars are to fall from them. This expression, then, is either figurative, as is more credible, or this phenomenon will take place in this lowest heaven, like that mentioned by Virgil,-"A meteor with a train of light Athwart the sky gleamed dazzling bright, Then in Idжan woods was lost. "But the passage I have quoted from the psalm seems to except none of the heavens from the destiny of destruction; for he says, "The heavens are the works of Your hands: they shall perish;" so that, as none of them are excepted from the category of God's works, none of them are excepted from destruction. For our opponents will not condescend to defend the Hebrew piety, which has won the approbation of their gods, by the words of the Apostle Peter, whom they vehemently detest; nor will they argue that, as the apostle in his epistle understands a part when he speaks of the whole world perishing in the flood, though only the lowest part of it, and the corresponding heavens were destroyed, so in the psalm the whole is used for a part, and it is said "They shall perish," though only the lowest heavens are to perish. But since, as I said, they will not condescend to reason thus, lest they should seem to approve of Peter's meaning, or ascribe as much importance to the final conflagration as we ascribe to the deluge, whereas they contend that no waters or flames could destroy the whole human race, it only remains to them to maintain that their gods lauded the wisdom of the Hebrews because they had not read this psalm. It is the last judgment of God which is re ferred to also in the 50th Psalm in the words, "God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence: fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call the heaven above, and the earth, to judge His people. Gather His saints together to Him; they who make a covenant with Him over sacrifices." This we understand of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from heaven to judge the quick and the dead. For He shall come manifestly to judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came hiddenly to be unjustly judged by the unjust. He, I say, shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence, that is, shall make Himself known by His voice of judgment, who before, when he came hiddenly, was silent before His judge when He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and, as a lamb before the shearer, opened not His mouth as we read that it was prophesied of Him by Isaiah, Isaiah 53:7 and as we see it fulfilled in the Gospel. Matthew 26:63 As for the fire and tempest, we have already said how these are to be interpreted when we were explaining a similar passage in Isaiah. As to the expression, "He shall call the heaven above," as the saints and the righteous are rightly called heaven, no doubt this means what the apostle says, "We shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." For if we take the bare literal sense, how is it possible to call the heaven above, as if the heaven could be anywhere else than above? And the following expression, "And the earth to judge His people," if we supply only the words, "He shall call," that is to say, "He shall call the earth also," and do not supply "above," seems to give us a meaning in accordance with sound doctrine, the heaven symbolizing those who will judge along with Christ, and the earth those who shall be judged; and thus the words, "He shall call the heaven above," would not mean, "He shall catch up into the air," but "He shall lift up to seats of judgment." Possibly, too, "He shall call the heaven," may mean, He shall call the angels in the high and lofty places, that He may descend with them to do judgment; and "He shall call the earth also" would then mean, He shall call the men on the earth to judgment. But if with the words "and the earth" we understand not only "He shall call," but also "above," so as to make the full sense be, He shall call the heaven above, and He shall call the earth above, then I think it is best understood of the men who shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, and that they are called the heaven with reference to their souls, and the earth with reference to their bodies. Then what is "to judge His people," but to separate by judgment the good from the bad, as the sheep from the goats? Then he turns to address the angels: "Gather His saints together unto Him." For certainly a matter so important must be accomplished by the ministry of angels. And if we ask who the saints are who are gathered unto Him by the angels, we are told, "They who make a covenant with Him over sacrifices." This is the whole life of the saints, to make a covenant with God over sacrifices. For "over sacrifices" either refers to works of mercy, which are preferable to sacrifices in the judgment of God, who says, "I desire mercy more than sacrifices," Hosea 6:6 or if "over sacrifices" means in sacrifices, then these very works of mercy are the sacrifices with which God is pleased, as I remember to have stated in the tenth book of this work; and in these works the saints make a covenant with God, because they do them for the sake of the promises which are contained in His new testament or covenant. And hence, when His saints have been gathered to Him and set at His right hand in the last judgment, Christ shall say, "Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat," Matthew 25:34 and so on, mentioning the good works of the good, and their eternal rewards assigned by the last sentence of the Judge.
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| − | ||<div id="c25"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXV] Propheta Malachiel sive Malachi, qui et angelus dictus est, qui etiam Esdras sacerdos, cuius alia in canonem scripta recepta sunt, ab aliquibus creditur (nam de illo hanc esse Hebraeorum opinionem dicit Hieronymus), iudicium novissimum prophetat dicens: Ecce venit, dicit Dominus omnipotens; et quis sustinebit diem introitus eius, aut quis ferre poterit ut aspiciat eum? Quia ipse ingreditur quasi ignis conflatorii et quasi herba lauantium; et sedebit conflans et mundans sicut argentum et sicut aurum, et mundabit filios Levi, et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum; et erunt Domino offerentes hostias in iustitia, et placebit Domino sacrificium Iudae et Hierusalem, sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus. Et accedam ad vos in iudicio, et ero testis velox super maleficos et super adulteros et super eos, qui iurant in nomine meo mendaciter, et qui fraudant mercedem mercennarios et opprimunt per potentiam viduas et percutiunt pupillos et peruertunt iudicium advenae, et qui non timent me, dicit Dominus omnipotens; quoniam ego Dominus Deus uester, et non mutor. Ex his quae dicta sunt videtur evidentius apparere in illo iudicio quasdam quorundam purgatorias poenas futuras. Vbi enim dicitur: Quis sustinebit diem introitus eius, aut quis ferre poterit, ut aspiciat eum? Quia ipse ingreditur quasi ignis conflatorii et quasi herba lauantium; et sedebit conflans et mundans sicut argentum et sicut aurum et mundabit filios Levi et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum: quid aliud intellegendum est? Dicit tale aliquid et Esaias: Lauabit Dominus sordes filiorum et filiarum Sion, et sanguinem emundabit de medio eorum spiritu iudicii et spiritu combustionis. Nisi forte sic eos dicendum est emundari a sordibus et eliquari quodam modo, cum ab eis mali per poenale iudicium separantur, ut illorum segregatio atque damnatio purgatio sit istorum, quia sine talium de cetero permixtione victuri sunt. Sed cum dicit: Et emundabit filios Levi et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum; et erunt Domino offerentes hostias in iustitia, et placebit Domino sacrificium Iudae et Hierusalem, utique ostendit eos ipsos, qui emundabuntur, deinceps in sacrificiis iustitiae Domino esse placituros, ac per hoc ipsi a sua iniustitia mundabuntur, in qua Domino displicebant. Hostiae porro in plena perfectaque iustitia, cum mundati fuerint, ipsi erunt. Quid enim acceptius Deo tales offerunt quam se ipsos? Verum ista quaestio de purgatoriis poenis, ut diligentius pertractetur, in tempus aliud differenda est. Filios autem Levi et Iudam et Hierusalem ipsam Dei ecclesiam debemus accipere, non ex Hebraeis tantum, sed ex aliis etiam, gentibus congregatam; nec talem, qualis nunc est, ubi, si dixerimus, quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et veritas in nobis non est; sed qualis tunc erit, velut area per ventilationem, ita per iudicium purgata novissimum, eis quoque igne mundatis, quibus talis mundatio necessaria est, ita ut nullus omnino sit, qui offerat sacrificium pro peccatis suis. Omnes enim qui sic offerunt, profecto in peccatis sunt, pro quibus dimittendis offerunt, ut, cum obtulerint acceptumque Deo fuerit, tunc dimittantur. ||The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel, and is by some (for Jerome tells us that this is the opinion of the Hebrews) identified with Ezra the priest, others of whose writings have been received into the canon, predicts the last judgment, saying, "Behold, He comes, says the Lord Almighty; and who shall abide the day of His entrance? . . . for I am the Lord your God, and I change not." From these words it more evidently appears that some shall in the last judgment suffer some kind of purgatorial punishments; for what else can be understood by the word, "Who shall abide the day of His entrance, or who shall be able to look upon Him? for He enters as a moulder's fire, and as the herb of fullers: and He shall sit fusing and purifying as if over gold and silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out like gold and silver?" Similarly Isaiah says, "The Lord shall wash the filthiness of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse away the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning." Isaiah 4:4 Unless perhaps we should say that they are cleansed from filthiness and in a manner clarified, when the wicked are separated from them by penal judgment, so that the elimination and damnation of the one party is the purgation of the others, because they shall henceforth live free from the contamination of such men. But when he says, "And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out like gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness; and the sacrifices of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord," he declares that those who shall be purified shall then please the Lord with sacrifices of righteousness, and consequently they themselves shall be purified from their own unrighteousness which made them displeasing to God. Now they themselves, when they have been purified, shall be sacrifices of complete and perfect righteousness; for what more acceptable offering can such persons make to God than themselves? But this question of purgatorial punishments we must defer to another time, to give it a more adequate treatment. By the sons of Levi and Judah and Jerusalem we ought to understand the Church herself, gathered not from the Hebrews only, but from other nations as well; nor such a Church as she now is, when "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," 1 John 1:8 but as she shall then be, purged by the last judgment as a threshing-floor by a winnowing wind, and those of her members who need it being cleansed by fire, so that there remains absolutely not one who offers sacrifice for his sins. For all who make such offerings are assuredly in their sins, for the remission of which they make offerings, that having made to God an acceptable offering, they may then be absolved.
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| − | ||<div id="c26"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXVI] Volens autem Deus ostendere civitatem suam tunc in ista consuetudine non futuram dixit filios Levi oblaturos hostias in iustitia; non ergo in peccato ac per hoc non pro peccato. Vnde intellegi potest in eo quod secutus adiunxit atque ait: Et placebit Domino sacrificium Iudae et Hierusalem, sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus, frustra sibi Iudaeos secundum legem ueteris testamenti sacrificiorum suorum praeterita tempora polliceri. Non enim tunc in iustitia, sed in peccatis hostias offerebant, quando pro peccatis praecipue ac primitus offerebant, usque adeo ut sacerdos ipse, quem debemus utique credere ceteris fuisse iustiorem, secundum Dei mandatum soleret pro suis primum offerre peccatis, deinde pro populi. Quapropter exponere nos oportet, quo modo sit accipiendum quod dictum est: Sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus. Fortassis enim tempus illud commemorat, quo primi homines in paradiso fuerunt. Tunc enim puri atque integri ab omni sorde ac labe peccati se ipsos Deo mundissimas hostias offerebant; ceterum ex quo commissae praeuaricationis causa inde dimissi sunt atque humana in eis natura damnata est, excepto uno Mediatore et post lauacrum regenerationis quibusque adhuc paruulis nemo mundus a sorde, sicut scriptum est, nec infans, cuius est unius diei vita super terram. Quod si respondetur etiam eos merito dici posse offerre hostias in iustitia, qui offerunt in fide (iustus enim ex fide vivit; quamuis se ipsum seducat, si dixerit se non habere peccatum, et ideo non dicat, quia ex fide vivit): numquid dicturus est quispiam hoc fidei tempus illi fini esse coaequandum, quando igne iudicii novissimi mundabuntur, qui offerant hostias in iustitia? Ac per hoc quoniam post talem mundationem nullum peccatum iustos habituros esse credendum est, profecto illud tempus, quantum adtinet ad non habere peccatum, nulli tempori comparandum est, nisi quando primi homines in paradiso ante praeuaricationem innocentissima felicitate vixerunt. Recte itaque intellegitur hoc significatum esse, cum dictum est: Sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus. Nam et per Esaiam postea quam caelum nouum et terra noua promissa est, inter cetera, quae ibi de sanctorum beatitudine per allegorias et aenigmata exequitur, quibus expositionem congruam reddere nos prohibuit vitandae longitudinis cura: Secundum dies, inquit, ligni vitae erunt dies populi mei. Quis autem sacras litteras adtigit et ignorat ubi Deus plantaverit lignum vitae, a cuius cibo separatis illis hominibus, quando eos sua de paradiso eiecit iniquitas, eidem ligno circumposita est ignea terribilisque custodia? Quod si quisquam illos dies ligni vitae, quos commemoravit propheta Esaias, istos qui nunc aguntur ecclesiae Christi dies esse contendit ipsumque Christum lignum vitae prophetice dictum, quia ipsa est sapientia Dei, de qua Salomon ait: Lignum vitae est omnibus amplectentibus eam; nec annos egisse aliquos in paradiso illos primos homines, unde tam cito eiecti sunt, ut nullum ibi gignerent filium, et ideo non posse illud tempus intellegi in eo quod dictum est: Sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus; istam praetereo quaestionem, ne cogar, quod prolixum est, cuncta discutere, ut aliquid horum veritas manifestata confirmet. Video quippe alterum sensum, ne dies pristinos et annos priores carnalium sacrificiorum nobis pro magno munere per prophetam promissos fuisse credamus. Hostiae namque illae ueteris legis in quibusque pecoribus inmaculatae ac sine ullo prorsus vitio iubebantur offerri, et significabant homines sanctos, qualis solus inventus est Christus, sine ullo omnino peccato. Proinde quia post iudicium, cum fuerint etiam igne mundati, qui eius modi mundatione sunt digni, in omnibus sanctis nullum invenietur omnino peccatum, atque ita se ipsos offerent in iustitia, ut tales hostiae omni modo inmaculatae ac sine ullo vitio sint futurae, erunt profecto sicut pristinis diebus et sicut annis prioribus, quando in umbra huius rei futurae mundissimae offerebantur hostiae. Haec erit namque munditia tunc in inmortali carne ac mente sanctorum, quae figurabatur in illarum corporibus hostiarum. Deinde propter eos, qui non mundatione, sed damnatione sunt digni: Et accedam, inquit, ad vos in iudicium, et ero testis velox super maleficos et super adulteros, et cetera, quibus damnabilibus enumeratis criminibus addidit: Quoniam ego Dominus Deus uester, et non mutor; tamquam diceret: " Cum vos mutaverit et in deterius culpa uestra et in melius gratia mea, ego non mutor. "Testem vero se dicit futurum, quia in iudicio suo non indiget testibus, eumque velocem, sive quia repente venturus est eritque iudicium ipso inopinato eius adventu celerrimum, quod tardissimum videbatur, sive quia ipsas conuincet sine ulla sermonis prolixitate conscientias. In cogitationibus enim, sicut scriptum est, impii interrogatio erit; et apostolus: Cogitationibus, inquit, accusantibus vel etiam excusantibus in die, qua iudicabit Deus occulta hominum, secundum euangelium meum per Iesum Christum. Etiam sic ergo Dominus futurus testis intellegendus est velox, cum sine mora reuocaturus est in memoriam, unde conuincat puniatque conscientiam. ||And it was with the design of showing that His city shall not then follow this custom, that God said that the sons of Levi should offer sacrifices in righteousness,-not therefore in sin, and consequently not for sin. And hence we see how vainly the Jews promise themselves a return of the old times of sacrificing according to the law of the old testament, grounding on the words which follow, "And the sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord, as in the primitive days, and as in former years." For in the times of the law they offered sacrifices not in righteousness but in sins, offering especially and primarily for sins, so much so that even the priest himself, whom we must suppose to have been their most righteous man, was accustomed to offer, according to God's commandments, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. And therefore we must explain how we are to understand the words, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years;" for perhaps he alludes to the time in which our first parents were in paradise. Then, indeed, intact and pure from all stain and blemish of sin, they offered themselves to God as the purest sacrifices. But since they were banished thence on account of their transgression, and human nature was condemned in them, with the exception of the one Mediator and those who have been baptized, and are as yet infants, "there is none clean from stain, not even the babe whose life has been but for a day upon the earth." Job 14:4 But if it be replied that those who offer in faith may be said to offer in righteousness, because the righteous lives by faith, Romans 1:17 -he deceives himself, however, if he says that he has no sin, and therefore he does not say so, because he lives by faith,-will any man say this time of faith can be placed on an equal footing with that consummation when they who offer sacrifices in righteousness shall be purified by the fire of the last judgment? And consequently, since it must be believed that after such a cleansing the righteous shall retain no sin, assuredly that time, so far as regards its freedom from sin, can be compared to no other period, unless to that during which our first parents lived in paradise in the most innocent happiness before their transgression. It is this period, then, which is properly understood when it is said, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years." For in Isaiah, too, after the new heavens and the new earth have been promised, among other elements in the blessedness of the saints which are there depicted by allegories and figures, from giving an adequate explanation of which I am prevented by a desire to avoid prolixity, it is said, "According to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people." Isaiah 65:22 And who that has looked at Scripture does not know where God planted the tree of life, from whose fruit He excluded our first parents when their own iniquity ejected them from paradise, and round which a terrible and fiery fence was set?But if any one contends that those days of the tree of life mentioned by the prophet Isaiah are the present times of the Church of Christ, and that Christ Himself is prophetically called the Tree of Life, because He is Wisdom, and of wisdom Solomon says, "It is a tree of life to all who embrace it;" Proverbs 3:18 and if they maintain that our first parents did not pass years in paradise, but were driven from it so soon that none of their children were begotten there, and that therefore that time cannot be alluded to in words which run, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years," I forbear entering on this question, lest by discussing everything I become prolix, and leave the whole subject in uncertainty. For I see another meaning, which should keep us from believing that a restoration of the primitive days and former years of the legal sacrifices could have been promised to us by the prophet as a great boon. For the animals selected as victims under the old law were required to be immaculate, and free from all blemish whatever, and symbolized holy men free from all sin, the only instance of which character was found in Christ. As, therefore, after the judgment those who are worthy of such purification shall be purified even by fire, and shall be rendered thoroughly sinless, and shall offer themselves to God in righteousness, and be indeed victims immaculate and free from all blemish whatever, they shall then certainly be, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years," when the purest victims were offered, the shadow of this future reality. For there shall then be in the body and soul of the saints the purity which was symbolized in the bodies of these victims.Then, with reference to those who are worthy not of cleansing but of damnation, He says, "And I will draw near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evildoers and against adulterers;" and after enumerating other damnable crimes, He adds, "For I am the Lord your God, and I am not changed." It is as if He said, Though your fault has changed you for the worse, and my grace has changed you for the better, I am not changed. And he says that He Himself will be a witness, because in His judgment He needs no witnesses; and that He will be "swift," either because He is to come suddenly, and the judgment which seemed to lag shall be very swift by His unexpected arrival, or because He will convince the consciences of men directly and without any prolix harangue. "For," as it is written, "in the thoughts of the wicked His examination shall be conducted." Wisdom 1:9 And the apostle says, "The thoughts accusing or else excusing, in the day in which God shall judge the hidden things of men, according to my gospel in Jesus Christ." Romans 2:15-16 Thus, then, shall the Lord be a swift witness, when He shall suddenly bring back into the memory that which shall convince and punish the conscience.
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| − | ||<div id="c27"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXVII] Illud etiam, quod aliud agens in octauo decimo libro ex isto propheta posui, ad iudicium.novissimum pertinet, ubi ait: Erunt mihi, dicit Dominus omnipotens, in die qua ego facio in adquisitionem, et eligam eos sicut eligit homo filium suum quo seruit ei; et convertar et videbitis quid sit inter iustum et iniquum, et inter seruientem Deo et eum qui non seruit ei. Quia ecce dies venit ardens sicut clibanus et comburet eos, et erunt omnes alienigenae et universi, qui faciunt iniquitatem, stipula, et succendet eos dies veniens, dicit Dominus omnipotens, et non relinquetur in eis radix neque ramus. Et orietur vobis, qui timetis nomen meum, sol iustitiae, et sanitas in pinnis eius, et egrediemini et salidis sicut vituli de vinculis relaxati; et conculcabitis iniquos, et erunt cinis sub pedibus uestris, dicit Dominus omnipotens. Haec distantia praemiorum atque poenarum iustos dirimens ab iniustis, quae sub io sole in huius vitae uanitate non cernitur, quando sub illo sole iustitiae in illius vitae manifestatione clarebit, tunc profecto erit iudicium quale numquam fuit. ||The passage also which I formerly quoted for another purpose from this prophet refers to the last judgment, in which he says, "They shall be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day in which I make up my gains," etc. When this diversity between the rewards and punishments which distinguish the righteous from the wicked shall appear under that Sun of righteousness in the brightness of life eternal,-a diversity which is not discerned under this sun which shines on the vanity of this life,-there shall then be such a judgment as has never before been.
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| − | ||<div id="c28"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXVIII] Quod vero subiungit idem propheta: Mementote legis Moysi seruo meo, quam mandavi ei in Choreb ad omnem Israel, praecepta et iudicia oportune commemorat post declaratum futurum tam magnum inter observatores legis contemptoresque discrimen; simul etiam ut discant legem spiritaliter intellegere et inveniant in ea Christum, per quem iudicem facienda est inter bonos et malos ipsa discretio. Non enim frustra idem Dominus ait Iudaeis: Si crederetis Moysi, crederetis et mihi; de me enim ille scripsit. Carnaliter quippe accipiendo legem et eius promissa terrena rerum caelestium figuras esse nescientes in illa murmura conruerunt, ut dicere auderent: Vanus est qui seruit Deo, et quid amplius, quia custodivimus mandata eius et quia ambulavimus supplices ante faciem Domini omnipotentis? Et nunc nos beatos dicimus alienos, et aedificantur omnes qui faciunt iniquitatem. Quibus eorum verbis quodam modo propheta compulsus est novissimum praenuntiare iudicium, ubi mali nec saltem falso sint beati, sed apertissime miserrimi appareant, et boni nulla temporali saltem miseria laborent, sed clara ac sempiterna beatitudine perfruantur. Dixerat quippe istorum talia quaedam verba etiam superius dicentium: Omnis, qui facit malum, bonus est in conspectu Domini, et tales ei placent. Ad haec, inquam, contra Deum murmura peruenerunt legem Moysi accipiendo carnaliter. Vnde et ille in psalmo septuagensimo secundo paene commotos dicit fuisse pedes suos et effusos gressus suos, utique in lapsum, quia zelavit in peccatoribus, pacem peccatorum intuens; ita ut inter cetera diceret: Quo modo scivit Deus, et si est scientia in Altissimo? diceret etiam: Numquid uano iustificavi cor meum et lavi in innocentibus manus meas? Vt autem solueret hanc difficillimam quaestionem, quae fit, cum videntur boni esse miseri et felices mali: Hoc, inquit, labor est ante me, donec introeam in sanctuarium Dei et intellegam in novissima. Iudicio quippe novissimo non sic erit; sed in aperta iniquorum miseria et aperta felicitate iustorum longe quam nunc est aliud apparebit. ||In the succeeding words, "Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel," Malachi 4:4 the prophet opportunely mentions precepts and statutes, after declaring the important distinction hereafter to be made between those who observe and those who despise the law. He intends also that they learn to interpret the law spiritually, and find Christ in it, by whose judgment that separation between the good and the bad is to be made. For it is not without reason that the Lord Himself says to the Jews, "Had ye believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me." John 5:46 For by receiving the law carnally without perceiving that its earthly promises were figures of things spiritual, they fell into such murmur ings as audaciously to say, "It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked suppliantly before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call aliens happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up." Malachi 3:14-15 It was these words of theirs which in a manner compelled the prophet to announce the last judgment, in which the wicked shall not even in appearance be happy, but shall manifestly be most miserable; and in which the good shall be oppressed with not even a transitory wretchedness, but shall enjoy unsullied and eternal felicity. For he had previously cited some similar expressions of those who said, "Every one that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such are pleasing to Him." Malachi 2:17 It was, I say, by understanding the law of Moses carnally that they had come to murmur thus against God. And hence, too, the writer of the 73d Psalm says that his feet were almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped, because he was envious of sinners while he considered their prosperity, so that he said among other things, How does God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High? and again, Have I sanctified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency? He goes on to say that his efforts to solve this most difficult problem, which arises when the good seem to be wretched and the wicked happy, were in vain until he went into the sanctuary of God, and understood the last things. For in the last judgment things shall not be so; but in the manifest felicity of the righteous and manifest misery of the wicked quite another state of things shall appear.
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| − | ||<div id="c29"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXIX] Cum autem admonuisset, ut meminissent legis Moysi (quoniam praevidebat eos multo adhuc tempore non eam spiritaliter, sicut oportuerat, accepturos), continuo subiecit: <Et> ecce ego mittam vobis Helian Thesbiten, antequam veniat dies Domini magnus et inlustris, qui convertet cor patris ad filium et cor hominis ad proximum suum, ne forte veniens percutiam terram penitus. Per hunc Heliam magnum mirabilemque prophetam exposita sibi lege ultimo tempore ante iudicium Iudaeos in Christum verum, id est in Christum nostrum, esse credituros, celeberrimum est in sermonibus cordibusque fidelium. Ipse quippe ante adventum iudicis Saluatoris non inmerito speratur esse venturus, qui etiam nunc vivere non inmerito creditur. Curru namque igneo raptus est de rebus humanis, quod evidentissime sancta scriptura testatur. Cum venerit ergo, exponendo legem spiritaliter; quam nunc Iudaei carnaliter sapiunt, convertet cor patris ad filium, id est cor patrum ad filios; singularem quippe pro numero plurali interpretes septuaginta posuerunt; et est sensus, ut etiam filii sic intellegant legem, id est Iudaei, quem ad modum eam patres intellexerunt, id est prophetae, in quibus erat et ipse Moyses; sic enim cor patrum convertetur ad filios, cum intellegentia patrum perducetur ad intellegentiam filiorum; et cor filiorum ad patres eorum, dum in id, quod senserunt illi, consentiunt et isti; ubi Septuaginta dixerunt: Et cor hominis ad proximum suum. Sunt enim inter se valde proximi patres et filii. Quamquam in verbis septuaginta interpretum, qui prophetice interpretati sunt, potest alius sensus idemque lectior inveniri, ut intellegatur Helias cor Dei Patris conversurus ad Filium; non utique agendo ut Pater diligat Filium, sed docendo quod Pater diligat Filium; ut et Iudaei, quem prius oderant, diligant eundem, qui noster est, Christum. Iudaeis enim nunc aversum cor habet Deus a Christo nostro, quia hoc putant. Eis ergo tunc cor eius convertetur ad Filium, cum ipsi converso corde didicerint dilectionem Patris in Filium. Quod vero sequitur: Et cor hominis ad proximum suum, id est, convertet Helias et cor hominis ad proximum suum: quid melius intellegitur quam cor hominis ad hominem Christum? Cum enim sit in forma Dei Deus noster, formam serui accipiens esse dignatus est etiam proximus noster. Hoc ergo faciet Helias. Ne forte, inquit, veniam et percutiam terram penitus. Terra sunt enim, qui terrena sapiunt, sicut Iudaei carnales usque nunc; ex quo vitio contra Deum murmura illa venerunt: Quia mali ei placent, et: Vanus est qui seruit Deo. ||After admonishing them to give heed to the law of Moses, as he foresaw that for a long time to come they would not understand it spiritually and rightly, he went on to say, "And, behold, I will send to you Elias the Tishbite before the great and signal day of the Lord come: and he shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the heart of a man to his next of kin, lest I come and utterly smite the earth." Malachi 4:5-6 It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law to them. For not without reason do we hope that before the coming of our Judge and Saviour Elias shall come, because we have good reason to believe that he is now alive; for, as Scripture most distinctly informs us, 2 Kings 2:11 he was taken up from this life in a chariot of fire. When, therefore, he is come, he shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall thus "turn the heart of the father to the son," that is, the heart of fathers to their children; for the Septuagint translators have frequently put the singular for the plural number. And the meaning is, that the sons, that is, the Jews, shall understand the law as the fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself, understood it. For the heart of the fathers shall be turned to their children when the children understand the law as their fathers did; and the heart of the children shall be turned to their fathers when they have the same sentiments as the fathers. The Septuagint used the expression, "and the heart of a man to his next of kin," because fathers and children are eminently neighbors to one another. Another and a preferable sense can be found in the words of the Septuagint translators, who have translated Scripture with an eye to prophecy, the sense, viz., that Elias shall turn the heart of God the Father to the Son, not certainly as if he should bring about this love of the Father for the Son, but meaning that he should make it known, and that the Jews also, who had previously hated, should then love the Son who is our Christ. For so far as regards the Jews, God has His heart turned away from our Christ, this being their conception about God and Christ. But in their case the heart of God shall be turned to the Son when they themselves shall turn in heart, and learn the love of the Father towards the Son. The words following, "and the heart of a man to his next of kin,"-that is, Elias shall also turn the heart of a man to his next of kin,-how can we understand this better than as the heart of a man to the man Christ? For though in the form of God He is our God, yet, taking the form of a servant, He condescended to become also our next of kin. It is this, then, which Elias will do, "lest," he says, "I come and smite the earth utterly." For they who mind earthly things are the earth. Such are the carnal Jews until this day; and hence these murmurs of theirs against God, "The wicked are pleasing to Him," and "It is a vain thing to serve God."
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| − | ||<div id="c30"><b>BOOK XX</b> [XXX] Multa alia sunt scripturarum testimonia divinarum de novissimo iudicio Dei, quae si omnia colligam, nimis longum erit. Satis ergo sit, quod et novis et ueteribus litteris sacris hoc praenuntiatum esse probavimus. Sed ueteribus per Christum futurum esse iudicium, id est iudicem Christum de caelo esse venturum, non tam, quam novis, evidenter expressum est, propterea quia, cum ibi dicit Dominus Deus se esse venturum vel Dominum Deum dicitur esse venturum, non consequenter intellegitur Christus. Dominus enim Deus et Pater est et Filius et Spiritus sanctus; neque hoc tamen intestatum relinquere nos oportet. Primo itaque demonstrandum est, quem ad modum Iesus Christus tamquam Dominus Deus loquatur in propheticis libris, et tamen Iesus Christus evidenter appareat, ut et quando non sic apparet et tamen ad illud ultimum iudicium Dominus Deus dicitur esse venturus, possit Iesus Christus intellegi. Est locus apud Esaiam prophetam, qui hoc quod dico evidenter ostendit. Deus enim per prophetam: Audi me, inquit, Iacob et Israel quem ego voco. Ego sum primus et ego in sempiternum, et manus mea fundavit terram et dextera mea firmavit caelum. Vocabo eos, et stabunt simul, et congregabuntur omnes et audient. Quis ei nuntiavit haec? Diligens te feci voluntatem tuam super Babylonem, ut auferrem semen Chaldaeorum. Et locutus sum et ego vocavi; adduxi eum et prosperam feci viam eius. Accedite ad me et audite haec. Non a principio in abscondito locutus sum; quando fiebant, ibi eram. Et nunc Dominus Deus misit me et Spiritus eius. Nempe ipse est, qui loquebatur sicut Dominus Deus; nec tamen intellegeretur Iesus Christus, nisi addidisset: Et nunc Dominus Deus misit me et Spiritus eius. Dixit hoc enim secundum formam serui, de re futura utens praeteriti temporis verbo, quem ad modum apud eundem prophetam legitur: Sicut ovis ad immolandum ductus est. Non enim ait: "ducetur", sed pro eo, quod futurum erat, praeteriti temporis verbum posuit. Et assidue prophetia sic loquitur. Est alius locus apud Zachariam, qui hoc evidenter ostendit, quod omnipotentem misit omnipotens: quis quem, nisi Deus Pater Deum Filium? Nam ita scriptum est: Haec dicit Dominus omnipotens: Post gloriam misit me super gentes, quae spoliaverunt vos; quia qui tetigerit vos, quasi tangat pupillam oculi eius. Ecce ego inferam manum meam super eos, et erunt spolia his, qui seruierant eis; et cognoscetis quia Dominus omnipotens misit me. Ecce dicit Dominus omnipotens a Domino omnipotente se missum. Quis hic audeat intellegere nisi Christum loquentem, scilicet ovibus quae perierant domus Israel? Ait namque in euangelio: Non sum missus nisi ad oves quae perierunt domus Israel; quas hic comparavit pupillae oculi Dei propter excellentissimum dilectionis affectum; ex quo genere ovium etiam ipsi apostoli fuerunt. Sed post gloriam resurrectionis utique suae (quae antequam fieret, ait euangelista: Iesus nondum erat glorificatus) etiam super gentes missus est in apostolis suis, ac sic impletum est quod in psalmo legitur: Erues me de contradictionibus populi, constitues me in caput gentium, ut, qui spoliaverant Israelitas quibusque Israelitae seruierant, quando sunt gentibus subditi, non vicissim eodem modo spoliarentur, sed ipsi spolia fierent Israelitarum (hoc enim apostolis promiserat dicens: Faciam vos piscatores hominum, et uni eorum: Ex hoc iam, inquit, homines eris capiens); spolia ergo fierent, sed in bonum, tamquam erepta uasa illi forti, sed fortius alligato. Item per eundem prophetam Dominus loquens: Et erit, inquit, in die illa quaeram auferre omnes gentes quae veniunt contra Hierusalem, et effundam super domum David et super habitatores Hierusalem spiritum gratiae et misericordiae; et aspicient ad me pro eo quod insultaverunt, et plangent super eo planctum quasi super carissimum, et dolebunt dolore quasi super unigenitum. Numquid nisi Dei est auferre omnes gentes inimicas sanctae civitatis Hierusalem, quae veniunt contra eam, id est contrariae sunt ei, vel, sicut alii sunt interpretati, veniunt super eam, id est, ut eam sibi subiciant; aut effundere super domum David et super habitatores eiusdem civitatis spiritum gratiae et misericordiae? Hoc utique Dei est, et ex persona Dei dicitur per prophetam; et tamen hunc Deum haec tam magna et tam divina facientem se Christus ostendit adiungendo atque dicendo: Et aspicient ad me pro eo quod insultaverunt, et plangent super eo planctum quasi super carissimum (sive dilectum) et dolebunt dolore quasi super unigenitum. Paenitebit quippe Iudaeos in die illa, etiam eos, qui accepturi sunt spiritum gratiae et misericordiae, quod in eius passione insultaverint Christo, cum ad eum aspexerint in sua maiestate venientem eumque esse cognoverint, quem prius humilem in suis parentibus inluserunt; quamuis et ipsi parentes eorum tantae illius impietatis auctores resurgentes videbunt eum, sed puniendi iam, non adhuc corrigendi. Non itaque hoc loco ipsi intellegendi sunt, ubi dictum est: Et effundam super domum David et super habitatores Hierusalem spiritum gratiae et misericordiae; et aspicient ad me pro eo quod insultaverunt; sed tamen de illorum stirpe venientes, qui per Heliam illo tempore credituri sunt. Sed sicut dicimus Iudaeis: "Vos occidistis Christum", quamuis hoc parentes eorum fecerint: sic et isti se dolebunt fecisse quodam modo, quod fecerunt illi, ex quorum stirpe descendunt. Quamuis ergo accepto spiritu gratiae et misericordiae iam fideles non damnabuntur cum impiis parentibus suis, dolebunt tamen tamquam ipsi fecerint, quod ab illis factum est. Non igitur dolebunt reatu criminis, sed pietatis affectu. Sane ubi dixerunt septuaginta interpretes: Et aspicient ad me pro eo quod insultaverunt, sic interpretatum est ex Hebraeo: Et aspicient ad me, quem confixerunt; quo quidem verbo evidentius Christus crucifixus apparet. Sed illa insultatio, quam septuaginta ponere maluerunt, eius universae non defuit passioni. Nam et detento et alligato et adiudicato et opprobrio ignominiosae uestis induto et spinis coronato et calamo in capite percusso et inridenter fixis genibus adorato et crucem suam portanti et in ligno iam pendenti utique insultaverunt. Proinde interpretationem non sequentes unam, sed utramque iungentes, cum et insultaverunt et confixerunt legimus, plenius veritatem dominicae passionis agnoscimus. Cum ergo in propheticis litteris ad novissimum iudicium faciendum Deus legitur esse venturus, etsi eius alia distinctio non ponatur, tantummodo propter ipsum iudicium Christus debet intellegi, quia etsi Pater iudicabit, per adventum filii hominis iudicabit. Nam ipse per suae praesentiae manifestationem non iudicat quemquam, sed omne iudicium dedit Filio, qui manifestabitur homo iudicaturus, sicut homo est iudicatus. Quis est enim alius, de quo item Deus loquitur per Esaiam sub nomine Iacob et Israel, de cuius semine corpus accepit? quod. ita scriptum est: Iacob puer meus, suscipiam illum; Israel electus meus, adsumpsit eum anima mea. Dedi Spiritum meum in illum, iudicium gentibus proferet. Non clamabit neque cessabit neque audietur foris vox eius. Calamum quassatum non conteret et linum fumans non extinguet; sed in veritate proferet iudicium. Refulgebit et non confringetur, donec ponat in terra iudicium; et in nomine eius gentes sperabunt. In Hebraeo non legitur Iacob et Israel; sed quod ibi legitur seruus meus, nimirum septuaginta interpretes volentes admonere quatenus id accipiendum sit, quia scilicet propter formam serui dictum est, in qua se Altissimus humillimum praebuit, ipsius hominis nomen ad eum significandum posuerunt, de cuius genere eadem serui forma suscepta est. Datus est in eum Spiritus sanctus, quod et columbae specie euangelio teste monstratum est; iudicium gentibus protulit, quia praenuntiavit futurum, quod gentibus erat occultum; mansuetudine non clamavit, nec tamen in .praedicanda veritate cessavit; sed non est audita foris vox eius nec auditur, quando quidem ab eis, qui foris ab eius corpore praecisi sunt, non illi oboeditur; ipsosque suos persecutores Iudaeos, qui calamo quassato perdita integritate, lino fumanti amisso lumine comparati sunt, non contrivit, non extinxit, quia pepercit eis, qui nondum venerat eos iudicare, sed iudicari ab eis. In veritate sane protulit iudicium praedicens eis, quando puniendi essent, si in sua malignitate persisterent. Refulsit in monte facies eius, in orbe fama eius; nec confractus sive contritus est, quia neque in se neque in ecclesia sua, ut esse desisteret, persecutoribus cessit; et ideo non est factum nec fiet, quod inimici eius dixerunt vel dicunt: Quando morietur et peribit nomen eius? _ Donec ponat in terra iudicium. Ecce manifestatum est quod absconditum quaerebamus; hoc enim est novissimum iudicium, quod ponet in terra, cum venerit ipse de caelo, de quo iam videmus impletum, quod hic ultimum positum est: Et in nomine eius gentes sperabunt. Per hoc certe quod negari non potest etiam illud credatur quod inpudenter negatur. Quis enim speraret, quod etiam hi, qui nolunt adhuc credere in Christum, iam nobiscum vident et, quoniam negare non possunt, dentibus suis frendent et tabescunt? Quis, inquam, speraret gentes in Christi nomine speraturas, quando tenebatur ligabatur, caedebatur inludebatur, crucifigebatur, quando et ipsi discipuli spem perdiderant, quam in illo habere iam coeperant? Quod tunc vix unus latro speravit in cruce, nunc sperant gentes longe lateque diffusae, et ne in aeternum moriantur, ipsa in qua ille mortuus est cruce signantur. Nullus igitur vel negat vel dubitat per Christum Iesum tale, quale istis sacris litteris praenuntiatur, novissimum futurum esse iudicium, nisi qui eisdem litteris nescio qua incredibili animositate seu caecitate non credit, quae iam veritatem suam orbi demonstravere terrarum. In illo itaque iudicio vel circa illud iudicium has res didicimus esse venturas, Helian Tbesbiten, fidem Iudaeorum, Antichristum persecuturum, Christum iudicaturum, mortuorum resurrectionem, bonorum malorumque diremptionem, mundi conflagrationem eiusdemque renouationem. Quae omnia quidem ventura esse credendum est; sed quibus modis et quo ordine veniant, magis tunc docebit rerum experientia, quam nunc ad perfectum hominum intellegentia valet consequi. Existimo tamen eo quo a me commemorata sunt ordine esse ventura. Duo nobis ad hoc opus pertinentes reliqui sunt libri, ut adivuante Domino promissa compleamus; quorum erit unus de malorum supplicio, alius de felicitate iustorum; in quibus maxime, sicut Deus donaverit, argumenta refellentur humana, quae contra praedicta ac promissa divina sapienter sibi miseri rodere videntur et salubris fidei nutrimenta velut falsa et ridenda contemnunt. Qui vero secundum Deum sapiunt, omnium, quae incredibilia videntur hominibus et tamen scripturis sanctis, quarum iam veritas multis modis adserta est, continentur, maximum argumentum tenent veracem Dei omnipotentiam, quem certum habent nullo modo in eis potuisse mentiri et posse facere quod inpossibile est infideli. ||There are many other passages of Scripture bearing on the last judgment of God,-so many, indeed, that to cite them all would swell this book to an unpardonable size. Suffice it to have proved that both Old and New Testament enounce the judgment. But in the Old it is not so definitely declared as in the New that the judgment shall be administered by Christ, that is, that Christ shall descend from heaven as the Judge; for when it is therein stated by the Lord God or His prophet that the Lord God shall come, we do not necessarily understand this of Christ. For both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the Lord God. We must not, however, leave this without proof. And therefore we must first show how Jesus Christ speaks in the prophetical books under the title of the Lord God, while yet there can be no doubt that it is Jesus Christ who speaks; so that in other passages where this is not at once apparent, and where nevertheless it is said that the Lord God will come to that last judgment, we may understand that Jesus Christ is meant. There is a passage in the prophet Isaiah which illustrates what I mean. For God says by the prophet, "Hear me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I am the first, and I am for ever: and my hand has founded the earth, and my right hand has established the heaven. I will call them, and they shall stand together, and be gathered, and hear. Who has declared to them these things? In love of you I have done your pleasure upon Babylon, that I might take away the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken, and I have called: I have brought him, and have made his way prosperous. Come ye near unto me, and hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; when they were made, there was I. And now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent me." Isaiah 48:12-16 It was Himself who was speaking as the Lord God; and yet we should not have understood that it was Jesus Christ had He not added, "And now the Lord God and His Spirit has sent me." For He said this with reference to the form of a servant, speaking of a future event as if it were past, as in the same prophet we read, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter," Isaiah 53:7 not "He shall be led;" but the past tense is used to express the future. And prophecy constantly speaks in this way.There is also another passage in Zechariah which plainly declares that the Almighty sent the Almighty; and of what persons can this be understood but of God the Father and God the Son? For it is written, "Thus says the Lord Almighty, After the glory has He sent me unto the nations which spoiled you; for he that touches you touches the apple of His eye. Behold, I will bring mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and you shall know that the Lord Almighty has sent me." Zechariah 2:8-9 Observe, the Lord Almighty says that the Lord Almighty sent Him. Who can presume to understand these words of any other than Christ, who is speaking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? For He says in the Gospel, "I am not sent save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," Matthew 15:24 which He here compared to the pupil of God's eye, to signify the profoundest love. And to this class of sheep the apostles themselves belonged. But after the glory, to wit, of His resurrection,-for before it happened the evangelist said that "Jesus was not yet glorified," John 7:39 -He was sent unto the nations in the persons of His apostles; and thus the saying of the psalm was fulfilled, "You will deliver me from the contradictions of the people; You will set me as the head of the nations," so that those who had spoiled the Israelites, and whom the Israelites had served when they were subdued by them, were not themselves to be spoiled in the same fashion, but were in their own persons to become the spoil of the Israelites. For this had been promised to the apostles when the Lord said, "I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19 And to one of them He says, "From henceforth you shall catch men." Luke 5:10 They were then to become a spoil, but in a good sense, as those who are snatched from that strong one when he is bound by a stronger. Matthew 12:29 In like manner the Lord, speaking by the same prophet, says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and mercy; and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall mourn for Him as for one very dear, and shall be in bitterness as for an only-begotten." Zechariah 12:9-10 To whom but to God does it belong to destroy all the nations that are hostile to the holy city Jerusalem, which "come against it," that is, are opposed to it, or, as some translate, "come upon it," as if putting it down under them; or to pour out upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and mercy? This belongs doubtless to God, and it is to God the prophet ascribes the words; and yet Christ shows that He is the God who does these so great and divine things, when He goes on to say, "And they shall look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall mourn for Him as if for one very dear (or beloved), and shall be in bitterness for Him as for an only-begotten." For in that day the Jews-those of them, at least, who shall receive the spirit of grace and mercy-when they see Him coming in His majesty, and recognize that it is He whom they, in the person of their parents, insulted when He came before in His humiliation, shall repent of insulting Him in His passion: and their parents themselves, who were the perpetrators of this huge impiety, shall see Him when they rise; but this will be only for their punishment, and not for their correction. It is not of them we are to understand the words, "And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and mercy, and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me;" but we are to understand the words of their descendants, who shall at that time believe through Elias. But as we say to the Jews, You killed Christ, although it was their parents who did so, so these persons shall grieve that they in some sort did what their progenitors did. Although, therefore, those that receive the spirit of mercy and grace, and believe, shall not be condemned with their impious parents, yet they shall mourn as if they themselves had done what their parents did. Their grief shall arise not so much from guilt as from pious affection. Certainly the words which the Septuagint have translated, "They shall look upon me because they insulted me," stand in the Hebrew,"They shall look upon me whom they pierced." And by this word the crucifixion of Christ is certainly more plainly indicated. But the Septuagint translators preferred to allude to the insult which was involved in His whole passion. For in point of fact they insulted Him both when He was arrested and when He was bound, when He was judged, when He was mocked by the robe they put on Him and the homage they did on bended knee, when He was crowned with thorns and struck with a rod on the head, when He bore His cross, and when at last He hung upon the tree. And therefore we recognize more fully the Lord's passion when we do not confine ourselves to one interpretation, but combine both, and read both "insulted" and "pierced."When, therefore, we read in the prophetical books that God is to come to do judgment at the last, from the mere mention of the judgment, and although there is nothing else to determine the meaning, we must gather that Christ is meant; for though the Father will judge, He will judge by the coming of the Son. For He Himself, by His own manifested presence, "judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son;" John 5:22 for as the Son was judged as a man, He shall also judge in human form. For it is none but He of whom God speaks by Isaiah under the name of Jacob and Israel, of whose seed Christ took a body, as it is written, "Jacob is my servant, I will uphold Him; Israel is mine elect, my Spirit has assumed Him: I have put my Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor cease, neither shall His voice be heard without. A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: but in truth shall He bring forth judgment. He shall shine and shall not be broken, until He sets judgment in the earth: and the nations shall hope in His name." Isaiah 42:1-4 The Hebrew has not "Jacob" and "Israel;" but the Septuagint translators, wishing to show the significance of the expression "my servant," and that it refers to the form of a servant in which the Most High humbled Himself, inserted the name of that man from whose stock He took the form of a servant. The Holy Spirit was given to Him, and was manifested, as the evangelist testifies, in the form of a dove. John 1:32 He brought forth judgment to the Gentiles, because He predicted what was hidden from them. In His meekness He did not cry, nor did He cease to proclaim the truth. But His voice was not heard, nor is it heard, without, because He is not obeyed by those who are outside of His body. And the Jews themselves, who persecuted Him, He did not break, though as a bruised reed they had lost their integrity, and as smoking flax their light was quenched; for He spared them, having come to be judged and not yet to judge. He brought forth judgment in truth, declaring that they should be punished did they persist in their wickedness. His face shone on the Mount, Matthew 17:1-2 His fame in the world. He is not broken nor overcome, because neither in Himself nor in His Church has persecution prevailed to annihilate Him. And therefore that has not, and shall not, be brought about which His enemies said or say, "When shall He die, and His name perish?" "until He set judgment in the earth." Behold, the hidden thing which we were seeking is discovered. For this is the last judgment, which He will set in the earth when He comes from heaven. And it is in Him, too, we already see the concluding expression of the prophecy fulfilled: "In His name shall the nations hope." And by this fulfillment, which no one can deny, men are encouraged to believe in that which is most impudently denied. For who could have hoped for that which even those who do not yet believe in Christ now see fulfilled among us, and which is so undeniable that they can but gnash their teeth and pine away? Who, I say, could have hoped that the nations would hope in the name of Christ, when He was arrested, bound, scourged, mocked, crucified, when even the disciples themselves had lost the hope which they had begun to have in Him? The hope which was then entertained scarcely by the one thief on the cross, is now cherished by nations everywhere on the earth, who are marked with the sign of the cross on which He died that they may not die eternally.That the last judgment, then, shall be administered by Jesus Christ in the manner predicted in the sacred writings is denied or doubted by no one, unless by those who, through some incredible animosity or blindness, decline to believe these writings, though already their truth is demonstrated to all the world. And at or in connection with that judgment the following events shall come to pass, as we have learned: Elias the Tishbite shall come; the Jews shall believe; Antichrist shall persecute; Christ shall judge; the dead shall rise; the good and the wicked shall be separated; the world shall be burned and renewed. All these things, we believe, shall come to pass; but how, or in what order, human understanding cannot perfectly teach us, but only the experience of the events themselves. My opinion, however, is, that they will happen in the order in which I have related them.Two books yet remain to be written by me, in order to complete, by God's help, what I promised. One of these will explain the punishment of the wicked, the other the happiness of the righteous; and in them I shall be at special pains to refute, by God's grace, the arguments by which some unhappy creatures seem to themselves to undermine the divine promises and threatenings, and to ridicule as empty words statements which are the most salutary nutriment of faith. But they who are instructed in divine things hold the truth and omnipotence of God to be the strongest arguments in favor of those things which, however incredible they seem to men, are yet contained in the Scriptures, whose truth has already in many ways been proved; for they are sure that God can in no wise lie, and that He can do what is impossible to the unbelieving.
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