Commentary on Revelation & Paul 21

CHAP. XIII. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns diadems. Here he set 'sea,' where before he had said 'abyss,' out of which that beast was to rise. In both, however, a people is signified: for he sees a people rise from a people, and a beast arise from a people. Now 'beast' is a general name, opposed to the Lamb, but in the narrative it must be understood according to the places which part of the beast he means. For sometimes he calls the devil a beast, sometimes his body, sometimes one of the heads of that very beast, which rose as though slain unto death — this being the counterfeit of the true faith; sometimes he calls only the rulers a beast.

But now, by the beast rising out of the sea he means the body of the devil, having ten horns and seven heads, and upon its horns diadems, and upon its heads a name of blasphemy, in that it wishes itself to be held as God — rightly is it said to be entitled with the name of blasphemy. Concerning the ten horns and seven heads it is spoken of in a more fitting later place, for what pertains to both suffices everywhere. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and its feet as the feet of a bear, and its mouth as the mouth of a lion. It is compared to a leopard because of the variety of nations, to a bear because of its bestial malice, to a lion because of bodily strength and the arrogance of the tongue. And the dragon gave it his power, and his throne, and great authority.

So the Apostle, speaking of the devil's body, says (2 Thess. 2): Whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, to those who perish. And one of the seven heads was as though slain unto death, and its death-wound was healed. By one of its heads he means Antichrist, since the seven are not a number but a signification of the totality of the earthly kingdom opposed to the Lamb. It is certain that the dragon, that is, the devil, gives to this one his power and his throne.

For just as in good the soul of the just is the seat of wisdom, so in evil the enemy is said to give a throne to those whom, possessing them most fully, he uses to seduce others, frequently working through them, by God's permission, wonders to be marvelled at — he who advances with such great impiety, in order to mock the minds of the little ones, that he dares to present one of the seven heads, in imitation of the true Head, as though slain and risen again, and to be received in place of Christ, who truly accomplished this. And the nations dwelling on the earth marvelled. He made a transference of names from the beast, lest he should say, 'the marvelling beast followed the beast.'

For he set 'earth' for the earthly ones, who preferred both to follow and to worship him — that is, his own, who in Antichrist, as in an idol, are said to worship the devil. This is what he says: And they worshipped the dragon, because he had handed over all his power to the beast. Again they worshipped the beast, saying: Who is like the beast? And who is able to make war with it? When he is praised by his followers as eminent — as we read — and to open the mouth of the nations and the virtues of the good, and to hold the animal thing in wonder toward the earth: when, I say, he is praised by his own and exalted in grandiloquence, the whole body of the beast is fully described. And there was given to it power to act for forty-two months.

By these months are fulfilled three years and six months, by which above indeed the harshness of the present persecution, but now especially of the last persecution, is foretold: for on account of the four most-known parts of the world, if you multiply the legal Decalogue fourfold — in which there is the sign of perfection — you complete forty; when to these you add the two precepts of charity to be fulfilled in act, they make forty-two complete. For the things declared in words would have profited nothing, had they not been perfected in works; for by these the Church is said to be fortified for a time as with the wings of an eagle, fleeing into the wilderness from the snares of the dragon, to be nourished twelve hundred and sixty days, by which the forty-

two months are supplied, so that the same number may shine forth as reckoned by no empty signification. And it opened its mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven — that is, against God and the Church which dwells in heaven, on account of which the Apostle says (Phil. 3): Our conversation is in heaven; and (Rom. 8): But now you are not in the flesh. Otherwise: I think that by 'temple' here is signified also the glorified trophy of Christ's body, which Antichrist is then said to blaspheme when he shall have dared to assign to himself the dignity specially owed to it. Hence in the Gospel the Lord says: So that, if it were possible, even the elect might be seduced; yet immediately follows:

But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened (Matt. 24): And there was given to it power to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. By saying 'it opened its mouth,' it is shown that it broke forth damnably into this presumption, so that what before was secret it now dares publicly to blaspheme, when it shall have dared to assign to itself the dignity specially owed to it, and to speak iniquity on high, so that, being opposed to Christ, it wishes to be received in His place, either forcing itself in by violence or slipping in by fraud: it will receive power for a time, which it, using ill and wishing to harm the body of Christ — like the persecutors against the suffering Christ — is the more exalted, and with its own is the more sharply tormented: of which the Lord says (John 19):

You would have no power over me, unless it had been given you from above. If then, concerning His passion, Christ had given this power for a moment to His persecutors (John 14), when in Him the prince of this world found nothing worthy of death, what wonder if in His own Church He permits the wicked thus to rage for a time, so that He says they have overcome them? — although from the whole a part ought to be understood, namely such as can be overcome. And there was given to it power over every tribe and people and tongue and nation; and all who dwell on the earth worshipped it, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain, who is from the foundation of the world. For it would seem too little, if of that beast which is so often set as opposed to the Lamb, it were said:

'It is not the Lamb' or 'it is not Christ,' which it feigns itself to be — but rather that no one has deserved to be written in the Lamb's book, neither he himself nor those who consent to him; although the body of the beast may also be understood, on account of which he premised: 'All who dwell on the earth worshipped it' — that is, the earthly ones worship the devil, to whom it was said: 'Earth shalt thou eat' (Gen. 3); of whom Jeremiah says: 'Those who depart from thee shall be written in the earth' (Jer. 17); or the Psalm: 'And let them not be written with the just' (Ps. 68). If any man have ears, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall himself be led captive. As often as the Spirit here says those things which must be heard more attentively, thus does he premise it.

For having made mention of that power which the devil and the beast are to receive, lest we should think the momentary haughtiness of a ruinous summit to be greatly esteemed, as though meeting human thoughts, he instructs us, saying: 'He who leads into captivity shall himself be led captive' — as if he said, The devil and the beast, who now with their nets seem to capture the nations, shall soon themselves with their own be captives. And he who kills with the sword, he himself must be killed with the sword. Knowing such things are to be avenged at once at the Lord's coming, he therefore says: 'And he himself must be killed with the sword,' setting down absolutely the person of the devil and of Antichrist, as one dwelling with his dwelling: therefore indefinitely: 'He who leads into captivity,' he says, 'shall himself be led captive';

and he who kills with the sword, he himself must be killed with the sword: hence the Apostle, speaking, says (2 Thess. 2): Then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Then indeed, when death shall have been swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15), when all the saints must patiently and long-sufferingly wait; therefore he subjoined: Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. Whence the same Apostle (Gal. 6): Brethren, he says, let us not fail: for in due season we shall reap, not failing. And I saw another beast rising up out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb, and it spoke as a dragon: and it exercised all the power of the former beast in the earth.

Two horns like a lamb — namely the two Testaments belonging to the true Lamb — it attempted to usurp for itself after its own manner. Yet it is said to speak as a dragon, because in hypocrisy, that is, in the counterfeit of truth, it deceives those whom it seduces. For it would not be like a lamb, if it spoke openly as a dragon. But now it feigns a lamb in order to attack the Lamb, that is, the body of Christ; it speaks as a dragon, because it drives away those seeking Him, deluded, from the way of truth; and it exercised all the power of the former beast in the earth. He said 'former,' which he premised he had seen rising out of the sea, to which the devil had given his great power. This power he said the beast exercised in the presence of the beast.

For in the rulers whom it distributes lies all the power of the people, as of the locusts and horses in their tails. For with the people standing by, the rulers do what furthers the will of the devil, under the veil of the Church's hypocrisy. And to such a degree is it clear that both beasts are one body, and exercise the worship of one wickedness, that even the hypocrisy of the latter beast is said to serve that former beast. Therefore he subjoined: That those dwelling on the earth might worship the beast, that former one, whose death-wound had been healed. And it did signs, so that it even made fire come down from heaven before the eyes of men; and it seduced those who dwell on the earth; or, as another translation has it, The earth and those who dwell in it.

Again he makes a transference of names. That beast with the heads he called 'earth,' and its head 'beast.' For he had said that the wound of its head was healed. Now, he says, 'the beast whose wound is healed' — showing that he calls all the parts of the beast 'beast,' because in all its functions there is the devil, who is the beast. The beast then with the two horns, which is a part of the beast, causes the beast to worship the beast, because he said also 'the earth,' so as to transfer the name of the beast onto the slain head of the old one, and not to say: 'The beast made the beast worship the beast.' For beast is one thing, earth another; since the beast is the people, the earth had slain. But he said 'the earth and those who dwell in it' not without reason.

For it would have sufficed to say 'the earth,' or 'those who dwell in the earth'; but he shows the force of the seduction, and that it has miserably enslaved to itself both soul and body. For he who falls by force, without lament, is captive in body only. But he who is seduced is captured both in body and in mind. Therefore he said: 'It makes the earth and those who dwell in it worship the beast, whose death-wound was healed, and it lived.' Let us look more attentively. Our Lord Jesus Christ has a wound from the sword, and He lived; but here he called it a beast, which has a wound made by the sword, and it lived. He speaks of the dragon being worshipped and the beast being worshipped. I was withdrawing when the dragon alone is worshipped by his own.

For not as the Church has a mediator bodily between herself and God, so also the devil has one between himself and his own, but only in name, from the imitation of Christ. That beast of which he spoke has no person between the devil and his own, because it is only a word, by which they say they worship Christ, who died and rose again (Rom. 8). In which word they worship the devil, who devised this counterfeit for his own. For Satan himself transforms himself as it were into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11), deceitfully presenting Christ to his own in name only. Moreover, he himself fills both his own place and that of the mediator, because he has no mediator except a counterfeit of Christ. This very pretence he says the beast has, having the wound of the sword, and yet living.

For it is the beast which under this name dwells between himself and his own. Therefore, whenever he said the beast is worshipped, which has the wound from the sword and lived, he pointed to the devil, concerning whom the Apostle says (2 Thess. 2): Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as though he were God. There are therefore three: the devil, the beast as it were slain, the people with their rulers — but there are two with an image in the middle. And whenever he says the middle one is worshipped, the matter falls upon the devil, who fills both his own place and that of this middle name, when he sets himself before his own to be damnably worshipped, from an imitation of theft, under a feigned overshadowing of the word.

And it did great signs, so that it made fire come down from heaven before the eyes of men. Although he says it will do many signs, this memorable sign he set before the rest. This translation speaks as it were of the past, though it announces the future. Elsewhere, however, signifying the future, he says: 'So that it makes fire come down from heaven' — that is, from the Church down to the earthly ones — when, whether from the variety of nations or from the cunning of the deceiving enemy, it makes its ministers speak with new and many tongues, so that by this as it were a token they may chatter that they have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is truly read to have declared Christ's disciples in the form of fiery tongues over each one of old (Acts 2).

For this sign in particular the Lord also commends to believers, saying (Mark 16): And these signs shall follow those who believe: In my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, and so forth. It is therefore no wonder if that beast, which deceitfully usurps for itself the name of the Lamb slain and living, should also fraudulently claim, in outward appearance, this bounty of the Holy Spirit through imitation, and should counterfeit for its ministers what leads to damnation — as we remember Simon of old aspired to and could not attain. For concerning the expulsion of demons and many signs, when the very ministers of Satan, enumerating them, shall have said (Matt. 7): Did we not prophesy in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons?

and so forth — the Lord does not approve those who boast, but condemns and reproves the obstinate. And therefore perhaps he wished specially to name this excellent sign of fire, by which the Holy Spirit is figured, because none mightier than it could be found. For although heresy seems to have many things in common with us, this gift in particular the Church of Christ alone boasts to possess. Finally, when the magicians of Pharaoh worked miracles like those of Moses (Exod. 8), the Holy Spirit is read to have frustrated them, when, succumbing in their assertions and overcome by a true confession, they said: 'This is the finger of God.' That the finger of God means the Holy Spirit, the Gospel attests, when one says (Matt. 12): 'By the Spirit of God I cast out demons'; another (Luke 11):

'By the finger of God I cast out demons.' Wherefore the vehemence of the seduction is here shown, so that the beast is thought to have that Spirit by whose resistance the fraud of the magicians was emptied out. On account of this it follows: And it seduced those who dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which were given it to do in the presence of the beast, and it tells the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast, which has the wound made by the sword, and lived. As if he were to say:

This pretence so far prevailed, that the earthly ones, seduced by the signs of the beast, favoring the wretched beast with miserable assent, mutually encourage one another with reciprocal devotion to fabricate an image of the beast in the phantasm of the heart — like those who no longer think it must be doubted, confirmed as it were by the certain judgment of the aforesaid fire, that it truly is Christ Himself, when in Antichrist there is the devil, and that same malignant spirit in the image, who sets forth (by God's permission) such pits of seduction, so that he is said to give a spirit to the image of that beast, and that the image of the beast may speak.

This passage can be understood in a twofold manner: either because, at the compulsion of the judgment of that power, it is already persuaded in the whole body of the malignant — as though the devil were working, and the rulers pressing upon the people — that there might be one and the same profession for all, so that a uniform observance be brought forth by all, so that if anyone did not speak this through the image of the beast, that is, through mutual imitation, he should be killed. Thus finally he says: That the image of the beast might speak and act, so that whoever did not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Or otherwise, that just as by the mouth of the serpent he addressed the woman to seduce the first man (Gen. 3), so then by a like fraud he deludes many when through an idol he makes his consultants receive answers:

that is, through Antichrist, to whom they think honor must be paid as to God, though he is the man of sin and the son of perdition (2 Thess. 2) — as if this were it: And it was given to it to give a spirit to the image of that beast, and that the image of the beast might speak, and might cause that whoever did not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And it made all, great and small, rich and slaves, to have a mark in the right hand or on the foreheads. He wished to divide by single members those whom he more often embraces confusedly in one body and in the name of the beast. In the hand it signifies works, in the right hand the counterfeit of truth, on the forehead the profession of faith. And because they are defrauded of both goods, therefore they are said to be marked in both.

So that no one might be able to buy or sell, save he who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of its name. In this mention of buying and selling he taught that, just as in good the Church hands down a symbol profitable for our salvation, so also they in evil are as it were aware that they are constrained and bound by such a defense, so that they are not allowed even to have license of buying or selling — like merchants who seem to be carried in one ship and are recognized to be held by a uniform sign; save he who has the mark of the name of the beast and the number of its name. Here is wisdom: he who has understanding, let him compute the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man, and its number is six hundred sixty-six.

But it is one thing: 'He who has the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name.' Above, finally, he mentioned the mark alone; afterward, by synonyms, he shows it — he calls it both mark and name and number of the name — 'Here is wisdom: he who has understanding, let him compute the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man,' he says. We shall therefore make the number which he mentioned to be understood, so that in the number we may recognize also the name and the mark. 'Its number,' he says, 'is six hundred sixty-six,' which we shall reckon according to the Greeks, especially since, writing to a Greek and according to the idiom of their tongue: 'I am,' he says (below, 22), 'Alpha and Omega.'

Having set forth, as far as he could, the pretences of the adverse party, by which the devil strives to usurp for himself the honor of Deity not owed him, so as to express Antichrist as opposed to divine honor, whether by the mark or by the number of its name — that is, of that most wicked will and action of the beast itself — he forewarns that the quality is to be investigated. For there is a name which, if it be reckoned by its characters by which the Greeks read numbers, you will assuredly find to fill up six hundred sixty-six; and interpreted it is also said to mean 'contrary to honor,' whereby he is called unfit, importunate, unbecoming: for not honor, but anathema, befits him.

Wherefore the name is found through the number, and the number is reckoned from the name, and by the very interpretation of the name the quality of merits is recognized. Likewise another name, which comprises the sum of the same number, can prudently be observed, which added together make six hundred and six. Its interpretation is understood to mean 'I deny.' And no wonder that Antichrist is said to be worthy of this appellation, that is, of denial, since to Christ befits the name of belief, He Himself testifying when He says (John 6): 'This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent'; and again (John 14): 'You believe in God; believe also in me.' And by this, whether you have said 'contrary to honor,' which it is,

or 'I deny,' which it is, both can rightly be referred to Antichrist, so that by two parts of speech — namely, the noun and the verb — both the quality of the person and the harshness of the deed may be intimated. For the very name of Christ, which Antichrist desires to be received under a false imitation, properly completes that number of days which he here more often foretells will be present in the persecution of Antichrist — that is, twelve hundred and twenty-five days, in whose likeness adversity fraudulently sets itself in opposition. This is expressed in the mark, that is, in the monogram, which is made in this manner, where the whole name of Christ is included in abridgment.

But the aforesaid number of the name alone likewise completes again the sum of twelve hundred and twenty-five days, in that we remember the form of the Lord's body intimated to us in the number forty-six, which the second Adam, Christ, took from Mary for the correcting of the errors of the first Adam; on account of which He says in the Gospel (John 2): 'Destroy this temple, and after three days I will raise it up'; and to the Jews answering: 'Forty-six years was this temple in building, and thou sayest, In three days I will raise it up?' — which the evangelist, expounding, says: 'But He spoke of the temple of His body.' And not without cause.

For the name Adam, through Greek letters, completes forty and six in this manner, which make forty-six. But when that same number has been resolved and written out and multiplied by itself — that is, forty-six — it nonetheless completes that number in Greek letters, in a way which, reduced into one, makes twelve hundred and twenty-five. Above, we spoke of the monogram. Now, the arranged series of the resolved name being set out, it is shown that the sum of the same number is concluded, so that, since both agree with each other, they may without doubt intimate the cause not of an empty, but of a certain mystery. To this perhaps pertains what the Apostle, speaking of the pretence of Antichrist, says (2 Thess. 2):

So that he sits in the temple of God, showing himself as though he were God — for in this book also: 'The temple of God was opened,' he says, 'in heaven,' namely born of the Virgin, so that just as the false imitation of the slain Lamb and of similar things, so also he may transfigure the temple of God by artifice, not by truth. But I do not doubt that some may be troubled about the number of twelve hundred and twenty-five, because three years and six months do not make up the same sum of number. But it must be known that Divine Scripture does not always intimate that same time in one way, nor under the definition of one and the same number. For in this very book, speaking of the woman suffering, it says (above, 12): 'And she shall be nourished for a time and times and half a time.'

But elsewhere, concerning the dragon and the beast (above, 11): 'There was given to it,' he says, 'power for forty-two months'; and likewise, 'I will give,' he says, 'to my two witnesses, that they may prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days' — since it is agreed that between forty-two months and twelve hundred and sixty days a number of seventeen days differs. Nor is it only in this book that we have known this number to be variously set down, since even in the visions of Daniel we have known this time to be signified by differing quantities of number. For he says (Dan. 9, 11, 12): 'A time of times,' that is, one and two years, signifying after the manner of the Hebrews. Likewise he says: 'Twelve hundred and ninety days.'

But elsewhere, in the tenth vision, he sets down thirteen hundred and thirty-five days — all of which things concerning the signification of that very time seem to be shown in such a way, both that the day of judgment or of the second coming might not be divulged to human knowledge, and that the opulence of the divine discourse and the diverse report might exercise the devout. To the disciples inquiring, therefore, if at this time He would restore the kingdom to Israel, the Lord thus responded: 'It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in His own power.' For even in the Greek — that is, forty-six — written by its characters, if it be subsumed under particular numbers, does not depart from the signification of that same time, for it makes thirteen hundred and seventeen. CHAP. XIV.

And behold, I saw the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand; and they have His name, and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. The likeness which adversity cultivates, and to which it makes itself like, having been shown, it was fitting that the unconquered camp of the Church also be declared, lest a weak mind should think that the same Church had either succumbed or perished under so vehement an onslaught of persecution, and lest it should suppose that any of the number of the elect had fallen; he preferred to make mention of those who resolved to take hold of the path of the narrower way and the straiter track, and in order to show that it belongs to imitation of the adversaries, not to truth, which he knew the good rightly bear as men of God:

They had, he says, his name (that is, of the Lamb) and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. This number, moreover, though finite, ought to be understood as standing for the infinite, and it is hallowed by the signification of a hidden mystery. For when the number three is tripled it becomes nine, and when four is multiplied fourfold it becomes sixteen. Nine times sixteen makes up a hundred and forty-four; and in this number the fullness of the virgin throng is mystically intimated, so that when so copious a multitude is spoken of concerning these, no doubt need be entertained concerning the remaining members of the Church.

And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters or of great thunder, and the voice which I heard was as of harpers harping on their harps, and they sang a new song in the sight of the throne and in the sight of the four living creatures and of the elders. And no one could utter the song save those hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. These are they who have not defiled themselves with women, for they remained virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes. To certain interpreters it seemed that this passage should be expounded thus: that it is to be understood not of those who are virgins in faith and in flesh alone, but also of those who have been able to use lawful wedlock with temperance;

adding the examples of the prophets and patriarchs, whom we know to have pleased God by the highest zeal for holiness, lest men of so excellent a life should be judged to be excluded, separated from the fellowship of those very virgins.

But when, by diligent attention, there is discerned from the distribution of the divine gifts a manifest difference of merits in the Church of Christ, differing in profession, in order, and in vow, and when the dignity of those is set apart as principal and special who, in having marriage, are proved not only to contract no offence, but even, by using it solely for the sake of propagating offspring, have moreover been able to acquire great merits—inasmuch as the prophetic intent of such marriages was doing service toward the Christ who was to come, to say nothing of the other virtues by which, as Scripture testifies, we have learned that they flourished:

their surpassing eminence, I say, being set apart, let no one ever suppose that the beauty of virginity is to be made equal either to conjugal chastity or even to the continence of widowhood. Although this is proved by many oracles of divine Scripture bearing witness, yet it is chiefly declared in this passage; and in hastening to expound it, and undertaking its exposition, blessed Augustine—what he set down or perceived beforehand, from his book which he published On Holy Virginity—I have taken care to transfer into this work, so that it may be made clear that virgins hold a place honorable above the rest, who, over and above the rightness of faith (according to which the whole Church is a virgin), have vowed themselves to Christ, with the integrity of the flesh also preserved. For he says:

Let marriages have their own good—not because they beget children, but because they beget them honorably, lawfully, chastely, and in a social bond, and rear those they have begotten together, wholesomely, and with earnest care; because they keep faith with one another in the marriage-bed; because they do not violate the sacrament of wedlock. Yet all these things are the offices of human duty. But virginal integrity, and freedom, through pious continence, from all sexual union, is the angelic portion, and a meditation, in corruptible flesh, upon perpetual incorruption. Let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield to this; let conjugal chastity yield. The former is not within our power, the latter is not in eternity. Fleshly fruitfulness free will does not possess; conjugal chastity heaven does not possess.

Assuredly they will have something great above the rest in that common immortality, who have already something not of the flesh in the flesh. And a little after: Therefore, he says (1 Corinthians 7), I have no commandment of the Lord to preach concerning virgins—whereby the preacher is taught to have regard for eternal salvation. From that which is announced, he who announces it is indicated. Hence the psalm (Psalm 103): Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire. There follows: Fear God rather, and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment is come.

Although from the beginning of the Christian faith we have known that the kingdom of heaven draws near, yet here he most urgently announces that the hour of his judgment is now, even now, about to be present; therefore he necessarily set this kind of preaching first, to be displayed to all, just as the Lord also says (Matthew 24): This Gospel shall be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come. And to show that point of time in which the adversity of the last persecution will press upon them, he added the word 'rather,' as though he were saying that the temporal power of the beast is to be lightly esteemed, and that God is rather to be feared than men—God whom his aforesaid creature confesses forever. And worship him, he says, who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.

And another second angel followed him, saying: Fallen, fallen is that great Babylon, from the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Babylon is interpreted as 'confusion.' In it, moreover, is signified the city and people of the devil, and all the corruption of vices, which he ever exercises to his own destruction and that of the human race. This city, which is to fall, he says has already fallen, according to the customary manner of Scripture's speech, which is wont to weave the past tense in place of the future when it knows that what it foretells is inevitably to be fulfilled—as: They divided my garments among them (Psalm 21), and things like these; or else because the proud are then already known to fall when they have dared to be proud. Hence the psalm (Psalm 72):

You cast them down, he says, while they were being lifted up—cast down, assuredly, when they were exalted. But after its own manner Scripture said, All nations have fallen from the wine of her fornication, since this city which is longed for, and is gathered together out of all nations blended into one, has herself drunk of the wine of fornication. For all nations, made drunk with errors, are that very city; but she divides it into one, after her own manner. And the third angel followed him, saying with a loud voice: If any man shall worship the beast and his image, and receive his name on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, mixed in the cup of his wrath.

Concerning the beast and his image enough and more than enough has already been said; but because certain heretics fall away from us through an evil credulity, while others, straying from our traditions by a discordant depravity of morals, are shown to perish by a hostile evil—all of these here are briefly embraced by the inscription of the beast, added to them while yet living, on the forehead or on the hand. But the cup of wrath ought not here to be understood as that alone of which the Lord says (John 3): The wrath of God abides upon him, showing original sin; but also that of which, speaking to the obstinate Jews, he says (John 8): You shall die in your sin, signifying the merits of damnable deeds that have been added.

And he shall be punished with fire and brimstone before the eyes of the holy angels, and before the eyes of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torments shall ascend for ages of ages. He says 'in the sight of the Lamb,' whose judgment they shall suffer, whom they proudly despised, and over whose members they unjustly aspired to lord it—assuredly of his angels, who, by God's revealing, recognize that these suffer just penalties. And they shall have no rest day or night, whosoever worship the beast and his image, and whosoever takes the mark of his name. From the dead and from the living he has here, by this kind of narration, built up the whole body of the beast. For what is said to be already tormented in the dead, this is agreed still to be worshiping in the survivors.

But that they shall have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image—that is, the devil, whether in that head which was slain, or in the whole body. Here is the wisdom of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Hence the Lord (Matthew 10): He who shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved; and the Apostle (Hebrews 10): For patience is necessary for you. So also here the patience of the saints is said to consist in this, that persevering unto the end they may flee the fellowship of the beast and the mark of his name. And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are those dead who die in the Lord. Those are said to die in the Lord who, approved in faith and life, have hence merited to be called away. Finally there follows:

Henceforth, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors. Just as, on the contrary, he said that those impious ones have no rest day or night, so now he says that the faithful have merited rest by their good works. For it was fitting, when mention had been made of the deeds of the evil, that the blessedness and fullness of the good should also be proclaimed; and because this consists in those set over others and in the peoples, he here briefly embraces both, saying first indefinitely: Blessed are those dead who die in the Lord; but on account of those who labor in the vineyard, Let them rest, he says (Matthew 20), from their labors—thus promising felicity to all universally, yet pledging to those who labor in the vineyard a special fruit of rest after labor. Hence the Apostle: We beseech you, he says (1 Thessalonians

5), that you know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, that you esteem them more abundantly in charity for their work's sake. Or even concerning himself (1 Corinthians 15): I labored more than all. For their works, he says, follow them. Of these the prophet speaks (Psalm 89): And direct the works of our hands over us. And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and one sitting upon it like the Son of man, having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. In the cloud he shows the incarnation of our head, Jesus Christ, or the body of the Church which Christ put on, made snow-white after the fires of the persecutions, having on its head a golden crown.

These are the elders with golden crowns, or the twelve apostles, whom at the beginning of preaching the faith he principally acquired. Hence we read (Psalm 9 [21]): You have set on his head a crown of precious stone. And the sharp sickle is the judicial sentence of separation due to the impious, and to be more justly inflicted upon them by the divine judgment on account of the Church, for whose defense Christ the shepherd ever keeps watch. Hence Zechariah: This, he says (Zechariah 5), is the devouring which has gone forth over the face of the whole earth. And another angel came, crying out to him who sat upon the cloud: Send forth your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap is come, because the harvest of the earth is now dry. The reapers of the earth are the angels, as the Lord expounds (Matthew

13), we know are to be, and that the maturity of the harvest is set as a sign of the end of the age by the judgment: in which crop, because in a field of grain both chaff is known to be present in the fragile stalks and ears, and wheat in the grains, we recognize that here it more aptly signifies the due ends of the good and the evil, when he says the sickle must be applied to the ripe harvests. But to whom would this most fittingly be intimated than to the Church? Then he who sat upon the cloud sent forth his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. In the time of the last examination, when the battles with the beast have been spiritually accomplished, the Church will be able, by an ampler illumination, to recognize whom she ought firmly to reckon as her own, and whom as alien.

For this is to sit upon the cloud: as though having received judicial power from the divinity, to discern between the good and the evil. You shall sit, says the Lord (Matthew 19), with me upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But what follows concerning the other angels seems entirely to be borne out by the Lord's sentence, saying (Matthew 13): The reapers are angels. But what the threshing avails toward the harvest, this the winepress avails toward the pressing of the grapes, so that a time may come both for the chaff to be burned and the grape-skins to be cast away, and for hidden receptacles of the heavenly dwelling to succeed for the storing away of the fruits. And another angel came forth from the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

Likewise also another angel, having power over fire. He who has the reaping sickle, he also has the vintaging one; and he who said to the reaper, Reap, the same also says to the vintager, Gather the vintage. For it is one thing, and shall be done at one time. But in the harvest and the vintage, as in the husbandry and the building of the Church, the figured breadth of the divine discourse is shown, when the Apostle says (1 Corinthians 3): You are God's husbandry; you are God's building. And he cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God, and it was trodden in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out thence up to the horses' bridles, over a thousand six hundred furlongs. In saying 'of the wrath of God,' he here put the sentence for the wrath of God, which he says was inflicted on the proud one, whom he also calls 'great.'

You, he says, have humbled the proud one as one that is wounded; for the winepress, as the Greek copies contain it, he put in the feminine gender, and 'great' in the masculine. 'Outside the city'—outside the Church; for when the future separation has been made, outside will be every treading down of the man of sin. This treading of the winepress, or threshing of the floor, weaves together the useless things, and proves the imperishable, as fire proves the vessels, and as the temptation of tribulation proves the just (Ecclesiasticus 27). The blood going out up to the horses' bridles is vengeance reaching even to the rulers of the peoples.

For when the devil, with his accomplices, shall have begun to pay the penalties of the persecution he inflicted, the blood of the saints that was shed is not incongruously said to reach even to him and his princes—that is, to those horses through whom, in the person of the heretics, wars are stirred up, and whatsoever follow their errors. As it was foretold: In blood you have sinned, and blood shall pursue you, over a thousand six hundred furlongs—that is, through the four quarters of the whole world. For it is a fourness squared, as in the four four-formed faces and the wheels. For four times four hundred make one thousand six hundred. CHAPTER 15. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues.

With the order again restored, about to narrate the same plagues of the last persecution, he wished to make the hearer attentive, saying: A great and admirable sign. In the seven angels we understand the Church to be figured, since in them the indignation of God is consummated. And I saw, he says, as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire—namely, the water of baptism, consecrated by the fire of the Holy Spirit, or even, so far as pertains to the quality of fire, dyed red with martyrdom. Hence we read: The furnace proves the potter's vessels, and the temptation of tribulation proves just men. And standing upon it I saw those who won the victory over the beast and his image. 'Standing upon it' shows them stable in the faith. These the psalm describes in almost like words, when after it had said:

Who made the heavens in understanding—designating, that is, the spiritual ones, who enjoy the serene intelligence of the supernal truth—it subjoined: Who founded the earth upon the waters, that is, immovable upon baptism. For although they seem to be nourished with milk, yet they are not carried about with every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4). Therefore here too they are said to triumph over the beast and his image. Having harps of God—hearts dedicated to praises, and melodious with the harmonious truth of both Testaments; or the flesh stretched out on the wood of the Passion, where not only the sound of the voice, but also the effect of good work is signified. Therefore he also inserted mention of so great a man, Moses, as God, bearing witness, said (Numbers 12):

My servant Moses, who is faithful in all my house. And singing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Here he more fully expressed the intent of the elect, who say from the heart: Remove from me the way of iniquity, O Lord, and have mercy on me according to your law (Psalm 118); or, For your law's sake I have waited for you, O Lord (Psalm 129), and things like these—so that he willed these too to be understood as of the number of the faithful, as partakers of the aforesaid victory. But in Moses the Old Testament, and in the song of the Lamb the New Testament, is signified, so that he may teach that the fullness of the elect, armed from both, has been made perfect in both, saying:

Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are your ways, O King of all nations. The pages of both Testaments testify this to us with harmonious truth, that all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Psalm 24). But he is here more aptly called 'King of all nations,' because God is now known not among Judea alone, nor does the dew any longer seem to flow from heaven upon the fleece only (Judges 6), but, as Malachi says (chapter 1): From the rising of the sun even to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place a clean oblation is sacrificed and offered to my name. Which here also follows: Who shall not fear and give glory to your name?

for you only are holy; for all nations shall come and shall adore in your sight, for your just judgments are made manifest. These things are expounded out of abundance, since they are now seen to be fulfilled in deed. After these things I saw, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. Here he says the hidden secrets of the testimonies concerning Christ and the Church, once promised, are now unlocked. And the seven angels came forth from the temple with the seven plagues. From the Church, against which the adverse party has rebelled with unceasing snares—therefore he says the plagues proceed, whether for the defense of the saints, in whom the Lord Christ formerly endured reproaches, as it is said to Paul (Acts 9): Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?; or because, as Peter recalls (1 Peter

4), it is the time for judgment to begin from the house of God. For it is certain that men are scourged in a twofold manner: either that the Divinity may justly chastise sins, as in Pharaoh (Exodus 14); or that it may examine, as in Job, by an ampler exercise of virtue (Job 1). And not without merit do we read it said by him (Psalm 118 [66]): The Lord has proved me as gold which passes through the fire; his ways I have kept, and from the commandments of his lips I have not departed. But by the number of the angels or of the plagues I judge the universality of the consummation to be foreshown, as in Leviticus he frequently says: And I will strike you with seven plagues. Clothed with linen clean and white. Mortification is wont to be figured in linen.

Whence, if the judgments of God are recognized as irreproachable even in their brightness, the sense is fittingly taken as being in clean linen, so that the mortified may use this brightness, when with unveiled face they contemplate the glory of the judgments of God (2 Corinthians 3). And girt about the breasts with golden girdles. That wisdom is signified by gold we are taught by the testimony of Scripture, which says (Proverbs 16, according to the Septuagint): Receive wisdom as gold. And well 'about the breasts,' where the priestly breast is also legally often bidden to bear the logium, that is, the rational (breastplate), so that a mind well conscious to itself may not dare to reprehend the divine judgments, but to praise them, and by the splendor of that gold may without doubt exhort others also to praise.

And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven vials, full of the wrath of the living God, who lives for ages of ages. Above he mentions seven angels with as many vials, having the prayers of the saints; but now he says they are full of the wrath of God. For the same vials are said to contain both the sweetnesses of supplications and the wrath of punishments, since they are poured out by the saints for the coming of the kingdom of God, when the judgments of God, no longer hidden like the deep, but open like vials, are foretold to bring salvation to the just, but to the impious truly to bring destruction (Psalm 35)—as the Apostle says (2 Corinthians 2): For we are the good odor of Christ in those who are saved and in those who perish: to some indeed the odor of death unto death, to others the odor of life unto life.

For if it was said of our Lord (Luke 2): Behold, this one is set for the ruin and the resurrection of many, what wonder if the vials afford sweetness to the just, but inflict the vengeance of plagues upon the impious—if indeed we ought here to understand those same vials, and not others? And the temple was filled with smoke from the brightness and the power of God. I think this is signified in the smoke: that the secrets of God's judgments cannot be penetrated by all, and that the minds of mortals grow dim and tremble at the consideration of the inflicted plagues—which he now determines to narrate, and he asserts that the smoke endures in the temple even until the ending of those vials.

Deservedly there follows: And no one could enter into the temple—that is, into that inmost secret place—until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Whence also the psalm (Psalm 72): This was a labor, he says, before me, until I enter into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning the last things. Otherwise, in smoke confession is wont to be signified. For just as smoke precedes fire, so the confession of sins precedes the flame of faith and charity. Therefore the psalm, designating such persons, says (Psalm 103): Who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble, who touches the mountains, and they smoke. Finally the Lord looked upon Peter (Matthew 26), and washed away by the tears of confession what he had contracted through fear in denying, so that this is the sense:

That no one could enter into the temple until the seven plagues were finished—that is, no one could yet say: I walked in the innocence of my heart in the midst of your house (Psalm 101), and, The king brought me into his chamber (Song of Songs 1), except him who has taken care to blot out by confession all the past sins of reprobate deeds committed. For the thought, he says (Psalm 75), of man shall confess to you. Behold, the smoke, and the remnants of thought, shall celebrate solemnities to you as the secure laudation of a justification obtained. And so, until all the plagues are finished, the Church is shown in lamentable confession, both in those whom we said are paying the fruitful penalties of a former offense, and in those whom he has appointed to be approved by a better worship. CHAPTER 16.

And I heard a great voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels: Go and pour out the seven vials (which you have received) of the wrath of God upon the earth. Here the inevitable outcome of the divine command is revealed, but also that power which the Church has specially merited to receive from God: to inflict judgment on those to be condemned, and mercifully to grant absolution to those converted. And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there came a grievous and most evil sore upon all who have the inscription of the beast's name, and who worship his image.

The nature of a deadly wound is such that the small place which it has occupied in the body prevails more toward inflicting death than the remaining part of the body, sound and larger, prevails toward preserving the man's health. And although the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it works for salvation to believers by the aid of salvation, so ceases not to be for the unbelieving a testimony of damnation, the most evil wound inflicted from this defilement can be understood as befalling the whole body of the perishing; for of Christ we read (Luke 2): Behold, this one is set for the ruin and the resurrection of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted. Yet more the nation of the Jews, from which the Antichrist is said to be born (Genesis

49)—by this one sin lost whatever justices of the law they might be able to have, and they themselves perished irremediably, in that they were unwilling to receive the Christ promised to them; in whose person it is said by the elder brother to the father (Luke 15): Behold, so many years I serve you, and I never transgressed your commandment, and you never gave me a kid, that I might feast with my friends, etc. For that people, which spurned the Lamb, as though despising the things on the right hand, in preference to lambs at the right hand embraced the kid (Matthew 25)—as one straying off to the left, to be condemned, despising, that is, Christ, and receiving Antichrist. Therefore perhaps he here says:

There came a grievous and most evil sore upon those men who have the inscription of the beast's name, and who worship his image—so that, confounded by the guilt of this one wound, they may be judged to be punished with eternal penalty. Concerning this sin, as concerning a most evil ulcer, the Lord says (John 15): If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. If I had not done among them works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father. This is the irremediable wound.

But because they will have many followers by a most evil imitation, therefore at the end he said 'upon those men who have the inscription of the beast's name,' lest this be thought to have been said of the Hebrew nation alone. For just as in good, through the imitation of faith, the law also calls the nations sons of Abraham—not by being born of his flesh, but by confessing that Christ, of the tribe of Judah, rose again victorious from the dead—so in evil it must be believed that the Jews will have followers from among the nations, who, by receiving and following the Antichrist (who is said to be born of the tribe of Dan, Genesis 49), are marked to be their accomplices in the mark of the crime, whose partners they will be in the penalty of eternal damnation.

And the second poured out his vial upon the sea, and it became blood, and every living soul died in the sea. Water turned into blood—it is easy to observe that this is to think carnally about spiritual things, whereby it is figured without any difficulty in that first of the plagues which we read (Exodus 7) were inflicted on the Egyptians. But then he says the sweet waters were turned into blood, whether the rivers of Egypt, or the rain waters, as certain translations show, saying: And their rain waters into blood, which the Greeks also rendered as 'ebremata.' But now this comes into question, that in this place he says the second vial was poured out upon the sea—that is, upon the bitter and salt waters.

And it became blood, he says, and every soul died in the sea. Whence I think are signified those who, among the people of the Jews, not only strove to savor the spiritual law carnally—whence they could not recognize Christ in it. For if they had recognized him, says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 2), they would never have crucified the Lord of glory; but they were even brought to such a weight of merits, as though struck by a second wound of a worse plague, that they long for the image of the beast, and, having the inscription of his name, judge that Antichrist is to be adored in place of Christ. Therefore perhaps he here is placed in the second vial, which in Exodus (chapter

7) is described as having befallen in the first plague; inasmuch as from barren waters they passed over besides to the foulness of blood, whereby every soul is said to have been slain in the sea—that is, in this world—the part signified by the whole, as: There is none that does good, no not one (Psalm 13). By manifest barrenness are marked those of whom it is said: I waited that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns (Isaiah 5). Those, assuredly, over whom their tongue was so enfeebled that they said, to their own condemnation: His blood be upon us and upon our children (Matthew 27). And the third poured out his vial upon the rivers and the fountains of waters, and they became blood.

He includes the remaining nations in a general way, which, just as they had been overtaken by natural error and entangled in filthy desires, added to this that they should also think carnally about divine things; whence by 'the springs' the teachings of the Gentiles may be understood. Therefore he says: 'They became blood,' just as also in Genesis: 'My spirit shall not remain,' he says (Gen. IX), 'in these men forever, for they are flesh.' And in the third book of Wisdom it says: 'Troubled in the reproof by sordid blood'; and because to be wise according to the flesh, says the Apostle (Rom. VIII), is death, and the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God. Therefore concerning men of this kind, who are said both to give offense by such sins and again are marked as running into penal crimes:

'I heard,' he says, 'in the praises of God a voice of the angels resound.' 'And I heard,' he says, 'the angel of the waters saying: You are just, who are and who were.' The angel of the waters is the messenger of the peoples who, by an inward effect, cry out together in divine praises; and 'You are holy, since you have thus judged those who poured out the blood of the saints and prophets, and therefore you have given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.' Although both the Jews and the Gentiles bodily shed the blood of the saints, which the Lord recalls as to be required: 'From the blood of Abel the just,' he says (Matt. XXIII), 'unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias':

nevertheless this may also be understood of that plague of blindness, so that those too may be known to have shed the blood of the prophets who, abusing them, diverted their meaning into something else: as if he were saying that those who understood the spiritual law carnally are justly handed over, condemned to the corruption of flesh and blood, where both the sin and the punishment of sinners is recognized. Hence the Apostle says (II Thess. II): because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, therefore God will send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie, and that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity. 'And I heard another voice saying: Even so, Lord God almighty, true and just are your judgments.'

Here too there is something such as is often said in the Psalms (XL, LXXI, LXXXVIII, CV), 'So be it, so be it.' But this we ought to say by imitating, not by expounding, so as not to weave delays into a sense already plain. 'And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to cast heat and fire upon men. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues.' It was not given to the sun to be strengthened, but to that angel who poured out upon the sun. Yet this fire is not to be thought the fire of Gehenna, nor is any place left there for blaspheming any longer, when to the damned there will come only a time of fruitless repentance, so that, as the law records, they will say: 'What has pride profited us? and what has the boasting of riches conferred on us' (Wisdom

V)? Wherefore I think that this fire and heat ought to be understood as the fact that the body of the devil will be irremediably tormented by the stability of the saints, and, stirred up by that very heat, they are compelled to blasphemy. For perhaps it is said 'upon the sun,' namely the Sun of justice, as though he had put 'sun' in the ablative case; just as: 'I will watch over my word to perform it' (Jer. I), and Daniel: 'Let us seek,' he says (Dan. II), 'mercy from the face of the almighty God concerning this mystery,' so that from that whence the elect receive the firmness of illumination, thence the impious are said to derive their burning. 'Neither did they do penance to give him glory.' The very death of the blasphemers is this: that they prefer to accuse not their own impiety, but God of iniquity:

and not to do penance after being smitten, but, though scourged, to hurl insults. For just as bronze vessels subjected to a great fire, boiling over from their depths, bubble out and overrun the bounds of their capacity, so also the party of the beast, resisting in the vast expanse, when they shall see the Church of Christ contend with untiring constancy, inflamed by the torches of intolerable envy, breathe out the conflagration conceived in the heart through the blasphemies of an impure mouth. Of this fire we read: 'Zeal shall lay hold of the untaught people, and now fire shall consume the adversaries.' 'And the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the seat of the beast, and its kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for sorrow.'

The seat of the beast, or its kingdom, as though a judicial power, is said to be darkened for this reason, because, deprived of the light of the joy of eternal blessedness, when they extol the goods of the present as though they possessed the highest blessedness, and hold the truth in unrighteousness, they gnaw their tongues. To this sense the psalm (CXLIII) accords, saying: 'Whose mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of iniquity,' and (Ps. LXXII), 'They have spoken iniquity on high.' For lifted up like smoke by the pride of momentary prosperity, they, darkened, rejoice in that from which they ought to have turned by repenting. For, as Job says, 'They lead their days in good things, and in a moment they go down to hell' (Job XXI).

'And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon that great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the king coming from the rising of the sun'—that is, for Christ, of whom we read: 'Behold a man, the Orient is his name,' for whom, when he shall come to judge, the way is prepared. Moreover, by the name of the river Euphrates—like the sea, the deities, the springs of waters, the sun, the throne of the beast, over which the angels are said to have poured out their bowls—unclean men are signified. 'And its water was dried up,' that is, they will have nothing left in themselves of the former people that does not befit the fire of the approaching judgment.