Commentary on Revelation & Paul 22

CHAP. XVIII. 'And after these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was enlightened with his glory.' By the destruction of worldly wisdom, which the destruction of Jericho also signifies. But being about to speak of the ruin of the earthly kingdom, it says that this angel has great power, insinuating (as I think) that a stronger one has come against the strong, and one like him has come to do battle; and, casting a shadow over the vestige of worldly wisdom, it now bears witness that the true light of wisdom has come, which shows itself unconquered both in power and in knowledge to the wise of the world and the earthly kings who trust in the strength of their own might. 'And the earth,' it says, 'was enlightened with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty and strong voice, saying:'

'That great Babylon is fallen, and is become a dwelling-place and refuge of demons, and of every unclean spirit, and of every unclean beast, and of every unclean and hateful bird.' I think this signifies the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we read of in Isaiah as the Angel of great counsel (Isa. 9). At his first coming, saying (Matt. 3): 'Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' he was destroying the very undertakings of secular power. 'And the earth was enlightened with his glory,' because he himself is the true light 'which enlightens every man coming into this world' (John 1). But what follows can trouble the reader, for it says: 'And it is become a dwelling-place and refuge of demons,' etc.

For if it has fallen, how is it said to have become an inhabitation and refuge to demons and unclean spirits and birds? — unless because, by the enormity of its many transgressions, in falling it has offered itself worthy of the habitation of demons, being in one part destroyed by its own wholesome conversion. And that which in the sea of this world rose up against the faith of Christ with the strong waves of persecutions now groans, bridled within narrower bounds, and roars, enclosed as in a wineskin. Hence in the psalm we sing (Ps. 32): 'Gathering together the waters of the sea as in a wineskin, laying up the depths in storehouses.' For she who was once feared by Christians now herself fears the Christians, when by their privilege they behold the broad decrees of princes serving even the religious.

Yet the remaining part of her is become a dwelling-place and refuge of demons, whereby she is on every side destroyed so as to be built up for the better, and being cast down among the proud she is broken, and is rightly said to have collapsed once destroyed. For that spiritual wickednesses are also signified by birds, that passage too of the Book of Genesis affirms, where Abraham is said to have driven off the birds that rushed in among the divisions of the flesh (Gen. 15). 'For of the wine of the wrath of her fornication all nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are grown rich by the power of her delights.' Here it names three kinds of vices, and introduces as many persons of transgression: avarice, which according to the Apostle is called the service of idols (Eph. 5);

lasciviousness, under the name of fornication (Col. 3); and, in the delights, gluttony, which the Lord, forewarning that it must be avoided, speaks of (Luke 21): 'Let not your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness.' 'And the kings of the earth,' it says, 'have committed fornication with her.' For avarice — in that it says 'the merchants are grown rich,' although some have preferred here to reckon riches by sins rather than by possessions — 'the nations' designated the mixed and ignoble multitude of the common people; 'the kings,' those who among them seem for a time to excel; 'the merchants,' those who, gaping after earthly gains, in exchange for temporal abundance trade away their souls in an unhappy commerce, doing the contrary to the teachings of the Lord, who says (Matt. 16): 'What exchange shall a man give for his soul?'

'And I heard another voice from heaven, saying.' That hearing of the heavenly voice belongs to those 'whom he foreknew and predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son' (Rom. 8); and 'The Lord knows who are his' (2 Tim. 2); and things like these. Then follows: 'Go out from her, my people, that you be not partaker of her sins.' Thus far this seems to me to pertain to the first coming, when, until the end of the age, the good so tolerate the wicked mingled with them, that on their account they neither think the good should be forsaken, nor should imitate the guilty by harmful example. For thus too that prophetic word is fulfilled (Isa. 52): 'Go out from the midst of them, and touch not the unclean thing,' since it is not by a departure of the body, but by a departure of a most wicked will, that the upright is not mingled with the depraved.

There follows: 'And that you be not stricken with her plagues, for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and the Lord God has remembered her iniquities; and therefore render to her double,' and 'in the cup wherein she has mingled, mingle double for her'; and 'as much as she has glorified herself and lived in delights, so much give her of torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and I am no widow, and I shall see no sorrow. Therefore in one hour shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burned with fire, because God is strong who shall judge her.'

All these things are indeed believed to befit the second coming, when at the scrutiny of the supreme judgment the fellowship of the impious, being shut out, shall be struck with just retribution, so that those who sinned for a time may be punished forever. For this is what it says: 'Render to her double, and double has been mingled for her,' so that he who enjoyed transitory delights may be tortured with eternal torments. And that Christ delivers his own from usuries is foretold in the psalm (Ps. 71): 'From usuries and iniquities,' it says, 'he shall redeem their souls.' But the former are said, moreover, to be burned with perpetual fire, and afflicted with famine — then indeed, when those who now hunger and thirst after justice (Matt. 5) shall receive an incorruptible fullness. And to die, in that God forsakes them.

For just as, when the soul departs, the body dies, so the soul, when God forsakes it, is to be believed to die. Their mourning, moreover, is that of which Christ speaks in the Gospel (Luke 6): 'Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.' Willing to show his own free from these plagues, God says: 'And that you be not stricken with her plagues' — as if he should say: You who, being converted, refused to have a will like theirs in sins, shall not receive a like vengeance. For not by our own strength can we escape those same plagues, since this is granted us by the sole benefit of God. But the Holy Spirit, keeping right order, willed to declare that those who in their heart are not taken captive in piety are by no means, by any assent, stricken with the torments of the impious.

For 'the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them' (Wis. 3). But it so circumscribes these things which are then to come, that it has expressed the works to be inflicted; yet these punishments are not to be reckoned as of this present age, about soon to end their final courses, as is proved from what follows. For the Lord too, foretelling the contrition of the world, added (Luke 21): 'But the end is not yet.' 'And the kings of the earth who committed fornication with her and lived in delights shall weep and bewail themselves, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for fear of her torment, saying: Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come.'

'And the merchants of the earth shall weep, bewailing her, because no one shall buy their merchandise any more.' How is it certain that the same Babylon is signified by diverse names, and exists whether of the kings of the earth, or of the nations, or of the merchants, if, when she is set on fire, they are said consequently to stand afar from her, and to bewail her — not by grieving over a common torment, but by miserably deploring her in free consideration — unless because, as I have set forth before, we ought here not to take an altogether final end of the world, but a diminution of human affairs and a contrition of diverse nations?

For it says that the pomp of secular riches is taken away, through which, for the fulfilling of depraved wills, an opportune occasion, overflowing with the conveniences of carnal delights, in a manner favored their unruliness. When this is removed, being inflicted by the divine judgments through defect and desolation, certain survivors are represented as bewailing the destruction of the others. Therefore they are said to stand afar off, and for fear of a like penalty to be afraid. For perhaps to this it pertains, that they are said to see the smoke of the burning, as it were a specimen of the eternal fire. For smoke gives an indication of flames to come.

It accordingly relates whatever is necessary for human uses, whatever it knows to be greatly coveted by the greedy and carnal for worldly conveniences, but also those things which it knows to be delightfully drawn in by the most familiar five senses of the flesh, and declares that these shall fail, in this manner: 'The merchandise of gold, and of silver, and of precious stones, and of pearls, and of silk.' Thus far pertaining to the usefulness of places. 'And of purple, of scarlet, and of every kind of garment, and of all cedar wood, and every vessel of ivory, and of precious wood, and of brass, and of iron, and of marble.' Thus far it also mentions things pertaining to the sense of the eyes. Then, as to what pertains to smell, there follows: 'And of cinnamon, and incense, and ointment.' And to ointment it interweaves even touch. 'And frankincense,' it says.

Accordingly it added those things which are brought to taste and use, saying: 'and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat.' Then it sets down 'beasts of burden and cattle, and horses, and chariots, and slaves,' and animals of diverse kinds, for the sake of usefulness. 'The fruits also of your soul's desire,' it says, 'are departed from you.' This too it brought back to sight and taste. 'And all things fat and splendid have perished from you, nor shalt thou find them any more. Thy merchants also, who were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for fear of her torment, weeping and bewailing, and saying: Alas, alas, that great city, which was clothed with purple and fine linen and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stone and pearl! For in one hour are so great riches brought to nought.'

That 'hour' is here put for 'time' is proved by the judgments of many testimonies. 'And every pilot, and every one that sails by sea, and mariners, and those who work in the sea, shall stand afar off, seeing the smoke of her burning, saying: What city is like this great city?' And, 'casting dust upon their heads' — that is, reproaching the face of their princes, by whom they were seduced and perishing — 'they shall cry, weeping and mourning, and saying with a mighty voice: Alas, alas, that great city, in which all were made rich who had ships in the sea, by her glory; for in one hour is she brought to desolation.'

But since we know that many are often pricked to compunction by this contrition, if those passages by which we are admonished ought to be applied to their person, it is not unfittingly taken thus — that is, 'they shall stand afar off and cry, seeing the smoke of her burning' — so that to be afar is not to fall with the lost, but rather by a sudden conversion to attain stability; and therefore 'to his own master he stands or falls,' which ought to be understood not of standing bodily, but of a conversion of the mind steadfast in faith; so that both, in that they are said to bewail while others perish, they themselves may be understood to bear fruitful penance. For hence the Apostle says (Eph. 2):

'Whereas you were dead in your offences and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, the spirit that now works in the children of unbelief; among whom also we all conversed in time past in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the thoughts; and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest' — or things like these. According to these sayings of the Apostle, I say, this passage can be fitted to the persons of the converted. For no one can be found good who was not first evil. Hence the psalm (Ps. 118): 'I have accounted all the sinners of the earth transgressors.' For perhaps thence follows here:

'Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints, and apostles, and prophets.' As though these converted, delighted, might rejoice over the judgment of God, 'because God has judged your judgment on her,' it says. 'And a strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With this force shall that great Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more.' We know that the Lord said in the Gospel (Matt. 18): 'Woe to the world because of scandals,' and subjoined: 'Woe to that man by whom the scandal comes; it is better for him if a millstone be hung about his neck, and he be cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones' — signifying that the authors of scandal are to be punished with such a penalty.

Where I think it should be understood not of scandal alone, but he frequently treats of every kind of sinner, according to that rule which holy Scripture employs — whether with the Lord saying (Matt. 5): 'If your eye, foot, hand, scandalize you,' or with Paul the Apostle (2 Cor. 11): 'Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?' To which sense the psalm (Ps. 120) accords, saying: 'By day the sun shall not burn you, nor the moon by night' — where, when even an understanding of evil belief concerning Christ and the Church, that is concerning the sun and the moon, is admitted, or concerning the sins of adversity and prosperity (which is to be referred to the moon, or to the sun), all species, as it were in the genus of transgressions, seem to be included under the name of scandal.

This here also insinuates that the author of scandal, that is of all sin, is to be sunk in the manner of a millstone. But the millstone here seems to me to be put for the weight of sins, which are contracted from temporal things. For the Lord teaches that the mill is set in the round of secular affairs, when he says: 'Two women grinding at the mill.' 'And the voice of harpers, and of musicians, and of them that play the flute, and of trumpeters, shall be heard no more in thee.' It had deferred the sound of those five senses, which it now has fully expressed, and which among other things it foretold to be taken away by degrees, as if it should say: Whatever is beautiful to sight, melodious to hearing, soft to touch, sweet to smell, delightful to taste, shall pass away from the world.

And that it might not allow us to be content with these, it added also concerning those things which pertain to the use of human life, saying: 'Neither shall any craftsman of any craft be found in thee any more, and the voice of the millstone shall be heard no more in thee; and the light of the lamp shall shine no more in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard no more in thee.' And it says by what desert: 'because thy merchants were the magnates of the earth, for by thy sorceries all nations were led astray.' As if it should say: Because in thy life thou hast ill used temporal goods, thou shalt justly be henceforth defrauded of them, and, to be condemned, thou shalt be bound fast with eternal penalties. 'And in thee was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.'

Here it is more openly declared that the whole body of the devil, in the one city of Babylon, is rebuked for its excesses. For we do not know the martyrs to have been slain in the same city in which the prophets were, as far as pertains to the signification of place; yet there is one city by the fellowship of the impious. There follows: CHAP. XIX. 'After these things I heard the voice of great multitudes crying with a mighty voice in heaven, saying: Alleluia. Salvation, and glory to our God, for true and just are his judgments, because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth by her fornication, and has avenged the blood of his servants from her hands. And again they said: Alleluia.'

The Lord bore witness to something similar in the Gospel, saying that the blood of the just in general is to be required of the person of this body: 'From the blood,' he says (Matt. 23), 'of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias' — embracing briefly the sum, as it were, of peoples and of priests intimated. Therefore he mentions the place too, saying, 'whom you slew between the temple and the altar' — reducing the temple to the people, the altar to the priests. But in that they said again 'Alleluia,' the Church praises God over his judgments with unceasing affection. For 'Alleluia' means 'Praise the Lord.' There follows concerning that harlot: 'And the smoke of her goes up for ever and ever.' The Church

— namely, persevering in the joy of his praise — the smoke of the perdition of the impious remains. For just as smoke is the beginning of fire, so, the fire persevering, it says that smoke is present. A specimen of these good and evil ones I judge the Lord to have figured in the poor man and the rich (Luke 16). 'And the four and twenty elders and the four living creatures fell down and adored God sitting on the throne.' It mentions the Church. There follows, 'saying: Amen' — that is, truly, faithfully. 'And a voice came out from the throne, saying: Praise our God, all you his servants, and you that fear God, little and great.' Since it commands this to be done and mentions it done, it gave an indication of that thing, that

— that he has received as pleasing the praise of his elect, approving, namely, what was set forth before, and enjoining it to be perpetual. But the 'great' in the Church are those of whom the Apostle says (1 Cor. 2): 'We speak wisdom among the perfect.' And the Lord (Matt. 5): 'He who shall so teach men shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.' The 'little,' of whom he says (1 Cor. 3): 'As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, not meat.' 'And I heard the voice of great trumpets, and as it were the voice of strong thunderings, and as it were the sound of many waters, saying: Alleluia.' In the trumpets is designated that preaching of which Isaiah speaks (Isa. 58):

'Cry, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet' — in which preaching is also insinuated the dread of the divine judgment; this I think is signified by the name of thunder, since they are fitting to men. Therefore it is certain that peoples are wont to be figured by many waters, who praise God, saying: 'Alleluia.' And so the Church, when it both preaches and fears and praises, exults with trembling, as is read: 'Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling.' 'Because the Lord God almighty has reigned.' Rightly here it makes mention of his omnipotence. For he made out of nothing the things that were not; he sought those who had perished by sin; he found those to be punished; and of those whom he willed, he mercifully made just;

and finally, out of these, as out of members, constructing for himself the Church, he endowed her, thus redeemed, with such a gift [dignity], that he made her his bride, though she had not deserved even to be his handmaid. There follows: 'Let us be glad and rejoice, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has prepared herself. And it was given to her that she should clothe herself with fine linen, white and clean.' For the fine white linen is the justices of the saints. That all these things befit the elect Church no spiritual man doubts. They indeed are said to prepare themselves for his spiritual wedlock who have preferred always to persist in the works of justice. 'And he said to me: Write: Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' Of this the Lord says (Matt. 8):

'And they shall sit down with Abraham and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven'; and likewise: 'Passing by, he shall minister to them' — signifying, namely, those who according to his purpose are called holy, and pass into the fullness of the elect. 'For many are called, but few chosen' (Matt. 20). 'And again he said to me: These are the true and just words of God.' Then it is said divinely to the Church, when the Word of God and the same truth is revealed. 'And I fell down at his feet to adore him. And he said to me: See that you do it not, for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Adore God.' Although at the beginning of this book I said that,

through an assumed creaturely form of an angel the Lord Christ revealed all things to John — which even here he would especially give to the understanding, when he does not suffer himself to be adored as God, but rather admonishes that he be reckoned a fellow-servant, and thoroughly teaches that the one God is to be adored — yet it can trouble the reader that even he says: 'I am the first and the last' (chap. 1). But we shall have known that the angel said this in the person of Christ. Finally, at the end it says (chap. 22): 'I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches.' There follows: 'For the sanctification of testimony is the spirit of the prophets.' For the whole sum of prophecy and the sanctification of the spirit consists in the testimony of Jesus Christ, whom all law and prophecy serves.

Wherefore also, manifesting himself on the mountain (Matt. 17; Mark 9; Luke 9) between Moses and Elijah, he shone with the brightness of his countenance and garment, and truly declared that he had testimony from the law and the prophets. For if they foretold anything, he himself bears witness that it serves Christ and the Church, saying of Moses (John 5): 'He wrote of me.' For even rising again, he says (Luke 24): 'It is necessary that all things be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.' Nor perhaps do the mysteries of Christ seem there either to sound forth or to be signified; but to this end are they interwoven, that the whole series of that Scripture, rising up by the instrument of speaking, may be more fittingly constructed, as in an organ.

For whatever places are touched give forth sound, but so that a sonorous place may bring forth the song of the necessary modulation, and the whole framework of those vessels, bound together, serves. Then, having set forth the earlier things more broadly, it re-weaves them in a brief recapitulation. 'I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.' This is he whom it had said above to have received the crown due to victory — equitable and just, who judges and shall do battle, as the King of all ages does battle, who ever in his own members suffers together with them, fights when he conquers, crowns in himself, but affording strength to those who contend, who promises a reward to the victors (Wis. 2). 'And his eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head many diadems.'

'In him we shall do valiantly' (Ps. 59); in him the multitude of saints, he is said to have a crowned beauty. 'And having a great name written, which no one knows but himself.' The perfect knowledge of the Word of God is manifested to those who have deserved to be the body of Christ and members, inasmuch as the head bestows the knowledge of itself specially upon the body; but he himself knows what the Church has deserved to know in him. For 'he who cleaves to the Lord,' says the Apostle (1 Cor. 6), 'is one spirit'; for 'the two shall be in one flesh.' This name neither the Jews, nor the aliens, nor the heretics have known. For 'if they had known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory' (1 Cor. 2). And likewise: 'The world,' he says (John 17), 'has not known you'; and again he says to his disciples (John

14): 'But you shall see me, because I live, and you shall live. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.' Whence also it is answered by the disciples (ibid.): 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?' But as regards the heretics, the same again says to them (Matt. 13; Mark 4): 'To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them that are without, all things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not understand.' 'Having a great name written, which no one knows but himself.'

Care must indeed be taken, lest, by carnal prudence stealing in, the name of the Son — of which we now treat — be thought unknown either to the Father or to the Holy Spirit; but rather, having seized the opportunity of this place, we should know, by the usual manner of speech of Scripture, that this is expressed from a pure sense: namely, that as the Son alone is said to know, the whole Trinity is altogether taught to know; just as, if anything is said to be known by the Father alone, he is proved to know it doubtless with his own Wisdom, which is Christ, or with his own Spirit, who is believed to be the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. For when the day of judgment is reported to be known by the Father alone, surely neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit is denied to know it.

So too, when the Holy Spirit alone is said to know something, and by a similar manner of speaking the name of the Father or of the Son is passed over in silence, he is nonetheless declared in every way to know, as when the Apostle says (1 Cor. 2): 'No one of men knows the things that are of a man, except the spirit of the man that is in him; so also the things that are in God no one has known, except the Spirit of God.' To separate either the Father or the Son from this knowledge is the mark of a madman. For not even he who says elsewhere (Ephes.

4), 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of your redemption,' passed over the Father and the Son in silence because he excluded their persons from the work of our redemption; for through the undivided power of one nature the works of the Trinity are taught to be inseparable. As for what the Lord says in the Gospel (Mark 13), that of that day of judgement not even the Son knows, but the Father alone, this is said by that rule of speech: that by knowing something he makes others to know, and by not knowing he makes others not to know. Wherefore, through the rule of understanding thus insinuated, the name of the Son, which is said to be known to him alone, we recognise to be manifest also to the Father and to the Holy Spirit. For that it is spoken of the Son a plain consequence attests, when it is said:

'And he was clothed with a garment sprinkled with blood, and his name is called The Word of God.' If it is granted to no one to know his name, why is 'The Word of God' now openly proclaimed? But just as we read (John 3), 'No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven,' so let us understand that, if any of the members should ascend, it is in the head itself and through the head itself that he merits to ascend: he who both gave his members to hope for this by promising, and will make it to be possessed by fulfilling. So too here Christ alone is said to know what is granted to his bride to know in him: through whom and in whom the Church is fully taught.

Furthermore, in saying that Christ's garment was sprinkled with blood, the tokens of his passion are described, whether in the head itself or in the body which is the Church. Hence the Apostle teaches to the Hebrews (Heb. 9) that from the beginning remission of sins was not celebrated without blood in those legal sacrifices of beasts. Concerning the Church too he says (Coloss. 1), 'That I may fill up those things which are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh,' mindful of the voice he had heard (Acts 9): 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' For whatever the Church suffers, Christ is truly said to suffer. Of whom the same Apostle says (Heb. 9): 'He was offered once to exhaust the sins of many.' The habit of this garment Isaiah too recalls thus (Isa. 63): 'Who is this that comes from Edom,

with dyed garments from Bozrah? This one, beautiful in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength. It is I who speak justice, and am a defender to save.' 'Why then is your clothing red, and your garments like those of them that tread in the winepress? I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there is no man with me,' etc. 'And the armies that are in heaven were following him upon white horses.' In heaven, in the Church, as though with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3). All the pure in heart, whitened by grace above the snow (Ps. 51), are said to follow Christ.

'He was clothed in fine linen, white and clean,' which above it defined to be the justices of the saints, by which, when they each impart their own, they subject both body and soul to God; 'upon white horses,' that is, they ever go forward pure in body and mind, going before [the text may add: and] following the footsteps of Christ, to whom it is said in the Song of Songs (Cant. 1): 'After you we will run to the odour of your ointments.' 'And out of his mouth went a sword sharp on both sides, that with it he might strike the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron.' Sharpened on both sides signifies either the edge of the twin Testament, or what we read of Wisdom (Prov. 31): 'She carries the law and mercy on her tongue,' as it were judgement and mercy.

The rod of iron is thence the unchangeable rectitude of justice, and he himself trod the winepress of the wine of the wrath of God the great and almighty. Just as, when threshing comes, the grain stripped of its chaff is stored up in barns, so in the winepress, when the weight of pressure is applied, either the wine is drawn off from the husks or the oil from the dregs, discerningly, after the usual manner. This the prophet, describing it of the vineyard, says (Isa. 5): 'And I dug a winepress in it.' This happens in the Church when, either by the persecution wrung out by adversity, or by the occasion of some calamity taken away, some fall like dregs, headlong in an irremediable collapse, while others shine more brightly in commendable worship. He has also on his garment and on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

'On his garment,' that is, on the Church which Christ has put on, which, according to the Apostle (Ephes. 5), he cleansed by the washing of water in the word, that he might present the Church to himself glorious, having neither spot nor wrinkle. For as a garment is cleansed lest it incur a spot, so it is stretched out lest it contract a wrinkle. But by his thigh also the posterity of his seed is signified, in which all nations shall be blessed, according to the Apostle who teaches (Gal. 3): 'He did not say, and to his seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ.' To him, as to a deceased brother, according to the law of ancient custom (Deut. 25), the same Apostle, spiritually raising up seed, says (1 Cor. 1):

'Lest anyone say that you were baptised in my name,' since from Jerusalem even to Illyricum he says he had filled all things with the Gospel (Rom. 15), to which nations he might truly say (1 Cor. 4), 'In Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I have begotten you.' In this thigh, then, as in propagated sons, the knowledge of Christ is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone but on the fleshly tables of the heart (2 Cor. 3). Who, when they confess him King of kings and Lord of all lords (1 Tim. 6), to these believers in him is this inscription of the thigh reputed, and they shall be blessed with faithful Abraham. 'And I saw one angel standing in the sun.' He calls the angel the preaching Church. Rightly indeed he added 'one.'

'For my dove is one' (Cant. 6), on account of the mystery of unity to be preserved; 'in the sun,' where it may now shine forth and no longer lie hidden through fear. 'And he cried with a loud voice.' In the loud voice is to be understood the liberty of great confidence, 'saying to all the birds of heaven.' Birds, according to the qualities of the places, are sometimes understood as evil, sometimes as good. Here indeed, just as a while ago (above, ch. 8) the appearance of a flying eagle is introduced, so now the spiritual are invited to the supper. Of which it was said to Peter, who bore the figure of the present Church (Acts 10): 'Kill and eat,' when those things are slain which they had been, that they might become what he himself is, that is, better, and passing into the body they are planted together as members of the Church of Christ and reign together.

For whatever we eat, we transfer into our own body. 'Come,' he says, 'to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of tribunes, and the flesh of the mighty, and the flesh of horses, and of those who sit upon them, and the flesh of all, free and bond, small and great.' By the horses and those who sit upon them can be understood the leaders, in that the Church receives converts even from the number of those who by their error and by the deceits of those whom they were seducing beforehand; the free who hold to celibacy, the bond who are married, the small, the mixed and ignoble common crowd, the great, either philosophers, or those exalted by birth or by means.

'And I saw the beast,' that is, the devil, 'and the kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat upon the white horse, and against his army,' that is, against Christ and the Church. Since the exposition of similar passages has been set forth, this passage too can be recognised. 'And the beast was taken, and with it the false prophet,' the devil and Antichrist, or the leaders and his whole body, 'who wrought signs before it, wherewith he seduced them that were led to adore the image of the beast, and who received its mark. These two were cast alive into the pool of fire burning with fire and brimstone.' Two, the head and body of the devil and his fellowship, by an anticipated narrative; for this was yet to come in the last time.

'And the rest were slain by the sword of him who sat upon the white horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth.' He divided one body into parts, wishing to show that those also were long since dead whom the second coming of Christ shall find living, as we read (2 Thess. 2): 'Whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.' 'And all the birds were filled with their flesh.'

We ought not to be so carnal in understanding as to believe that the saints, as those seeking higher things, are sated with the flesh of the impious; but rather, when the divine equity of judgement is revealed to the saints, whereby, redeeming the fullness of the elect, he has decreed the rest to be condemned, they are said to be sated with the knowledge of this justice, which one may hunger and thirst for in this life (Matt. 5), yet not perfectly comprehend. For Isaiah too, speaking of the impious at God's bidding (Isa. 66), says, 'And they shall go out, even to the satiety of the sight, unto all flesh.' This satiety of the birds, set forth here, I think is to be placed here. For the Apostle too confesses that here he has not yet perfectly attained, saying (Philipp. 3):

'Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect, but I follow after, if I may by any means comprehend that in which I am also comprehended by Christ.' They will therefore not rejoice at the condemnation of these, but rather that, sated with the light of divine justice, they now rejoice. Otherwise, the birds can also be understood in an evil sense as the transgressor angels, who, when they have led their followers to destruction, are thus said, their evil desire being fulfilled, to be sated with the flesh of the lost, seizing satiety from the condemnation of those to whom they had offered themselves as authors of error. Chapter 20. 'And I saw a strong angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of that dragon, the old serpent,

which is called the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.' By the angel coming down from heaven we understand our Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the Angel of great counsel (Isa. 9), and who, visiting the region of mortals, being stronger, willed to bind the strong one, that of the vessels which had once been of wrath he might make vessels of mercy, accomplishing this by his work which he had before promised by his preaching: 'No one,' he says (Matt. 12; Mark 3; Luke 11), 'can enter into the house of the strong one and spoil his vessels, unless he first bind the strong one,' that is, the devil. The key of the abyss is the depth of the divine judgements. For the judgements of God are a great abyss (Ps. 36).

For it is known to him alone, who from the multitude of sinners calls down into the fullness of those who understand. Hence elsewhere we read, 'You who have shut up the abyss and sealed it over him.' Now he is said to have bound the devil with chains in this respect: that, restraining his power over those men who were to be freed from being seduced, he curbed him.

Now the thousand years can be understood in two ways: either because this matter is carried on through many years, a thousand, that is, in the sixth millennium of years, however long it may be prolonged until the end of the world, whose later spans are now unrolling, with the Sabbath which has no evening to follow thereafter, namely the rest of the saints which has no end, so that he calls the last part of this millennium, which will remain until the end of the world, a thousand years, by that manner of speaking whereby a part is signified for the whole; or else he has put a thousand years for all the years of this world, that by the perfect number the very fullness of time might be marked. For the number one thousand yields a solid square of the number ten.

For ten multiplied ten times makes a hundred, which is now a square figure, but not yet full; but that it may rise into height and become solid, again the hundred is multiplied ten times, and they are a thousand. Nor is that ill understood which is read in the psalm (Ps. 105): 'He was mindful of his covenant for ever, of the word which he commanded unto a thousand generations,' that is, all. 'And he cast him,' he says, 'into the abyss.' Assuredly he cast the devil into the abyss, by which name is signified the innumerable multitude of the impious, whose hearts, in their malignity against the Church of God, are very deep. Not that the devil was not there before, but he is said to have been cast thither because, shut out from believers, he began to possess the impious the more.

For he is the more possessed by the devil, who is not only alienated from God, but even hates without cause those who serve God. 'And he shut and sealed over him, that he might no more seduce the nations, until the thousand years be finished.' 'He shut over him,' he says, that is, he forbade him lest he should presume to transgress the boundary any further. But that he added 'he sealed,' seems to me to have signified this: that he willed it to be hidden who pertain to the party of the devil and who do not. For some of the stable fall away, and some of the reprobate, made certain, are saved, pricked to a fruitful conversion. But from seducing those nations the devil is prohibited and restrained by the bond and enclosure of this interdict, whom, as pertaining to Christ, he formerly seduced or held.

For these God chose before the foundation of the world to rescue from the power of darkness and to translate into the kingdom of the Son of his love, as the Apostle says (Eph. 1). That the devil even now seduces the nations, and drags with himself into eternal punishment, but not those predestined to eternal life, what faithful person is ignorant? For 'the Lord knows those who are his' (2 Tim. 2). Of these he seduces no one into eternal damnation. For to this end the devil is bound and enclosed in the abyss: that he may no longer seduce the nations of which the Church consists, whom he formerly held as seduced before they were the Church. For it was not said, that he might no longer seduce anyone, but 'that he might no longer seduce,' he says, 'the nations,' in which he doubtless willed the Church to be understood.

'Until the thousand years be finished,' he says, that is, either what remained of the sixth day, which consists of a thousand years, or all the years through which this world is thereafter to be carried out. But he set 'until' thus, not because he is afterwards to seduce those nations at least of which the predestined Church consists, from seducing whom he is prohibited by that bond and pure enclosure, as has already been said in that manner of speech. So too in the psalm (Ps. 123): 'As our eyes are unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.' For not when he shall have had mercy are the eyes of his servants to be thought no longer to be unto God; or else this is the order of the words:

'And he shut and sealed over him until the thousand years be finished, that he might no more seduce the nations,' that is, for this reason he shut, until the thousand years be finished, that he might no more seduce the nations. 'After these things,' he says, 'he must be loosed for a short time.' If this is for the devil to be bound and enclosed, the Church's being unable to be seduced, then this will be his loosing, that he may be able to? Far be it. For never is the Church seduced by him, being predestined and elect before the foundation of the world (Ephes. 1), of which it is said (2 Tim. 2): 'The Lord knows those who are his.' But the binding of the devil is his not being permitted to exercise the whole temptation which he could, either by force or by guile, to seduce men into his party, whether by violently compelling or by deceiving.

For if this were permitted, in so long a time and amid the great weakness of many he would cast down very many such as God does not will to endure this, even faithful ones; and for this reason he is bound. But then he shall be loosed, when the time shall also be short. For he is read to be about to rage for three years and six months with all his own strength and that of his followers, and such shall they be with whom the war is to be waged, that they cannot be conquered by his so great onslaught and snares. But if he were never loosed, his malignant power would be less apparent, the most faithful patience of the holy city would be less proved, and finally it would be less discerned with how great an evil of his the omnipotent God has made such good use.

Now this binding of the devil was not only accomplished from the time the Church began to be spread beyond the land of Judaea into other nations, but it is also being accomplished now and will be until the end of the world, at which he is to be loosed; because even now, when men, from the unbelief in which he possessed them, are converted to the faith, that strong one is indeed bound, when his vessels are snatched from him (Matt. 12; Mark 3; Luke 11). 'And I saw,' he says, 'seats in a vision, and those sitting upon them, and judgement was given to them.' When he had said that the devil, bound for a thousand years, was deprived of his wonted power to seduce, and had foretold that his loosing would be for a short time, then, recapitulating what the Church does during these thousand years, or what is done in her, he said:

'And I saw seats and those sitting upon them, and judgement was given to them.' This is not to be thought of the last judgement, but rather to be understood of the governance of the leaders through whom the Church is now ruled by those presiding, which from her King has merited to hear the commendable sanction: 'Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven' (Matt. 16). Whence the Apostle (1 Cor. 5): 'For what is it to me,' he says, 'to judge those who are without? Do you not judge those who are within?' 'And the souls,' he says, 'of those slain for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God.'

There is understood what he is afterwards to say here, 'they shall reign with Jesus a thousand years,' namely the souls of the martyrs, not yet restored to their own bodies; for neither are the souls of the pious dead separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise their memory would not be made at the altar of Christ in the communion of the body of Christ. Although, therefore, not yet with their own bodies, yet already their souls reign with him, while these thousand years run their course. Whence in this book it is said (above, ch. 14): 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.' The Church therefore now reigns with Christ first among the living and the dead. For therefore, as the Apostle says (Rom. 14), 'Christ died, that he might have dominion over both the living and the dead.'

But for this reason he commemorated only the souls of the martyrs, because they especially reign after death, who strove even unto death for the truth. But by the part standing for the whole we shall understand also the other dead who pertain to the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ. As for what follows, 'And those who did not adore the beast nor its image, nor received its inscription on the forehead or on their hand,' we ought to take it of both the living and the dead alike. But what this beast is, which he has bidden, must be more diligently inquired into;

yet it does not shrink from right faith that the impious city itself be understood, and the people of the unbelievers opposed to the faithful people and to the city of God; and its image, its simulation, seems to me to be in all those, namely, who as it were profess the faith and live unfaithfully. For they feign themselves to be what they are not; they are called Christians by a true likeness but a false image, for they pertain to that same beast. Not only the open enemies of the name of Christ and of his most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of his kingdom, which is the Church, at the end of the world. And who are they that do not adore the beast nor its image, except those who do what the Apostle says (2 Cor. 6): 'Be not you a yoke drawing together with unbelievers'?

For they do not adore, that is, they do not consent, they do not submit themselves. Nor do they receive the inscription, namely the mark of crime on the forehead on account of profession, on the hand on account of operation. Estranged, therefore, from these evils, whether still living in this mortal flesh or deceased, they reign with Christ even now in a certain way suited to this time, throughout this whole interval which is signified by the number of a thousand years. 'The rest of them did not live,' he says. For 'the hour is now, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God' (John 5), 'and those who hear shall live.' The rest of them, therefore, shall not live.

But as for what he added, 'until the thousand years be finished,' it is to be understood that during that time they did not live in which they ought to have lived, namely by passing from death to life; and therefore, when the day shall come on which the resurrection also of the bodies shall take place, they shall come forth from the tombs not to life but to judgement, namely to condemnation, which is called the second death. For 'until the thousand years be finished,' whoever did not live, that is, throughout all that time in which the first resurrection is being enacted, and did not hear the voice of the Son of God so as to pass from death to life, shall surely, in the second resurrection which is of the flesh, pass with that same flesh into the second death. For it follows and says: 'This is the first resurrection.'

'Blessed and holy is he who has part in this first resurrection.' That is, who has been a partaker of it. And he is a partaker of it who not only revives from the death in which he is in sins, but also abides in that in which he has revived. 'In these,' he says, 'the second death has no power.' It has power, therefore, in the rest, of whom above he said: 'The rest of them did not live, until the thousand years be finished,' since throughout that whole interval of time which he calls a thousand years, however long each of them may have lived in the body, he did not revive from death. But when he had said, 'in these the second death has no power,' he added, saying:

'They sat as priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.' This is certainly not said of bishops and presbyters alone, but just as we call all Christs on account of the mystical chrism, so all priests, since all are members of the one Priest; of whom the apostle Peter says: 'A holy nation,' he says (1 Pet. 2), 'a royal priesthood.' 'And when the thousand years shall be finished,' he says, 'Satan shall be loosed from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them into battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea.' To this end, therefore, he then seduces, that he may draw them into battle: for before too, by the means he could, he seduced them through many and various evils.

But 'he went out,' it is said, into open persecution, that he might burst out from the sides of hatreds in a last persecution, at the judgement; therefore before the whole Church and the cities of Christ shall suffer from the whole city of the devil, however great each shall be upon the earth. Now these nations, Gog and Magog, some suspect to be the Getae and Massagetae, on account of the first letters of these names. But attending to the interpretation of the names, we recognise a better sense to be fitted to them. For Gog is said to mean 'roof,' Magog 'from the roof,' as it were a house and he himself who proceeds from the house.

The nations, therefore, are those in which we above understood the devil to be enclosed as in an abyss, and he himself in a manner raising himself up out of them and proceeding forth, so that they are the roof, he from the roof. But if we refer both to the nations, not one of them to those and the other to the devil, then they are both the roof, because in them the enemy is now enclosed and covered, and they will be 'from the roof' when they shall break out into open hatred. But as for what he says:

'And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city,' they are certainly not signified to have come or to be about to come to one place, as though the camp of the saints and the beloved city were to be in some one place, since this is nothing other than the Church of Christ, diffused throughout the whole globe of lands. And through this, wherever the Church shall then be—which shall be in all nations, which is signified by the name of the breadth of the earth—where the camp of the saints shall be, there the city beloved by God shall be, there by all her enemies she shall be encompassed with the savagery of that persecution, that is, in the straits of tribulation she shall be pressed, urged, shut in: nor does she desert her warfare, which is designated by the term 'camp.' But as for what he says:

'And fire came down from heaven and devoured them,' it is not to be thought that this is the final punishment by which we know the impious are to be tormented (Matt. 25), but rather the fire of envy by which the adversary shall be tormented at the firmness of the saints; for it is the firmament, whence, because stability comes to the saints from thence, deservedly fire too is said to come thence upon the persecutors. Hence we read, 'Zeal took hold of the untaught people, and now fire shall consume the adversaries.' This last persecution, which is to be from Antichrist for three years and six months, shall be.

Whether this time, though brief, pertains to the thousand years in which he says both that the devil is bound and that the saints reign with Christ, or whether this small span is superadded to those same years and lies outside them, is with reason doubted: because if we say it pertains to those same years, the reign of the saints with Christ will be found extended for not so long a time, but a longer one, than the devil is bound. For assuredly the saints with their King shall reign, especially in that very persecution, conquering such great evils, when the devil shall no longer be bound, so as to be able to persecute them with all his strength.

How, then, does this Scripture determine both things—namely the binding of the devil and the reign of the saints—by the same thousand years, when by an interval of three years and six months the binding of the devil is designated to end earlier than the reign of the saints with Christ within these thousand years? But if we say that this small span of persecution is not to be reckoned within the thousand years, but rather to be added when they are completed, then it can be properly understood. For when he had said, 'priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years,' he added: 'And when the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed from his prison.' For in this way he signifies that both the reign of the saints and the bond of the devil shall cease together.

Whence, if it be believed that the time of that persecution pertains neither to the reign of the saints nor to the custody of Satan—both of which are within the thousand years—but is superadded and to be reckoned outside, we are compelled to confess that the saints in that persecution shall not reign with Christ; but who would dare to say that then his members shall not reign with him, when they shall cleave to him most greatly and most strongly, and at the time when, the greater the onslaught of war shall be, the greater shall be the glory of not yielding, the denser the crown of martyrdom! Wherefore the years of the saints reigning with Christ were more than those of the bond and custody of the devil, because they, with their King the Son of God, the devil now being no longer bound, shall reign even through those three years and a half.

It remains, therefore, that when we hear 'the priests of God and of Christ shall reign with him a thousand years, and when the thousand years are finished Satan shall be loosed from his custody,' we should understand either that these thousand years belong not to the reign of the saints but to the binding and custody of the devil; or that the thousand years — that is, all their respective years — are to be reckoned by each part with differing and proper durations, longer for the reign of the saints and shorter for the binding of the devil; or else that Scripture was unwilling to reckon the very brief span of three years and six months, either because the reign of the saints seems to be somewhat longer, as we often find such things in the sacred writings.

After this mention of the last persecution, he briefly embraces the whole of what the devil, together with his prince, the hostile city, is to suffer in the final judgement. For he says: 'And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.' The beast is rightly understood to be that impious city itself, while the false prophet is either its Antichrist, or that image — that is, the fabrication of which he here spoke: 'And I saw,' he says, 'a great and white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face heaven and earth fled away, and their place was not found.' He says that he saw seated on the throne one from whose face heaven and earth fled.

For afterwards, when the judgement is accomplished, heaven and earth cease to be, when there shall begin to be a new heaven and a new earth — by a change, that is, of things not to perish altogether; this world shall pass away, whence also the Apostle says (1 Cor. 7): 'For the fashion of this world passes away.' The fashion, therefore, passes, not the nature. 'And I saw,' he says, 'the dead, great and small, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is that of the life of each one, and the dead were judged out of those writings of the books according to their deeds.' He said that the books were opened, and a book; but of what sort the book was, he did not pass over in silence.

Those books, then, are understood to be of the New and Old Testament, so that when it is shown in them what God had commanded to be done, it might be made clear in that other book what each one of these had done or not done. This book must not be conceived of in a carnal way, nor thought to contain, as though inscribed in writing, the lives of individuals to be reviewed at the judgement. For a certain divine power is to be understood, by which it shall come to pass that all one's works, whether good or evil, are recalled to memory and beheld by the mind's gaze with wondrous speed, so that knowledge may accuse or excuse conscience; and thus at once both all together and each singly are judged. This divine power has, of course, received the name of a book. For in it, in a certain manner, is read whatever by its working is recalled.

But in order to show who the dead, small and great, were that were judged, recapitulating he speaks, as though returning to what he had passed by, or rather had deferred. 'And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell rendered up the dead they held in themselves.' This without doubt took place before the dead were judged. Therefore he recapitulated what he had left out; but now, keeping the order, he says: 'and each one was judged according to his deeds.' But who are the dead whom the sea gave up, save those whom, placed in the world, the second coming of Christ finds? — signifying by the name of the dead both the good and the evil: the good, to whom it is said (Col. 3): 'For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God';

but the evil, of whom it is said (Matt. 8, Luke 9): 'Let the dead bury their dead.' They can also be called dead for this reason, that they bear mortal bodies; whence the Apostle (Rom. 8): 'The body indeed,' he says, 'is dead because of sin, but the spirit lives because of righteousness,' showing that both are present in a man living in this body. 'The sea, then,' he says, 'gave up': because just as they were found, so they were present. 'But death and hell rendered up,' since they recalled them from the life out of which they had already departed. Nor perhaps was it without reason that it was not enough to say 'death or hell,' but both were named — death for the sake of the good, who could suffer death only, and not hell also;

but hell for the sake of the evil, who pay their penalties even among the dead below. For if it may be believed without absurdity that even the ancient saints, who held the faith of Christ who was to come, were among the dead below, in places most remote from the torments of the impious, until the blood of Christ and his descent to those places delivered them thence — then assuredly the faithful who are henceforth good, already redeemed by the shedding of that price, know nothing at all of hell, until, having received back their bodies also, they receive the good things they merit. But when he had said, 'and each one was judged according to his deeds,' he briefly added how: 'Death and hell,' he says, 'were cast into the lake of fire.'

By these names he signifies the devil, since he is the author of death and of infernal punishments, and together the whole society of demons. For this is what above, by anticipating more plainly, he had already said: 'And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.' But what there he had added more obscurely, saying 'that both the beast and the false prophet,' here more openly: 'And whoever were not found,' he says, 'written in the book of life were cast into the lake of fire.' Not that this book keeps a record lest it be deceived by forgetfulness, but it signifies the predestination of those to whom eternal life shall be given.