The first is at the breasts of profitable history, by which it nourishes with examples; the second, like Jacob forgetting things human and stretching toward things divine, in which one is not held within the bound of human authority, but leans by the steps of reason toward the highest and unchangeable law. The third, now more confident, wedding carnal appetite by the strength of reason, and rejoicing inwardly in a certain conjugal sweetness, when the soul is joined to the mind and veiled by the covering of modesty, so that now it is not constrained to live rightly: even if all should grant it license, it takes no pleasure in sinning.
The fourth now doing this same thing far more firmly and orderly, and shining forth into the perfect man, and apt and fit to sustain and break all persecutions and the storms and waves of the world. The fifth living peaceable and on every side tranquil, and enjoying the abundance of the unchangeable kingdom of the highest and ineffable wisdom. The sixth passing over entirely from change into eternal life, and even unto the total forgetting of the temporal life, a perfect form which was made to the image and likeness of God. The seventh indeed is eternal rest and perpetual blessedness, to be distinguished by no ages. For as the end of the old man is death, so the end of the new man is eternal life.
For that man is of sin, this one of righteousness. These seven steps also, by which we are said to advance and to do battle, that same most ample teacher Augustine recounts in many places; writing at length to Maximus, he says: Thus by the precepts of God—which we have received that we might act well—you establish your life and morals, beginning from a religious fear. 'For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom' (Ps. 110), where human pride is broken and weakened; then, being gentle and meek through piety, so that even the things you do not yet understand, and which seem absurd to the unskilled and self-contradictory (Prov. 1),
you do not struggle against in the holy Scriptures with your spirit and contention, nor impose your own meaning upon the meanings of the divine books, but rather yield, and gently defer your understanding, rather than harshly accuse the hidden thing. The third, when human weakness begins to open itself to you for the knowledge of yourself, and you know where you lie, and what penal bonds of mortality, propagated from Adam, you drag with you, and how far you are a pilgrim from the Lord, and you perceive another law in your members warring against the law of your mind, and leading you captive in the law of sin which is in your members, you cry out (Rom. 7): 'Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?'
so that, as you mourn, the grace of God may console you, promising that very deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord. Fourthly, now to desire to fulfill righteousness far more vehemently and fervently than the pleasures of the flesh are wont to be desired by the most wicked men—save that here there is hope of divine help. In this appetite there is a tranquil ardor and a more secure flame.
In this fourth step of life, one perseveres earnestly in prayers, that to those who hunger and thirst the fullness of righteousness may be granted, so that it may be not only not burdensome, but even delightful, to abstain from the pleasure of all corruption, whether one's own or another's, or by wrestling against it; and that this may be easily bestowed from above, there is joined in the fifth the counsel of showing mercy, that in what you can you may help the needy, because in what he is not yet able he desires to be helped by the Almighty. Now the gift of mercy is twofold: when vengeance is remitted, and when kindness is shown. These two the Lord briefly embraced thus (Luke 6): 'Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you.'
This work avails also for the cleansing of the heart, that as far as is permitted in this life we may be able to behold the unchangeable substance of God with pure understanding. For something is held against us which must be released, that our gaze may break forth into the light; whence the Lord himself says (Luke 11): 'Truly give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you.' Wherefore the sixth follows: the very cleansing of the heart. And that our sight may be directed rightly and purely into the true light, neither the things we do well and laudably, nor the things we cautiously and shrewdly despise, are to be referred to the end of pleasing men or of relieving the necessities of the body.
For God wills to be worshiped freely, since there is nothing beyond himself that ought to be sought; so that when by the steps of the good life we have come to this purity of understanding—whether more slowly or more quickly—then we may dare to say that we somewhat avail with the mind to touch the unity of the highest and ineffable Trinity, where there will be the highest peace, beyond which there is nothing to be awaited, when, reformed to the image of their kind, the sons of God, made out of men, enjoy the paternal unchangeableness. For first, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit' (Matt. 5), where the fear of God is; then, 'Blessed are the meek,' where docile piety is; third, 'Blessed are they that mourn,' where the knowledge of one's own infirmity is;
fourth, 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,' where there is the fortitude of striving to hold the passions tamed; fifth, 'Blessed are the merciful, for God shall have mercy on them,' where there is the counsel of helping, that you may deserve to be helped; then one arrives at the sixth step, in which it is said: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,' where there is pure understanding and a disposition fit for understanding. We cannot preserve the Trinity even in the smallest part, unless we also do not seek human praise, although we do praiseworthy things (John 14).
Accordingly, at the seventh step we arrive at the tranquility of that peace which the world cannot give; for even those four virtues which I mentioned before, the diligence of philosophers too was able to judge of, that is, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice. If, joining these three to the perfect worship of religion, we add them—that is, faith, hope, and charity—we assuredly find the sevenfold number. For rightly are these three not omitted, without which we know that no one can worship God, nor be pleasing to him.
Since these things are so, whether the saving sciences and the secrets set within the sacred volumes, lying hidden in those seven modes as under seven seals, are more darkly obscured; or whether the whole sum and perfection of the virtues, by which man advances through inner increases—not indiscriminately confused, but ordered step by step in particular fashion; or whether the promised aid of eternal salvation—Christ the Lord mercifully suffering, truly rising, wondrously ascending, and ever working in each—it is known that all could and can be revealed, known, acquired, and perfected. Those seals are truly proclaimed to be revealed and perfected in him and through him.
I judge that this must be thoroughly taught by testimonies; for among other things the Apostle says thus (Col. 1): 'The mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints, to whom God willed to make known the riches of the glory of this sacrament among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory; whom we preach, admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ; whereat also I labor, striving according to his working which he works in me in power.' And in the Old Testament he says: 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways' (Prov. 8).
Since therefore he himself is principally the way in which we must wholesomely walk, we know that from him no less the ways—that is, the steps of progress and the ordinances of living and the secrets of the legal mysteries—are opened and conferred. 'And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seven seals?' By the strong angel he means the herald of the law, since we recall that the same law was given in the words of angels—as Saint Stephen relates—and received, yet not kept by all the people. Its herald now, demanding by right its custody, testifies that he has found no one worthy to open it.
But since first the seals are loosed, then the book is opened, by a sure reasoning he inverted the usual order, because Christ then opened the book when he fulfilled the work of his voluntary passion, 'loosing enmities in his flesh, abolishing the law of commandments in decrees' (Eph. 2); he proved that the proclamations of both Testaments are perfected in himself, and the veil of the temple withdrew at his passion, as if, the veil of the legal figures being removed, he is by affection made to suffer and by act proven to have revealed the seven seals—that is, all the deep mysteries of the divine law.
No one, accordingly, is said to have been found worthy—neither in heaven, that is, signifying that it exceeded the angelic faculty; not that the angels were ignorant of the future mystery of the Lord's incarnation and dispensation, but that it was not to be fulfilled through the angelic creature. For the Son of God, about to redeem men, having taken true humanity, willed that all things be fulfilled through himself. Hence Isaiah says (Isa. 63, according to the Septuagint): 'Not an angel, not a legate, but the Lord himself saved them'; nor upon the earth, that is, no one even of the perfectly just abiding in this life. For man, needing to be remade, required the aid of the Creator alone; nor under the earth.
No one of the saints, even of the departed, was found worthy to open the book, nor even to look into it. By 'to look into' he means to comprehend. Whence Paul says (Eph. 3) that he preaches to the Gentiles the incomprehensible riches of Christ, concerning which the Lord speaks—that is, the charity of the New Testament, because it lay hidden in the law, and which Christ reserved for his own presence; no one could behold it with sight so fit as to be able also to accomplish it in act, because Christ alone could fulfill it by his dispensation; for by them it could only be foreseen, not also perfected. 'And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to loose its seals.'
The Church wept in John, weighed down by the works of sinners, imploring her own redemption—which she showed to consist in the Redeemer's aid, in that opening of the book. 'And one of the elders said to me: Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seven seals.' By 'one of the elders' we recognize the whole body of the prophets, by whose sure oracles the Church was consoled that Christ, of the tribe of Judah, would redeem the world by his blood. Of whom we read it foretold (Gen. 49): 'Judah is a lion's whelp; to the prey, my son, you have gone up; resting, you have couched as a lion, and as a lioness—who shall rouse him up?'
For the same one is called both Lamb and Lion, who, innocent, received a devoted death, and slew the power that he had taken up—against which he had of old truly directed just threats, saying through Hosea (Hos. 13): 'O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite.' And Isaiah (Isa. 11): 'Behold, the Root of Jesse shall arise unto the salvation of the peoples; him shall the Gentiles beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.' For each of the faithful individually also, when he strives to weep for his own sins and remembers the promised redemption through the consolation of the Scriptures, is known to have hope of eternal salvation, and is confirmed by a like response, so to speak, from one of the elders.
Moreover, he foreknew both the past and promised the future, because the Spirit subtly relates in the past, and demonstrates future things by past ones (Rom. 15). 'And I saw, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders.' What is the throne, this are the living creatures, this also the elders—that is, the Church. For the Church is in the midst, which follows and describes when it says: 'A Lamb standing as though slain.' For as often as Christ is preached as slain in the midst of the Church, so often the same Lamb seems to be immolated for the sin of the world. These things, unknown to the untaught, are laid open, and are graven in the memory of the faithful by the devoted worshiper.
For even when the Church, which Christ has put on, mortifies herself to the world that she may live to God, the Lamb is said to be immolated, as it were the head for the body. Finally there follows: 'Having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth through all the earth.' The diversity of terms taught that one understanding is set forth, signifying by the horns the most excellent gifts of the Holy Spirit, by which throughout the world Christ reigns in his Church. There follows: 'Which are the seven Spirits of God.' For there is nothing that, justly eminent, holds princedom over all the earth and, enlarged by the gift of the Holy Spirit, glories in a special manner, except the Church of Christ. We recall that it is said that seven is put for the universal whole.
But because the horns are above the head, rightly the singular exaltation of the Church is placed above Christ. On account of which he says, 'Upon this rock I will build my Church' (Matt. 16), as if he said, 'Upon myself I will build you' (cf. Wis. 1). 'But the Spirit of the Lord has filled the round world' (Ps. 74). And that this might come to pass, the horns of sinners being broken, the horns of the just are said to be exalted. Concerning which Isaiah had foretold (Isa. 24): 'From the ends of the earth we have heard praises announcing the glory of the Just One.'
To have seven horns, therefore, is understood as, as it were, to possess the whole world, in which the sevenfold Spirit of grace holds princedom, on account of his memorable sevenfold operation, which here, on account of the illumination of the eyes, he mentions—of which I think Zechariah spoke (Zech. 4): 'These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which run through the whole earth.' But also the dignity of his very excellence seems not incongruously to be expressed by the horns. For natural horns are born as though by breaking the boundaries of their places, nor, content with the level of the flesh, do they rest, but by growing they seek ever higher and higher. 'For the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one' (1 Cor. 2).
Nor could he judge anyone, unless, no longer carnal in the body, raised up as by a more excellent watchtower, he presided over the rest. Hence also the Apostle (Rom. 8): 'You,' he says, 'are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.' 'And he came and received the book from the right hand of him that sat on the throne.' The Son of Man is said to have received the book from the right hand of God—that very dispensation ordained by the Father and by himself—because each dwells with his Spirit on the throne. Here too we must take the right hand for the felicity of victory, nor ought it be understood carnally, as if he is said to receive the book from some other right hand of the Father, since the same Son is himself the right hand of the Father. But since he always conquers in his own, he who says (John 16):
'Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world,' and made his Church to exist victorious, it is declared that from her he receives the book. 'And when he had received the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one harps and golden vials full of odors of supplications, which are the prayers of the saints.' The living creatures and the elders—that is, the whole Church—fall before the Lamb, not without a narration of the virtues accomplished. Therefore, having every one golden harps and golden vials: by the harps, in which the strings are stretched taut over the wood, the passion of Christ is figured, which for Christ the Church continually imitates, that according to the Apostle she may 'fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in her flesh' (Col. 1).
By the vials, the pious confession accepted by God, where it is closed by no double heart, but opened with plain effect. These are also the golden vessels in the great house (2 Tim. 2), fragrant with the good odor of Christ's sweetness. Moreover, the prayers of the saints are the thanksgivings of those rejoicing together for the salvation of the world, and the intercessions for the stability of the little ones. 'Christ,' he says, 'suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps' (1 Pet. 2). When therefore those who are Christ's crucify their flesh with its vices and concupiscences (Gal. 5), they sing to Christ as with harps, so that what he suffered for them, they, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of faith (Heb. 12), suffer for him:
who, when he willed to reveal himself to be recognized by those seven distinguished titles, is proven to have accomplished the secrets of the seven seals, when he taught himself to be God coeternal with the Father, who, born of a virgin, bore manhood, having also suffered, rose again, ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, acquired the Church also out of the Gentiles, and announced himself to be the future judge. Let us hear, finally, what Isaiah said to the Jews (Isa. 24, according to the Septuagint): 'All these words shall be to you as the words of a sealed book.' Here he says that both the one skilled in letters and the one ignorant of them are alike cheated of the fruit of knowledge, since the former is forbidden by the seals to penetrate the inner secrets, and the latter is hindered by ignorance.
The Lord rebukes the chief men of the Jews for having taken away this key of knowledge, saying (Matt. 23): 'Woe to you, teachers of the law, who have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves have not entered in, and those entering in you have not suffered to enter.' For, denying Christ, whose coming is the work of the prophets, they were taking away the key of knowledge. For faith, being denied, closes off the knowledge of the law, which contains Christ. 'And they sang a new song.'
In harmony with the truth of both Testaments, Christ renders a new song, when the same Word, remaining in the beginning, begotten in a new birth through a virgin, God clothed in a new manner with manhood, delivered up by his own power to those who slew him, wondrously raised from death, exalted above the heavens when he willed, sending down the Holy Spirit from above and acquiring the Gentiles, left to the whole Church, thus acquired, a new song to be continually sung, whereby she might securely hope for the judge to come, that we may 'walk in newness of life' (cf. Rom. 6), saying: 'If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me' (Luke 9). Saying:
'Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive the book and to open its seals, because you were slain and have redeemed us to God in your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us a kingdom to our God, and priests, and we shall reign over the earth.' They follow up with praises that very dispensation of Christ, designated by the name of the book, which they confess to belong to Christ alone. Here it is further declared that the living creatures and the elders are the Church, since they say: 'You have redeemed us in your blood.' For this is fitting for none but the Church to say. He also shows in what heaven the living creatures and elders are, when they say:
'You have made us a kingdom and priests to our God, and we have reigned over the earth'; and even if, the understanding of the higher parts remaining, some virtues in heaven too are believed to congratulate in this manner, he also shows that the Church receives the book in Christ, when the redeemed out of every people and tribe and nation and tongue confess that they have received power and a kingdom. 'For he who cleaves to God is one spirit.' 'They shall be,' he says, 'two in one flesh' (1 Cor. 6). 'But I speak in Christ and in the Church' (Eph. 5). He therefore received in her what he gave; he himself is crowned whom he crowns. Therefore Isaiah says: 'As a bridegroom he has adorned me with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.'
'And I saw and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and round about the living creatures and the elders.' He shows who is the throne, the living creatures, the elders, in whose midst he heard the voice. For if the just are called sons of God, why are they not called angels? Yet both are by grace, not by nature—although the heavenly host of angels too can, in united proclamation of praise, sing these things together with the living creatures and elders, congratulating over so great a gift of our redemption. 'And their number was thousands of thousands'—assuredly of innumerable ones—'saying with a loud voice:'
'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory and blessing; and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them.' Although these things justly belong to our Head, Christ, they can nevertheless be understood, not inappropriately, also of his Church—so far, at least, that some things belong to the Head alone, and certain things also to the body (Col. 2). 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches,' etc. For he is the treasure of all good things and the wisdom of God. For he himself makes her to have dominion over all nations, saying (Ps. 59): 'The strangers are made subject to me;'
and, 'You have subjected all things under his feet' (Ps. 8); and, 'To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. 16). And then he passes to the Head, saying: 'And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them.' Nor let it be hard that the Church has received together with him, with whom she rose again—if it is not hard that the member has what the Head has. Nor can that seem unjust which says the Church is worthy of every creature, because even though each member in religious humility judges itself unworthy of this, yet we say that the whole body is a partaker of its Head, of whom we read: 'He has given us all things with him.' And likewise, 'And he has made us to sit in the heavenly places' (Eph. 2).
Otherwise, we know that 'creature' frequently signifies men, as the Apostle: 'For the creature itself also,' he says, 'shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God' (Rom. 8). And the Lord (Mark 16): 'Preach the Gospel to every creature.' For all things that belong to all creatures are found in man: to be, to live, to move, to feel, to understand. Therefore here too by 'every creature' he means the whole human race, that is, of the whole world. Hence he himself says (Matt. 28): 'All power is given to me in heaven and on earth.' Nor did he wish to signify that he received his power in time, but rather the dignity of the Church in men.
He assuredly, who teaches himself to be in all things equal to the Father—so that even what he says, 'who is in heaven,' the very human nature in Christ, preferred above the angels, may have dominion in heaven; preached to men, reigning, may have dominion on the earth; and, prevailing over the loosed groanings of the lower regions, is taught to hold dominion also under the earth. 'I heard all saying: To him that sits on the throne and to the Lamb'—that is, to the Father and to the Son—'blessing and honor and dignity and power for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said: Amen.' The Church assuredly says: 'Amen,' that is, 'true,' 'faithfully.' 'And the twenty-four elders fell on their faces and adored him that lives for ever and ever.' The same living creatures are the elders, who bore witness, saying: 'Amen.'
The Church having been described with her offices and the works of due praise, it was necessary to hasten on, so that the things intimated might shine clear by the opening of each seal. For nothing could be wanting to these seven seals, so that in their secret the whole perfection might be taught to be present—in affection and in understanding and in act. Finally he describes, and sometimes taking the end from the beginning, he runs through the contents of each seal in his own manner, both concerning the triumph of Christ and concerning the future assaults upon the Church, so that he might both give consolation over the prosperity of victory, and stir up solicitude over the future struggle, and give warning of the stupendous examination. Chapter 6. 'And when the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals.' The opening of the seal is the revelation of the mystery.
But since there is not one, but many sacraments; nor of one kind, but, as the apostle Paul says (Heb. 1): 'In many portions and in many manners of old God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, last of all in these days he has spoken to us in his Son,' etc.; and it is a long matter to treat of the diversity of the sacraments by which the future dispensation of Christ, and the coming salvation of the Church, were prepared, in these three modes at least, which we set forth above—of speech, of understanding, of action—all things can be briefly restrained; while the utterance encloses in itself all the precepts of the whole heavenly oracle. Therefore, 'In many portions,' he says, 'and in many manners he spoke,' that knowledge may intimate the forms of the understanding to be applied according to rule.
Hence in the Gospel the Lord is said (Luke 24), after the resurrection, to have opened the understanding of the disciples, that they might comprehend the Scriptures; and to have kindled their hearts unto salvation, that they might preach to others the things revealed, filling up nonetheless (according to the Apostle) those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in their own flesh (Colossians 1), and saying truly: 'We were made a pattern to all that believe' (1 Thessalonians 1). And likewise: 'That we might give ourselves as a pattern to you, for you to imitate us' (2 Thessalonians 3). For if they had not done so, in vain would they chant the Scriptures held in memory, which they could neither penetrate with understanding nor fulfil in deed.
And since in the foregoing discussion we have set forth the hidden modes of the utterance and of the saving understanding, now let us more attentively hear those things which lay hidden in the deed, through the opening of the several signs. For if the opening of a sign is believed to be the revelation of a mystery, and we say that its mystery consists in word, in understanding, and in deed, let us see how these three together can also be found, in the fixed sayings of the light, both said, understood, and accomplished with probability, so that the same sayings may be grasped by a sober understanding, and the things understood may be proved by work. For example, 'Behold, I come (Psalm 39); in the head of the book it is written of me'; by saying 'I come,' He still foretells that He is to come.
But when it is asked who this One is, He is understood to be the Desired of all nations, Christ, especially because both at the head of the book of the Psalter, and at the head of the book of Genesis, He Himself is read to be written of: 'In the beginning God made heaven and earth.' 'For all things,' He says (Psalm 104), 'Thou hast made in wisdom,' who, to those inquiring who He was, answered that He was the Beginning (John 8). But when it is asked wherefore He came, there follows: 'That I may do Thy will, O my God, I have willed it' (Psalm 39). Concerning which He says the same in the Gospel (John 4): 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.' Concerning which we understand it expressed by Him about the hour of the Passion (John 14):