Commentary on Revelation & Paul 20

I. Seven angels with as many trumpets, and another over the altar of God with a golden censer; and when the first angel sounds the trumpet, hail and fire mingled with blood are cast down. II. When the second angel sounds, a fiery mountain is cast into the sea, and part of the seas is turned into blood. III. When the third sounds, a burning star is said to fall from heaven. IV. When the angel sounds the trumpet, a third part of the sun, the moon, and the stars is said to be darkened. V. I saw another sign, as an eagle flying in the midst of heaven, saying thrice: Woe, woe, woe! VI. When the fifth sounds, a star falls from heaven, to which is given the key of the pit of the abyss, whence smoke and locusts come forth. VII. Concerning the torment of five or six months, as of scorpions. VIII.

Where a horse prepared for battle, resembling locusts, signifies the heresiarchs. IX. It declares that one woe has passed, and two follow. X. When the sixth angel sounds, the loosing of the four angels long bound over the Euphrates, and concerning the number of eighty thousand or twice ten thousand. XI. Concerning the horsemen having fiery, thorny, and sulphurous breastplates. XII. Concerning the error of the Gentiles. XIII. An angel sitting, clothed with a cloud, whose face was as the sun, and concerning the seven thunders. XIV. Concerning the days of the voice of the seventh angel, and the consummation of the divine mystery. XV. Concerning the bitterness which he is foretold to feel from the eaten book, and the measure taken of the reed. XVI. Concerning the two martyrs, who shall prophesy for a thousand two hundred and sixty [ninety] days. XVII.

It is said that the third woe has come. XVIII. When the seventh angel's trumpet sounds, he records that voices were made by the elders. XIX. The temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of the testament was seen. XX. Concerning the red dragon and the woman in travail. XXI. That the devil, the accuser of the brethren, is cast down from heaven to the earth. XXII. That the woman received two wings, with which, to be nourished, she might flee into the desert. And I saw seven angels standing in the sight of God, and to them were given seven trumpets. In the seven angels let us recognize that the Church is repeated according to the preceding rule, whereby, on account of its universality, it is often commended by the sevenfold number. She is said to have received the strongest trumpet of preaching, by whose prevailing we believe the whole world will believe; for we read (Isa. LVII):

As a trumpet, lift up thy voice. And another angel came and stood over the altar of God, holding a golden censer, and there were given to him many offerings, that he should offer the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar of God, which is in the sight of the throne. This kind of narration too must be noted; for often someone briefly relates otherwise than he proposes, and, having finished that which he had interposed for the sake of clarifying, returns to his proposal. For he proposed that seven angels had received trumpets, and another angel came, so that he might be thought to have come after the seven, though he saw this at one time; and when the angel came, those seven received the trumpets — that is, when Christ the Lord came, His Church received the power of preaching.

For we understand that He Himself came over the altar — that is, over the Church, which Church is received as the body of that same priest, to whom Peter says (I Pet. II): A holy nation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. Holding a golden censer — that is, the immaculate body conceived by the coming of the Holy Spirit, which He offered for the redemption of the whole world as an offering and victim to God for an odour of sweetness, and cleansed the conscience of all from dead works. And He is said both to have received of the prayers of the saints and to have offered them, because through Him the prayers of all can sweetly reach God. Hence the Apostle (Heb. XIII):

Through Him, he says, let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise — that is, the fruit of lips confessing to His name. On this account He Himself is said to intercede not only for our sins, but also for those of the whole world, as also blessed John: And He, he says, entreats for our sins. And there ascended, he says, the smoke of the supplications, of the prayers of the saints, from the hand of the angel before the sight of God. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the wrath of God, and cast it into the earth. Well does he say the censer full of fire. For not by measure, he says (John III), does God give the Spirit — which we know was fulfilled properly of the humanity of Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. II).

And because He willed His Church alone to be a partaker of that same Spirit, He showed this specially here. Hence also the Lord in the Gospel says (Luke XII): I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what do I will but that it be kindled? I think this fire is now signified. And by this fire we know that sinners are reprobated like fragile vessels cracking in the furnace: because by one fire the portion of the wicked does not obtain the same effect as the just, just as neither stubble nor gold, of which we know the one to be consumed, the other to be tested; even as under one press it is certain that oil obtains a merit different from the dregs. This fire therefore, cast into the earth, set aflame the minds of those about to preach.

But it is said to have burned a third part of the earth, of the trees, and of the hay and greenness, as if he should say: He reprobated and destroyed a part of the useless vessels, whether placed outside or within the Church. For if anyone build upon the foundation wood, hay, stubble, all perish by fire (I Cor. III). Otherwise: And the angel took the censer, and filled it from the fire of the altar of God, and cast it into the earth. And the Lord took His body — that is, the Church; and by fulfilling the will of the Father, He filled it from the fire of the altar — that is, from the power of loosing and binding, which consists in sacrifices and the propitiation of God. Hence it is also said (Ps. CIII): Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire.

For in these things the Church received all power in heaven and on earth, when she perfected the sacrifice of God, the Lord offering Himself principally, and the saints presenting their bodies as a living, holy victim (Rom. XII). And He cast it into the earth. Since through the preaching of the Church the knowledge of the future indignation shall come to the world, as Zechariah says (Zech. XII): I will make the leaders of Judah as a torrent of fire, etc. And to both senses can be fitted that which follows: and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake. All these are spiritual, they belong to the Church — that is, the voices of those rebuking in fire: Ye offspring of vipers (Matt. III), etc.; or, Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven shall draw near.

The thunders are the preachings of the Christian faith; the lightnings are the powers of healings; the earthquakes are the persecutions, which he both foretold would come, and which she suffers coming at various times. But he repeats what he had proposed, being accustomed to dictate the same things in parts. And the seven angels having, he says, the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound the trumpet. The Church, commended by the sevenfold number, confidently prepared herself to preach. And the first angel sounded the trumpet, and there was hail, and fire mingled with blood, and it was cast upon the earth, and a third part of the earth was burned up, and a third part of the trees was burned up, and all green hay was burned up.

What the earth is, that also are the trees; but of these he says a third part, while of the hay he says the whole was burned. For here the earth figures the earthly-minded, but the trees figure men wavering in unbelief, as though moved by every wind of doctrine (Eph. IV), of whom the apostle Jude says (Chap. I): autumn trees, without fruit, uprooted, twice dead; but the hay and the green thing, he says, is flesh fattened for lusts; for all flesh is hay (Isa. XL). But although he set three quarters against the one, which is the Church, yet he now confined the part opposed to the Church to two thirds, namely a third...

...one mingled with the good within the Church among false brethren, and the other separated by open schism into the depravity of the errors of Gentilism and heresy, so that the Church (that is, one third) may contend against a twofold evil, like simplicity resisting duplicity. Thus in the Gospel the king is said to have gone forth to fight with ten thousand against one having twenty thousand (Luke XIV); thus God promises through Zechariah, saying (Zech. XIII): And it shall be in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be scattered and shall fail, and a third part shall be left in it; and I will lead the third part through the fire, and will burn them as silver is burned, and will test them as gold is tested; he shall call upon My name, and I will hear him;

and I will say, Thou art My people; and they shall say, Thou art the Lord my God. Scripture very often mentions the aforesaid part of the evil, consisting in the two thirds, as one person on account of the form of one body, at other times introducing it in the singular. And the second angel sounded the trumpet, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and a third part of the sea became blood, and a third part of the fishes died, and a third part of the ships perished. The mountain burning in the sea is the devil, cast into the peoples; the third part of the sea into blood — by blood he sets down the wisdom of the flesh, which is at enmity with God. Therefore it is said that through it the human soul is destroyed. Hence the Apostle (Rom.

VIII), To be wise, he says, according to the flesh is death, because flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God. But by the name of the sea and of the trees, the ships and the fishes, he embraces the world with its inhabitants after its own manner. Finally, when he had said one third turned into blood, signifying it consumed by the death of souls, he afterward divides the same into two thirds, saying: And a third part of the fishes died, and a third part of the ships perished. In the one he shows the kind of death, in these he assigns the number. Another edition, by saying 'having souls,' evidently shows that they were slain by spiritual death, as the Apostle says of the widow (I Tim. V): She that liveth in pleasures is dead while living.

Therefore, as it sounds, it is as though a third slew another third, by noxious tradition and by useless imitation of teaching. And the third angel sounded the trumpet, and there fell from heaven a great star, burning like a torch, upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is said to be Wormwood, or, as it is said elsewhere, of the absent ones; and a third part of the waters became as wormwood, and many men died from the bitterness of the waters. He designates that from heaven — as though from the Church — men fell, namely such as men supposed to shine forth by good merits. Therefore they are compared to stars and torches, whom the apostle Jude reproves, saying (Jude I): wandering stars of seduction. For they seduce by the very surface of their brightness.

These the Lord (Matt. XXIII) compares even to whitewashed walls and sepulchres. And because the ruin of the greater ones is wont to vex very many, therefore he records that the star fell upon a part of the rivers and fountains, whose name he sets down as Wormwood, on account of the great bitterness. For when such fall, we know that many are weakened, and are corrupted by the most wicked imitation of the teaching. But he rightly compared these to wormwood, whose bitterness, if a little of it be mixed with a sweet draught, turns the whole into bitterness. Signifying this elsewhere too, Scripture says to such (Jer. II): I planted thee as a choice vine; how art thou turned into the bitterness of a strange vine?

But he sets this as the third part of the evil ones, since others, who ought to have been rendered more cautious by the example of those falling, incur the same defect by their imitation. And the fourth angel sounded the trumpet, and a third part of the sun was struck, and a third part of the moon, and a third part of the stars, so that they might shine less, and the day might lose the same part, and the night likewise. The sun, the moon, the stars — the Church is set forth.

Quite fittingly, having mentioned the fourth angel, he willed to make mention of those things which are related to have been made on the fourth day in the creation of the world, that they might rule over the day and the night, and divide the light and the darkness; so that when these evil ones — of whom the body is one, outwardly open and inwardly hidden — are separated from the Church, and by their transgressions cause the dignity of the Church to shine less, taking away as it were a third part of the sun, and a third part of the moon, and a third part of the stars by their obscurities, they may be convicted of acting against the ordinance of the Creator:

for as He willed the sun, the moon, and the stars visibly to excel the other created things in place or in kind, so they are noted to wish to obscure His Church, which He commanded to have dominion throughout the whole world in dignity and glory: For the name of God, says the Apostle (Rom. II), is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. For through those by whom our good is blasphemed, they seem to obscure the native light. But lest it should be thought by men that this could be done at will and without measure, He fixes in a certain way the limit of a measure, signifying that same part of the evil ones by a different narration. For that which in the third angel he had recorded as one third, here in a threefold manner he records, saying a third part of the sun, a third of the moon.

and a third of the stars were diminished, so that clearly, in these luminaries, two parts remained whole in their state, nor did that perdition or obscurity befall anyone of the number of the elect. For none perished, he says (John XVII), but the son of perdition. And (II Tim. II), The Lord knoweth who are His. Otherwise: The perfection of every reign consists in the sum of twelve ounces; therefore he says a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were darkened — that is, four ounces, out of which is composed the body of all the evil, designated rather in many various ways.

But in the good it is given to understand that eight ounces remained in each, three times eight being twenty-four, as it were the perfection which stands in those set over and in the peoples. 'A third' here is the name of the part of the evil ones — that is, two parts, the one being called the day, the other the harmful night, to which Jeremiah says: I have likened your mother to the night. For this reason therefore was it struck, that there might appear a third of the day and a third of the night, which is Christ's and which is the devil's. But he did not say, 'A third of them was struck and darkened, and there appeared a third of the day and of the night,' but 'that it might be darkened and appear,' because it did not appear as it was struck, but for this it was struck — that is, delivered over to its own pleasures — that, with sins abounding, it might be revealed in its own time.

The power in their tails was to hurt men for five months. We remember that it is written in Isaiah (Chap. IX): The elder and the honourable, he is the head; and the prophet teaching a lie, he is the tail. And there shall be those who bless my people, seducing them; and those who are blessed, cast down headlong. Whence it is clear that these wish to have dominion in that part which all the saints and teachers of the truth strive greatly to avoid — that is, worldly glory and the error of harmful preaching. Therefore, the power in their tails for five months again intimates this life, where a lie can prevail, either to capture the useless, or to torment temporarily the spiritual; hence we read (Ps. CXVIII):

I saw the foolish, and I pined away, and weariness held me because of the sinners. And they had over them a king, the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue Apollyon, and in the Latin tongue having the name Exterminating. God, supremely good, though by hidden yet just judgments, permitted a fitting angel to be set over such. For by whom a man is overcome, to him also he is added as a slave; therefore the apostle says (II Pet. II) that they are delivered over into every seduction of iniquity, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And therefore God sends them into the working of error (II Thess. II), that they may believe a lie, and that all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but consent to iniquity.

But there agrees in him both the quality of the action and the expressed propriety of the name — that is, exterminating. One woe has departed, and behold two other woes follow. And the sixth angel sounded the trumpet. He says the first woe departed, and the trumpet of the sixth angel sounded; here the last preaching of the sixth age is announced. And I heard one from the four horns of the altar of God — of the altar which is under the eyes of God — saying to the sixth angel who held the trumpet: Loose the four angels who are bound over that great river Euphrates. Here he shows that the same are signified as winds which he had called angels; for he had said above that the winds were held by angels; now he says the angels are loosed by an angel, which is the Church, which retains the received power of loosing and binding (Matt. XVI, XVIII;

John XX). Therefore she has, he says, the trumpet — that is, the power of preaching. Hence it is said: Lift up thy voice like a trumpet (Isa. LVIII). Loose the four angels who are bound over the river Euphrates, whom he had said to be in the four corners of the earth, in order to show that by the name of the Euphrates is designated the power of the worldly kingdom and the multitude of the persecutors, in which the harmful will of the devil is therefore said to be bound, because he is not permitted to harm as much as he wishes. For the Euphrates is a river of Babylon, which we know is frequently set in a bad sense in the divine Scriptures. Jeremiah too says (Chap. XLVI):

That day is to the Lord our God a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself of His enemies, and the sword shall devour them, and shall be filled with their blood; for there is a sacrifice of the Lord of hosts in the land of the north, by the river Euphrates. Here he announces a sacrifice not of appeasement, but of slaughter: for the last persecution is therefore foretold as about to be more vehemently glowing, because then, the devil being loosed with his ministers, he is permitted more to harm or to exercise. There follows finally: And those four angels were loosed — this signifies the beginning of the persecution — who were prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year, that they might slay a third part of men.

Here he foretells the four times in which that persecution shall rage, with a fitting signification of the senses — that is, three years and six months. But he said 'for the hour and the day and the month and the year,' because it is certain that days are fulfilled gradually by hours, and months by days, and years by months. And by saying 'prepared,' he expressed the property of the devil and his angels, who, waging inextricable enmities against the Church of Christ, have a perpetual will to harm, but are restrained by the divine power lest they harm as much as they wish; and rightly did he say beforehand of the locusts that they are like horses prepared for war. For when he says the angels were loosed, he says that he saw horses.

And the number, he says, of the mounted warriors of that army was eighty thousand; I heard the number of them, that they might slay a third part of men. Again he intimates in many ways that whole body of the evil. Now eighty thousand — just as from the perfection of the number six, sixty prefigures for us a specimen of the good, whence we read it written (Cant. VI), There are sixty queens — so eighty is sometimes wont to be set in a bad sense. For it rises from the number four, on account of the four well-known qualities of the body, cold and hot, moist and dry; or on account of the four perturbations by which life is often dreadfully vexed — fear, desire, grief, and joy: which, being doubled on account of the twofold sex, make eight.

This number, likewise rising by tens, makes up eighty, in which it shows in a certain manner the part of the evil among the warring horsemen against the body of Christ, which is the Church; and therefore there follows in that place: 'And there are eighty concubines,' as those joined not by a lawful marriage but rather by a fraudulent one. This properly agrees with all heretics, for they handle the sacraments of the faith in a merely temporal way, cloaked under the name of Christ, so that, just as concubines are not always destined to remain in the house, so these too desire to hold from the name of Christ some momentary thing, whether pre-eminence or the applause of human praise.

Nor is it a labour, by right reasoning, to distinguish between the merits of the queens and of the concubines, since even by their very names the dignity of the queens shines forth and the deformity of the concubines lies open. Moreover, another translation, which Tyconius expounded, has: 'And the number of the equestrian army was twice ten thousand times ten thousand.' There, passing over the exposition, he added only this much, and did not say how many ten thousands. But it seems to us that even in this translation it not unfittingly figured the whole part of lost men. For twice ten thousand makes twenty thousand. And this number the Lord sets down in the Gospel concerning a king who had twenty thousand, as though the duplicity of the evil resists the simplicity of the Christian.

According to this rule of understanding, then, by which against the simple ten is set the double twenty, he added, saying, 'of ten thousands'; and by keeping silent as to how many, he figured that they are counted in excess unavenged, as it were gathered together and yet not reckoned, concerning whom the prophet says (Psalm 39): 'I have declared and I have spoken; they are multiplied above number.' The undistinguished confusion of this multitude was signified also in the first catch of the disciples (Luke 5) before the Lord's passion, by which both the boats were weighed down and the nets were being broken, so that it properly agrees with heretics and false Christians who are given only to contentions, for by internal contentions the Church too is very often burdened.

and is exercised by the assaults of heretics, so that from the torn nets the schisms may be recognized to have been committed. In this catch the number is likewise passed over in silence, just as here 'twice ten thousand times ten thousand.' As if he were to say, 'Called indeed, yet not to be reckoned among the fullness of the elect.' For 'Many are called,' he says, 'but few are chosen.' In another catch, at length (Matthew and John 21), after the Lord's resurrection, both the number is stated and the great size of the fish is proclaimed, and the net is reported unbroken.

Wherefore, just as 'twice ten thousand times ten thousand' is fittingly to be applied to heretics and false Christians, so the remainder of the evil, whom the exposition above holds to be also among the Gentiles, and which is now enumerated in the sequel of the order, so that from all these persons the whole body of the devil may consist—nay rather, is shown to consist—that is, of Jews and heretics, false Christians and pagans. After a little while, at length, there follows, intimating their very error of gentility:

'And the rest of men,' saying, 'who were not slain by these plagues, neither did penance for the works of their evil deeds, that they should not adore demons and idols of gold and of silver, and of brass and of stone and of wood,' and the rest, by which it is shown that here he intimates the whole body of the evil comprised in its fullness. 'And I saw the horses in the vision, and they that sat upon them having breastplates of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone, and the heads of them were as the heads of lions.' The horses are men here in evil, riders, the wicked spirits. For just as, in a good sense, we set forth above, 'Thou who ridest upon thy horses,' that is, preachers, 'and thy riding is salvation,' so here, on the contrary, a riding is joined to the evil spirits.

Concerning the heads of lions enough and more than enough has already been said; but what ought not to be passed over is that, although some likeness of the locusts is found in the horses, and that of the horses is not found in the locusts, as also in the lions, yet both, being brought forward, agree by their signification with the persons of the heretics. For the breadth of the divine utterance distinguished one thing in unlike ways. But in the description or qualities of the breastplates, the punishments of the ungodly are signified, as we read is promised to those who adore the beast: 'The fire and the brimstone and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever.' And because this translation added 'of thorns,' the preceding showed the desert of the torments, signifying the vices by thorns, the order of which understanding the Apostle also expresses (Hebrews 6),

saying concerning similar land, in that, bringing forth thorns and thistles, it is cursed, whose end is unto burning. Whence it is said also in that original punishment of sin: 'Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee' (Genesis 3). And Solomon (Proverbs 26): 'Thorns,' he says, 'grow up in the hand of the drunkard.' 'And out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone.' Well is here signified that which is procured for him who procures it. For those are brought in to have these things and to bring them forth from the mouth, by whose harmful preaching they perish, being led astray, to be tormented by fire, smoke and brimstone, which came forth from their mouth. By the words, therefore, of their heads, that is, by the teachings of their leaders, they are declared to incur these plagues.

'For the power of the horses is in their mouth and in their tails,' that is, in the office of speech. For he sets down the reprobate preachers as tails. 'For their tails were like to serpents, having heads, and with them they did harm.' Well here, in the likeness of the ancient prevarication, he makes mention of serpents, by whose hissing the woman, being seduced, boldly did what was forbidden, and justly lost what she had received, just as these have 'the heads of dragons,' that is, the princes of the world; for dragons are earthly animals, often dwelling in the waters, larger than almost all beasts. Therefore those who preach harmful things under the patronage of princes do more harm than if they persuaded by speech alone. Therefore 'the heads of dragons, with which they do harm.' Now at length he speaks concerning the Gentiles:

'And the rest of men, who were not slain by these plagues, neither did penance for the works of their evil deeds, that they should not adore demons and idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not penance from their murders nor from their sorceries.' These things, anticipating, he set down beforehand, that by his encompassing he might conclude all who are to be on the left. He here mentions 'sorceries' in an evil sense, for we often call sorcerers 'evildoers.'

The text of the narration must accordingly be considered; for, having described the last combat and the manner of the Gentiles, he passed over the seventh angel, under whom the last persecution and the manifest coming of the Lord is hoped for, and he calls to mind the Church of the present time, so that, intimating this in diverse ways, when he recapitulated the things he had omitted, he might seem to narrate two ends. Let us therefore remember that, when he has carried the discourse through to the end, an end must be joined to the abridged order. For he did something out of the ordinary, in not concluding both narrations with one end. For he distinguished the preaching of the future peace, how strong it is, how conspicuous over land and sea. Chapter 10.

'And I saw,' he says, 'another strong angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire.' The Lord Christ coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, that is, the Church, or clothed with the cloud of the flesh, which is elsewhere called (Revelation 21) the new bride coming down from heaven. Or, as Daniel says (chapter 7), the Son of man came in the clouds of heaven; 'and a rainbow was on his head' about the good, the promise of propitiation abiding, but also signifying those whom it befell before the Lord's coming to be adorned with martyrdom, as Abel and the rest. And well does he say the rainbow was on his head, which another translation called an 'iris' (Genesis 4),

by which the Church is described as girt about, as members thus sent forth in time, yet in such a way that they may be shown to cohere with the head. 'And his face was as the sun,' the Lord Jesus Christ being made manifest through the glory of the resurrection, of whom we read (Psalm 18): 'In the sun he hath set his tabernacle,' where, namely, he might shine forth. For in the face the manifestation of presence is designated, seeking which he said (Psalm 79): 'Show thy face, and we shall be saved.' 'His feet,' that is, the apostles, are set on fire by the utterances of God and by the Holy Spirit for preaching. 'Was not our heart,' he says (Luke 24), 'burning within us on the way, while he spoke and opened to us the Scriptures?' And pillars they are called on account of the firmness of the Church;

concerning these it is said through the prophet: 'I have established its pillars' (Psalm 74); and, 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth and preacheth peace!' (Isaiah 52); and the Apostle says, 'Who seemed to be pillars of the Church' (Galatians 2). 'And he had in his hand an open book, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the earth.' If in the sealed book above the deep secrets of the Old Testament are known to have lain hidden, more fittingly here in the open book of the New Testament the revealed grace is believed to have shone forth, so that the Apostle confidently said (2 Corinthians 3): 'But we, beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.'

Therefore assuredly his face too is said to have shone as the sun; and his right foot upon the sea, he is shown prudently to have set the stronger members to endure the assaults of persecution, as though the perils of the sea; but his left upon the earth, those who are not to be committed to greater dangers. For God does not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able, but will make also with the temptation a way out, that we may be able to bear it. Yet it is certain that his preaching is spread over land and sea. 'And he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth,' that is, being preached with fortitude and confidence through his servants, he prevailed; whence the prophet: 'And he set,' he says, 'the firm love of his strength.'

'And when he had cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices.' On account of the known operation of the number seven, I think that by the seven thunders is signified the manifold adaptation of ecclesiastical preaching. Keeping this, the apostle Paul said to some (1 Corinthians 3): 'As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat.' But of others (Hebrews 5): 'Solid food is for the perfect'; but also of others (Titus 3): 'A heretical man, after the first and second admonition, avoid.' The Church, therefore, is said to proclaim by the accustomed offices of right preaching. 'And what the seven thunders uttered, I was about to write, and I heard a voice from heaven saying: Seal the things which the seven thunders have uttered, and write them not.'

He is commanded not to describe openly as he had heard, but to temper the discreetly sealed things by adaptation, lest either they should lie open indiscriminately to all, or, being easily understood, should breed disdain. Therefore he says: 'Mark for thyself,' or, as another translation has: 'Seal them for thyself,' he says, 'and write them not,' so that by the seal he might indicate the allegory, not deny the nourishment of understanding. Deservedly also to Daniel it is said (Daniel 12): 'Seal the book, and shut up the words, until the appointed time; many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold,' that is, either to be deferred in time, or to be distributed according to the quality of those who receive. Hence the Lord (John 16): 'I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.'

'And the angel,' he says, 'whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are therein, and the earth and the things that are therein: that time shall now be no longer, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound the trumpet, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared by his servants the prophets.' The trumpet of the seventh angel is the end of persecution and the coming of the Lord. Therefore the Apostle also says (1 Corinthians 15): 'At the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible.'

He therefore foretells concerning the future time of the Church, when the promised eternity of the heavenly good things shall have received her, so that she may no longer lie subject to the variety of times, but may enjoy a stable eternity of felicity. 'The mystery is finished,' he said, meaning that the promise is perfected, not that what is taken away is consummated. 'And I heard a voice from heaven again speaking with me: Go, and take the open book from the hand of the angel who standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.' The voice from heaven is the command of God, who inspires the heart of the Church, and bids her to receive those things which the Church, with the open book, has preached about the future peace. It also seems to us that this—to receive the open book from the hand of the angel—is to understand the truth of the Law and the prophets made manifest in Christ.

Therefore he says to take the book not sealed as above, but open. 'For Christ is the end of the Law unto justice to everyone that believeth.' Which Christ, that is, the Truth, then willed to be born of the earth, that is, of Mary, when justice looked down from heaven (Psalm 84). Therefore here I think it is said, 'I heard a voice from heaven speaking with me,' just as he himself says (John 8): 'I am the beginning, who also speak to you.' 'And I went to the angel, saying that he should give me the book.' The Church is pricked in conscience by divine inspiration to be thoroughly taught concerning this mystery. 'And he saith to me: Take and eat it up,' that is, store it in the inmost bowels, 'and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall be sweet as honey.'

That is, when you have received it, you shall be delighted with the sweetness of the divine utterance and the hope of the promised salvation, and with the pleasantness of divine justice, but you shall assuredly feel bitterness when you shall have begun to preach this both to the devout and to the undevout. For when the preaching of the divine judgment is heard, some indeed, converted for the better by the bitterness of penance, are changed, but others, being offended, are moreover hardened, and sharply direct their hatreds against the preachers. 'Reprove,' he says, 'a wise man, and he will love thee; correct a fool, and he will add to hate thee' (Proverbs 9). From both, however, the preacher takes bitterness, whether by the affection of compassion sharing tears with the penitent, or taking the torment of bitterness from their failing. Hence the Apostle says (Romans 9):

'That I have great sadness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I myself wished to be anathema from Christ for my brethren.' This bitterness he now calls to mind. But if it is understood that sweetness is to be assigned from the devout, and bitterness from the undevout alone, I judge it to agree more fittingly. For the spiritual can say: 'How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth' (Psalm 118). 'And when I had received the little book from the hand of the angel,' he says, 'and when I had eaten it, straightway my belly was filled; and he saith to me: Thou must again prophesy to the people, and to nations and tongues and many kings.'

Just as Divine Scripture is wont often to bend the discourse from the genus to the species, but also consequently to embrace both, so now too a certain intention is indeed directed to John, whom it still behoved, being freed from exile, not only to bring this revelation into the knowledge of the Church of Christ, but also to preach the Gospel yet more loftily among peoples, among nations, among tongues and many kings. Nevertheless no one doubts that this voice agrees also with the whole Church, which ought never to desist from preaching. But this confidence of evangelizing, in the reed received after the likeness of a rod, he showed not without a reasonable signification—from that which it effects, that which is brought forth. For the Gospel is indeed written by the office of the reed;

but lest any emptiness should be thought to be in the reed, it is rightly said to be like a rod, in which, on account of the natural strength, solidity is designated, which is to be referred to the firmness of faith, or the untransgressable rule of stretched-out belief, in which also a measure is necessarily mentioned, on account of the varied distribution of graces, which the Apostle recalls, saying (Ephesians 4): 'To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ.' In this faith recognize also the brightness of wisdom in the gold, with the manifestation of the flesh received, which Christ deigned to bear in one person, just as John both merited to acknowledge it and took care to preach it.

But opportunely here the gift of graces is described as given to the members according to measure, so that it may specially be declared to have been given to the head, Christ, not according to measure, of whom in the same place John says (John 3): 'For God doth not give the Spirit by measure.' In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells (Colossians 2), no measure determines him. Chapter 11. 'He gave me,' he says, 'a golden reed like to a rod, saying: Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar of God, and them that adore therein.' 'Rise.' The affection of stirring up is enjoined upon John or the Church to be taken hold of, so that, disentangled from worldly hindrances, we may be more apt for the offices of eternal good things. 'Measure the temple, and the altar, and them that adore therein.'

He bids the Church, that is, the temple of God, to be spiritually formed by the aforesaid measure of divine gifts, especially at the altar, that is, in faith, without which it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11). But 'them that adore therein' he inculcated more expressly, because they are eager to adore the Lord in spirit and in truth, so that belief may shine forth in truth, and a commendable life in spirit. For the Father also, he says, seeks such to adore him, true adorers. Otherwise: by the altar he signifies the priests, by the temple the faithful. For many seem to adore only on the surface, and shall not be written in the book. Signifying this, there follows: 'But the altar which is outside the temple, measure it not. For all the glory of the king's daughter is within' (Psalm 44);

'because it is given to the Gentiles, and they shall tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.' The teaching of evil belief and the contagions of unwholesome custom in heretics, Jews and Gentiles are bidden to be cast out from without, since it is unworthy for such to hasten to the Holy of Holies. 'For what have I to do,' says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 5), 'to judge them that are without?' For all Jews, heretics and Gentiles, by assaulting the Church unceasingly in diverse ways, as it were trample it under foot. But the number of the months signifies not only the last persecution, but also designates the whole time of Christianity, on account of the six ages of the world and the seven days, by whose passing away and returning all time is unrolled.

For six times seven makes forty-two, but I think it is to be referred to both. 'And I will give,' he says, 'to my two martyrs, that they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.' What he had said, 'Thou must again prophesy,' this is, 'I will give to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy.' For what John is, this the two witnesses are, that is, the Church preaching and prophesying by the two Testaments. Otherwise: the Truth attests that there are two kinds of martyrdom, one in disposition, the other in act. In disposition, known to God alone, it is borne in the heart, even if sometimes the time of suffering is by no means afforded. But in act it is also fulfilled publicly before men, when the opportunity of persecution arises.

For sometimes martyrdom seems to be wanting to the soul, sometimes in others the soul seems to be wanting to martyrdom. Hence blessed Cyprian says: 'The first title of victory is, being seized by the hands of the Gentiles, to confess the Lord: the second step to glory is, being withdrawn by a cautious retreat, to be preserved for the Lord. That is a public, this a private confession. The former conquers the judge of the world, the latter, content with God as his judge, preserves the integrity of his heart by a pure conscience.' This also is most clearly proved by the two sons of Zebedee, that James, slain by Herod, was dedicated to martyrdom by public confession; but his brother John the Evangelist (Acts 12) is crowned by a secret martyrdom before the Lord. For it is clear that the Lord had long before said to both:

'My cup indeed you shall drink' (Matthew 20), the one namely in act, the other in disposition. 'Clothed in sackcloth': in the humility of confession humility is shown. Accordingly, because he speaks not of things future, but of things present, saying: 'These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks, standing in the sight of the Lord of the earth.' This can be taken of the Church, which is formed, illuminated by the light of the two Testaments. And, making mention of the two kinds of martyrdom, which are divinely bestowed in the diverse members of the armed. For the two candlesticks too are the Church, but he said 'two' according to the number of the Testaments, or because, gathered out of the circumcision and the uncircumcision, cohering to the cornerstone,

may stand together; so too, out of the seven candlesticks, if he should name one or more according to the places, it is the whole Church. 'And if any man would hurt them, fire shall come out of their mouths, and shall devour their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, so must he be slain.' That is, if anyone desires to hurt the Church, by the reciprocating judgment of that same injury he is condemned and consumed by fire, receiving this justly, which he strives to bring upon others unjustly. Or, in a good sense, by the prayers of the mouth of the Church he is spiritually consumed by fire, to be changed for the better, since, when error perishes, the man is saved, being converted from error. 'These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy.' 'They have,' he says, not 'they shall have,' as though now they have it not.

For all power having been given in heaven and in earth to the Son of man (Matthew 28), it can be understood also of his body, which is the Church, that it shuts heaven, when from it no fruitful blessing descends upon the barren earth, just as the Lord says of part of his vineyard (Isaiah 5): 'And I will command my clouds that they rain not upon it.' 'They have power over all the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague as often as they will.' They not only suspend the waters, but also make useless those which had descended, that is, to turn the waters into blood, on account of those who understand carnally the things which the Church hands over to be examined spiritually, and who, deservedly struck by the Church with a just anathema, die:

and whence to others spiritual life and progress accrue, thence they themselves incur the failing of death; for 'to be wise according to the flesh,' says the Apostle (Romans 8), 'is death.' Therefore the good odour of Christ, fragrant from the Church, to some is the odour of death unto death, to others the odour of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2). Hence also they are said to strike the earthly with plagues, when, having received the power of binding and loosing according to the diversities of merits and of sinners, they judge each one by a right sanction. 'And when they shall have finished their martyrdom, the beast that ascendeth out of the abyss shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them.'

Here it clearly appears that these things happen before the last persecution, when he says, 'while they shall have finished their martyrdom,' namely that which they maintain up to the revelation of the beast, which is to ascend out of the abyss, that is, out of the hiding-places of the wickedness of the heart of the Jews. For out of the tribe of Dan the Antichrist is handed down as about to be born. 'He shall overcome them,' he said, in those who shall have succumbed. 'And he shall kill' them, signifying those who for the name of Christ shall have been slain with praiseworthy patience. 'And their bodies shall lie in the streets of that great city, which is called spiritually Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.' Another translation set down 'body.'

He said the 'body' of the two as one, sometimes in what follows 'bodies,' so that he might both preserve the number of the Testaments, and the two martyrdoms, and show the Church to be one body; he spoke not only of the slain, but also of the living. 'It shall be cast forth,' that is, despised, just as 'thou hast cast my words behind thee' (Psalm 49). 'In the midst,' that is, in the open, namely that Jerusalem which slew the prophets, according to the word of the Lord rebuking (Matthew 23), and stoned those sent to her, and deservedly merited to be reprobated, not restored. 'And they of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations shall see, and shall not suffer their bodies to be laid in sepulchres.'

When the bodies are prevented from being gathered together again in their proper places, the days of their memory are not permitted to be marked by the sacred solemnity of the living. Otherwise, the wishes of such are expressed, by which the ungodly strive to take away the Church of Christ from the world, as the psalm says (Psalm 108): 'And let there be no more remembrance of his name'; which, although they are not able to fulfil, yet they exert a harmful will. 'And they that dwell upon the earth,' he says, 'shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two tormented them that dwelt upon the earth.' It is no wonder if those who are wise in earthly things rejoice at the deaths of the just:

for besides the plagues by which the human race shall be reproved on account of the testament of God, the very sight of the just also weighs upon the unjust, just as it is written (Wisdom 2): 'He is grievous unto us even to behold'; not only does he weigh upon them, but also makes them pine away. Hence the psalm (Psalm 111): 'The sinner shall see, and shall be angry; he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away.' 'And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet: and whosoever saw them, was greatly afraid.' By 'three days and a half' we can understand three years and six months, which in the last week the prophecy of Daniel too (Daniel 9) foretells to be at hand.

Using the manner of Scripture in speaking, in that we read said concerning the forty days in which the explorers went about the land of Canaan (Numbers 13) that years shall be reckoned for a day, so here conversely a day is to be recognized as put for a year. And lest from the uncertainty of our exposition an objection should arise, it behoves us principally to set down the words of the passage itself with a fitting exposition, if in any way we may be able to penetrate the hidden things of this passage; for when it speaks of the seventy weeks, it says thus (Daniel 9):

'That Jerusalem shall be built again, until Christ the leader there shall be sixty-two weeks, and after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain, and it shall no longer be his people who is about to deny him, and the people with the leader to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary' (ibid.). And after a little: 'He shall confirm,' he says, 'the covenant with many in one week, and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail, and in the temple there shall be the abomination of desolation.'

Although these things are referred to the first coming of Christ, in which they also obtain their fulfilment when accomplished, yet that which is after the division of the weeks, which he distributed by a more secret figure of the supernal inspiration, first mentioning seventy, afterward sixty-two, lastly one, which he also divides into two parts—that final week itself is not unfittingly adapted also to the end of the first coming of Christ, when the second is also begun. And that this may be more clearly discussed, I think it must necessarily be referred to both, with a fitting exposition.

For as to the fact that, after the seventy and sixty-two weeks, Christ at His coming is slain, and, rejecting those who slay Him—as it is said, that same nation is no longer His—and that He confirms a covenant with many for one week: since all the sayings and deeds of the Old Testament, which served as types of Christ's coming, have been fulfilled by the truth of His presence, who is the end of the law (Rom. 10), this is indeed rightly received. Yet I fittingly reckon that the understanding of this week pertains especially also to the final course of the world, since there I presently hear: 'And in the midst of the week the offering and sacrifice shall fail.' For in what follows he says (Dan. 9) that it is 'for a time, times, and half a time.' And when the scattering of the hand of the holy people shall be accomplished...

Perhaps all things pertaining to the holy people shall be fulfilled; and a little after: 'When,' he says, 'the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination set up unto desolation, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days'—which number is spread over about the course of three years and six months—when especially those two kinds of martyrdom, which we set forth above as consisting in demeanor and in deed, are so strengthened in the half-week of Elijah's preaching that they can be cast down by no assault of the persecution soon to come; for as then the persecution shall be sharper, so in the soldiers of Christ, contending unconquered, a greater fortitude shall shine forth. For concerning them John too says: 'And I will give to my two martyrs, that they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.'

For although in the remaining three years and six months, before the violence of Antichrist, they may either withdraw as though dead by departing from their places, or, fittingly received into hiding-places, may not appear, in that, being divinely warned, they lie concealed: yet they are said to be so established, and, the contest of their battle being renewed, to be restored, that through the spirit of life they persevere standing upon their feet; when the final week shall confirm the covenant with many, whether by preaching or by persecution; but also, though some are slain when their martyrdom is consummated, and others put to flight, they are foretold to rise again for the frame of one body, in that, armed with one spirit and founded upon one faith, they spiritually depart; because 'if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it' (1 Cor. 12).

Therefore also the Lord says of John (Luke 1): 'In the spirit and power of Elijah'; or that other saying (Matt. 17), 'Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatsoever they would'—wishing John to be understood by this saying, of whose birth He had promised that he would go before as a forerunner in the spirit and power of Elijah, so that, by the grace of the same spirit and the form of one office, the one may more aptly be recognized as intimating the other person, namely Elijah for John, because as the one goes before in the first coming, so the other in the second. Here also 'the Lord Elijah,' He says (ibid.), 'shall come, and he himself shall restore all things.' For when He shall fulfill the promises, then He shall restore the things foreshadowed.

Then also 'He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week,' all which things are prophetically known to have been formerly set forth in the person of Elijah himself, when in the same interval of time—that is, three years and six months—he hid himself that it might not rain (1 Kings 17); and, by the divine nod, about to obtain rains again, he appeared; and, through the sacrifice which had been offered, reconciling to God the estranged hearts of the people of Israel, he won them back (1 Kings 18).

Nor do I think the mention here of that rain also to be in vain, save that from the preceding we should look for the truth to be rendered in future works—namely, in the other remaining three years and six months, Elijah being slain in the persecution of Antichrist while it rages—before he says that in the midst of the week the offering and sacrifice shall fail, which is now solemnly offered up in the Church, the savagery of Antichrist then prevailing. Finally, at his preaching the Jews shall believe in Christ, at whose rebuking they once deserved to be converted from idolatry.

Now it may be asked whether the resurrection of these ought to be fitted to the time of the three years and six months of Elijah's preaching, or to the remaining three years of the persecution of Antichrist, for which reason he premised: 'And their bodies He shall not suffer to be laid in sepulchers, and those dwelling on the earth shall rejoice over them,' and the rest which are either narrated by anticipation—since future things are written down as though past—or are perhaps for that reason woven together ambiguously, because both in the half-week of preaching and in the half-week of persecution such men shall not be lacking. 'And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and there were slain in the earthquake seven thousand men.'

By the earthquake he signifies persecution, either by way of recapitulation, or he announces that it was made more grievous by those seen more clearly who were already thought dead. For an hour is all time, and the number ten is perfect, and the number seven likewise. If it were not so, the whole would have to be understood from the part. For he says that the city, in part—namely in the part of the wicked—perished by collapse, so that even those may be understood of whom we read (1 John 2): 'They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would surely have remained with us.' For there are two buildings, one upon the rock, the other upon the sand (Matt. 7); this latter he says has fallen. 'And the rest were sent into fear, and gave glory to the God of heaven and earth.'

These are they built upon the rock (Luke 6), who, while others fall by the earthquake—that is, by persecution—out of the uprightness of their own stability glorify God by confession. The recapitulation being finished, which he had inserted while passing over the seventh angel, he resumes the order, saying: 'The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.' For he had said, the battle of the locusts being finished, that the one woe was past, and he says the other two are coming, lest he should be thought to describe the third at once, since it had to be recapitulated. Now, that recapitulation being finished, 'the second woe,' he says, 'is past'—not of the recapitulation, but of the horses; and having described these, he had not rendered the woe. Therefore 'the second woe is past' is of the horses, upon which follows the third woe. 'And the seventh angel,' in whom is the end:

hence there seem to be two ends: one of the recapitulation, the other of the order. For he speaks of the end in the resurrection as the third, and he announces another, which was owed to the battle, saying: 'The second woe is past, and behold the third woe cometh quickly.' 'And the seventh angel sounded the trumpet, and there were great voices in heaven, saying: The kingdom of our God and of His Christ is come, and He shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, who sit in the sight of God upon their seats, fell upon their faces and adored God, saying: We give thanks to Thee, O Lord God Almighty, who art and who wast, because Thou hast received Thy great power, and hast reigned.'

'And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead to be judged, and to render reward to Thy servants the prophets, and to them that fear Thy name, small and great, and to destroy those who have corrupted the earth.' Concerning the elders it will be enough and more than enough that what has already been set forth be understood as to what is to be meant. But now he has commemorated the beginning and the end of Christ's dispensation: for by saying 'Thou hast reigned' and 'the nations were angry,' he shows first the coming of Christ.

But what follows, 'Thy wrath is come and the time of the dead,' or, as another translation has it, 'that the dead should be judged,' shows the second coming, when both the saints and the prophets and those fearing His name receive their reward, small and great, perfect and little, because 'my imperfect being,' he says, 'Thine eyes have seen, and in Thy book all shall be written' (Ps. 138). And lest the wicked should promise themselves impunity, he added: 'And to destroy those who had corrupted the earth,' as the psalm says (Ps. 33): 'But the countenance of the Lord is upon them that do evil.' 'Behold,' he says, 'the third woe comes in the voice of the seventh angel';

and when he had sounded, he named none but the Church praising the Lord and giving thanks; whence we understand that the reward of the good is not without the woe of the wicked. Hence the psalm (Ps. 2): 'When His wrath shall suddenly be kindled'—surely upon the wicked—'blessed are all they that trust in Him.' So now also the Church herself says: 'Thy wrath is come and the time of the dead to be judged, and to give reward to Thy servants,' etc. This is the last woe. The Lord's bodily nativity having indeed been recapitulated, He intimates that He is about to speak the same things in another and fuller manner. 'And the temple of God was opened in heaven'—that is, the Church. The temple of God can be understood as the body of Christ. Whence the same Lord: 'Destroy,' He says (John 2), 'this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

Otherwise, here under a manifold variety of significations a certain understanding can be traced out, so that each thing, more aptly rendered to its own property, may be more clearly recognized. For since the ark for the most part signifies the Church, here in the temple the ark of the covenant admonished that something more profound must be understood; and by saying also 'in heaven,' he persuades us to penetrate something secret, so that this be the meaning: the temple is the Church; the ark of the covenant is the mystery of the incarnation of Christ, who bore within Himself the tables of the covenant unto the death of that ark, who had come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt. 5). 'For as many as are the promises of God,' says the Apostle (2 Cor. 1), 'in Him they are.' 'And having a golden urn with manna' (Heb. 9): because the spiritual...

...within the body He bears spiritual food, an understanding adorned with the splendor of wisdom, to be dispensed to others. 'For it is the bread of God, which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world' (John 6). 'And the rod of Aaron,' in that, singularly begotten by a new birth from an inviolate virgin, within the covering of flesh, after the manner of an almond, He is related to have hidden within Himself all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2). Hence the psalm: 'Arise, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy sanctification,' and the rest which harmonize with the same sense. For thus God promises through Jeremiah that the ark of the covenant shall be abolished from the hearts of men—that one, surely, of the Hebrews—and that Jerusalem, that is the Church, shall be called the throne of the Lord, saying:

'When you shall be multiplied and shall increase upon the earth, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come upon the heart. In those days and in that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord' (Jer. 3). 'And there were lightnings and voices and thunders and an earthquake and great hail.' The lightnings are the powers by which Christ the Lord made His disciples to shine. The voices and thunders are the preachings by which the apostles, like clouds, thundered upon the peoples. The earthquake is the uproar, the agitation of the peoples, who often stirred up persecutions against the growing Church. Hail, dashed against the waves, always harms itself the more by being broken, and by laying waste it crumbles itself to pieces.