For the Church, especially now that the tares have been removed, exulting in the elect alone, remains consecrated in the Lord, resting more securely as though in a temple, so that in Him from whom she took the origin of her being, and from whom she experienced the gentleness of redemption, she may also obtain her blessed dwelling. For in these three things her whole sum is accomplished: to be, to know, to love. Now God founded her that she might be formed, He illumined her when she was called, He blessed her when she was chosen, when He makes her, by the promised glorification, to dwell as one made perfect, no longer walking by faith but rejoicing in vision. 'And the city,' he says, 'has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it; for the brightness of God enlightens it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.'
Wishing wholly to detach us from the accustomed alternation of daily and nightly light, and to recall us to that unchangeable light, he says: 'It has no need of sun or moon'; nor does he assert that that city is illuminated by the same order, but by a far better and ineffable light, namely the Sun of righteousness, of whom the prophet, making mention, says (Malachi 4): 'And healing is in His wings.' For He is the true Son, and eternal life, and the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1). Since in this age, as to His Deity, neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man (1 Corinthians 2), this could not be explained better than what he here said: 'The brightness of the Lord enlightens it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.'
For what more surpassing thing could be given to the victor than that he should be counted worthy to possess the very Giver of gifts? Indeed he shall enjoy in the fatherland that very light by which we are now governed as we walk on the way; formed by the same, we discern between good and evil, and made blessed by the same, we then behold only those things which are good. 'And the nations,' he says, 'shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it.' By these words he surely wished it to be understood that this same Lamb is the way to the pilgrims who then will be the life to the citizens. For whatever dignity they shall have attained, they must of necessity confer upon the honor of the Giver by due praises. He here calls them spiritual kings, of whom we read: 'He is mighty, and gives strength to our kings, and has exalted the horn of His Christ' (1 Samuel 2).
'And its gates shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there.' The perpetual light of the Lamb, nay rather that everlasting light itself in place of light, he records will be of profit in that city once the time of night is taken away, just as Isaiah (chapter 66): 'There shall be,' he says, 'to them month after month, and sabbath after sabbath,' signifying by 'month' the light, on account of the fullest brightness of the moon, and by 'sabbath' the perpetual rest. As if he said: light to them out of light, and eternal rest is continued to them out of rest. And that the gates shall not be shut declares the tokens of the fullest security. For there it will no longer be said, 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation' (Matthew 26), but rather, 'Be still and see that I am the Lord' (Psalm 46).
There what is seen is honorably loved, and what is loved shall be praised without ceasing; there no one grows slack in idleness, nor is wearied by the task of unending praise. 'And they shall bring the honor and majesty of the nations into it,' because she is to be gathered out of all nations. 'And there shall not enter into it anything unclean, or one working the abomination of life, but only they who are written in the book of life of the Lamb.' He circumscribes the Church of the time to come, when she shall no longer, as now, endure the wicked dwelling mingled among the good, because the good alone shall reign with Christ, with whom and in whom they shall faithfully remain, the same heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of all. He says that they are written in the book of that Lamb, who says: 'Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven' (Luke 10). There follows:
Chapter 22. 'And he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the midst of its street.' By the river of life in the middle of the city, mediating through the midst, it is not now the celebration of baptism that is indicated, but the fruit of that very sacrament shall now be revealed. For now that is sown in tears which shall then be reaped in joy (Psalm 126). And therefore now the Church sows in the spirit, that from the spirit she may reap eternal life (Galatians 6). When therefore we have proved by experience, when the fruit of the profit of the grace received in the sacrament shall have found us out, then in John there is shown to the Church the river of the water of life clear as crystal, that is, steadfastness in faith.
'For he who has persevered to the end, this one shall be saved' (Matthew 10, 24). Signifying this, there follows: 'And on either side of the river the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit through each of the months, and the leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations; nor shall there any longer be any curse.' By the twelve months he intimates all time, and altogether designates perpetuity. Wherefore where there is eternal vigor, no dryness is signified ever to be found there to reach an end; where there is perfect and stable health, no infirmity at all breaks in. Which the prophet promises, saying (Isaiah 35): 'They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.' That is the tree which we read was planted beside the streams of waters (Psalm 1),
of which also Jeremiah says (chapter 17), that he who places his hope and confidence in the Lord shall send his roots toward the moisture. In another way, 'the river of the water of life,' etc., is rightly recognized to signify the very fountain of life, the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom we read (Psalm 36): 'With You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light.' For He it is, even as we read (Wisdom 7), 'the Image of the majesty of God, all-powerful, and abiding in Himself, He renews all things, and through the nations He rests in holy souls.' That fountain, therefore, which is also a stream: a fountain, in that He remains in Himself unchangeable; a stream, in that He offers Himself abundantly and continually to the fellowship of the saints. For where He is called a fountain, He is also named a torrent.
For when the psalm (36) had said, 'You shall give them to drink of the torrent of Your delights,' it followed, adding (in the same place): 'For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we shall see light.' And well does he say 'through the midst of the street,' as a good common to all the saints, which is denied to no worthy one, nor given to any unworthy one. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, the mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about His people (Psalm 125). And likewise: 'God, who is glorified in the council of the saints, is great and to be feared above all who are round about Him.' For He is in the midst, as an undivided patrimony to all who see God. Hence we read (Psalm 122): 'Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose participation is in itself.'
But if the fruit of blessed immortality is received from death, rightly the 'leaves' are understood as the song of perpetual praise, which falls to those who now, in health, by a happy lot are singing: for there is the true healing of the nations, full redemption, and everlasting felicity. 'But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.' He did not say 'shall be' (plural), nor 'thrones'; for where the unity is natural and undifferentiated, there above all the glory of the Deity ought to be commended: one throne of an indivisible seat, which can neither be divided by the cunning of Arian depravity, nor confounded by the suspicion of Sabellian vanity, but is held by the confession of catholic truth alone, which by right belief is proved to hold the adoption to behold. 'And they shall see His face.'
Considering that the vision of God, which is promised to the saints in the future, is a matter of great merit, and to be weighed with an altogether surpassing estimation, I chose to adorn this passage with congruous sayings of Saint Augustine, so that, with him teaching, we may without doubt recognize what sort of thing is promised as to come. For, writing to Paulina concerning the vision of God, he says: 'Until, by diligent inquiry, if the Lord shall help, there be found what, according to the Scriptures, is to be thought more probably concerning the spiritual body which is promised in the resurrection, meanwhile let it suffice for us that the only-begotten Son, and the same the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2), so sees the Father as He is seen by the Father.'
'But let us, toward that vision of God which is promised to us in the resurrection, not attempt to transfer that lust of the eyes from this world, but let us with pious zeal give ourselves to the cleansing of our hearts; nor let us think of a bodily face, when the Apostle says (1 Corinthians 13): We see now through a glass in a riddle, but then face to face; especially since he said more expressly (in the same place): Now I know in part, but then I shall know even as also I am known. Whence who would not understand that in that passage he wished to signify also that face of ours, of which he says elsewhere (2 Corinthians 3): But we, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord:
namely, from the glory of faith into the glory of eternal contemplation. For this is what that transformation accomplishes, by which the inner man is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4); of whom the apostle Peter also, when he admonished that it be adorned, says (1 Peter 3): Not that which is adorned from without, by curlings of the hair, or gold, or pearls, and costly raiment; but that hidden man of the heart, who is rich before God. Likewise in book twenty-two Of the City of God, he says thus: The reward of faith is kept for us, the vision of God, of which also John the apostle, speaking, says (1 John 3):
'we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' Now the 'face' of God is to be understood as His manifestation, not any such member as we have in the body, and which is called by that name. And a little after he says: So shall God be known and conspicuous to us, that He may be seen by the spirit by each one of us, seen by one in another, seen in Himself, seen in the new heaven and the new earth, and in every creature that shall then exist. 'And His name written on their foreheads.' He declares that this temple is justified through faith, through which he declares that the merit of eternal life also is conferred, when he causes the name of God and of the Lamb there to be borne written on their foreheads, as though it were recognized to be displayed for a title of glory.
This faith indeed he comprehends in one name. For neither did he say, 'and the names of God and of the Lamb written on their foreheads,' as though he would seem to have signified a twofold person, so that he might keep the rule of that dogma, in speaking of the reigning saints, which formerly the Lord had handed down to be kept by the pilgrim disciples: 'Go,' He says (Matthew 28), 'baptize all nations, dipping them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' For this had to be carefully commended: that the saints would see and possess in vision what they believed while living by faith. 'And night shall be no more, nor shall there be need of the light of a lamp, nor of the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall shine upon them, and they shall reign for ages of ages.'
The frailty of our bodies now, both by these vicissitudes of times and by the disturbances of the elements, in order that it may be made fit for the daily labors, is restored by the quiet of night, and it uses also the lamp by night for consolation. But then, when God shall be all in all (1 Corinthians 15), who is the true light, no one there shall be in need of these elements, no one shall ever be subject to them, when He Himself shall be light to the reigning saints, who is the author of the whole work; nor shall there be need of the exhortation of the perfect nor the preaching of the divine law, which are now said to be a lamp in a dark place, because in the contemplation of God, all things being fulfilled, the perfect promise is held. 'And he said to me: These words are most faithful and true.'
It was not out of distrust of John that he was in doubt, but he was commending the true vision to the whole Church, in which he knew that little ones too would be in the future. 'And the Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent His angel to show to His servants what things must be done.' In brief he taught that he had generally provided for the profit of all. Now He Himself is the Spirit of the prophets, who is also the Holy Spirit, who is surely the Lord, and therefore a prophet. 'I will hear,' he says (Psalm 85), 'what the Lord God speaks in me,' and the beginning of the Lord's speaking in Hosea (chapter 1). For on account of the one essence of the divine Trinity, he opportunely here also named the Holy Spirit, when he had lately made mention of the Father and of the Son. For that which we read (John 4)
that 'God is spirit,' pertains to the whole Trinity. 'Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.' To 'keep' he here calls: reverently to believe, and to guard by a purpose of the purer way. 'And I, John, who heard and saw these things.' The attestation of the revelation is intimated, that it may be established by the judgment of a man. 'And when I had heard,' he says, 'and had seen, I fell down before the feet of the angel who showed me these things, to worship him; and he said to me: See that you do it not, for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets who keep the words of the prophecy of this book. Worship God rather.'
Either he repeated once done what, being restrained, he did not repeat, or, struck by great astonishment at the visions, he confesses that he wished to worship again, just as also the prophet: 'My belly trembled,' he says, 'at the voice of the supplication of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and within me my strength was troubled.' 'And he said to me: Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is now at hand, and let those who persist in doing harm do harm still; and he who is in filth, let him be filthy still.' Here he shows the hidden but just judgments of God, by which wicked men are permitted to advance into worse. But 'to do harm' here ought to be understood not so much to others as rather to themselves. Whence there follows: 'And he who is in filth, let him be filthy still.'
For he who is worthless to himself, to whom will he be good? For another translation also says: 'Let him who is unjust do injustice still, but let the just do more just things, and likewise let the holy do more holy things.' Now I think that he says 'Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book' for this reason, that with the judgment to come drawing near, it was fitting that the divine precepts, judgments, and promises be made manifest, by the observance of which the meek acquire the reward, while the negligent and contumacious incur punishment. For before he had said: 'Seal up the things which the seven thunders spoke, and write them not'; but now, 'Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book.' 'Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to each one according to his works.' It is sufficiently said.
'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.' The faithful preaching of the truth, as an irreproachable pattern of virtues, as often as it is confirmed by repetition, so the spiritual mind is formed with fuller cultivation; which toward the end of the book is expressed briefly indeed, but fittingly, assigning in 'Alpha' the divinity of the Word, in 'Omega' the assumed humanity, a beginning without end. But that I see 'Alpha and Omega' so often repeated in the present book, I recognize was not done in vain. For whether it be for the sake of the more frequent intimation of the one Christ's divinity and humanity, in which we have premised that the whole sum of the Christian faith consists, or that the whole Trinity of one nature be intimated, who says through the prophet (Isaiah 43):
'Before Me no God was formed, and after Me there shall be none. I am God, and there is no Savior besides Me'; or He to whom it is said through the prophet: 'You are God, and before and besides You there is no other God'; or whether some other thing of a better and more secret mystery lie hidden, yet I do not doubt that it is repeated more often for this end, that by grace of understanding it might remain fruitful to the faithful. For the very letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega, make up the sum of the same number which we know is comprised in Greek under the name of the dove.
For the dove is called by a name from which is reckoned the number eight hundred and one, which also they complete. Now in the form of a dove we know that the person of the Holy Spirit is rightly signified to us (Matthew 3), in whose form, descending, He willed to appear: namely, that the madness of the Arians and of other heretics might be frustrated, who assert Him to be alien from the nature of the Father and of the Son, since even through the agreement of this number, here too the heavenly revelation manifests the Holy Spirit to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son, and (declaring) in the washed robes of the divine, the keeping of the commandments. For John also composed the beginning of his Gospel with the same senses, though set forth in different words, saying (John 1):
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'; and a little after (in the same place), 'And the Word was made flesh.' Wherein consists the whole sum of the faith, that in one and the same Christ perfect deity and true humanity be believed. But as regards uprightness of morals, he says (in the same place): 'But as many as received Him, He gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in His name,' surely subjoining to faith the charity which is the reward; which he seems to have narrated here too by parallel paths, intimating in the 'Alpha' Christ, but signifying the unstained life by the white robes, to which he likewise promises the same reward, saying: 'That their power may be over the tree of life.'
Now the tree of life is Christ, as we read: 'Wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her' (Proverbs 3). But they are not to be thought to be above Christ in this, because the disciple is not above the master, nor the servant above his lord (Matthew 10). But I have here said 'over the tree of life' in this way, as if one should say, 'Their infirmity shall rest upon the tree of life,' that is, upon the Lord Christ, of whom the prophet also says, 'And upon the Holy One of Israel they are established.' For from whence strength is received, thereupon they are said to be. In the same understanding it is said also to Saint Peter (Matthew 16): 'Upon this rock I will build My Church,' that is, upon Me. And the prophet, in different words but the same sense, says (Psalm 59):
'My strength, to You will I keep.' 'And they may enter through the gates into the holy city.' Concerning which gates I think it is written (Psalm 118): 'Open to me the gates of righteousness, that entering into them I may confess to the Lord; this is the gate of the Lord, the just shall enter through it.' For otherwise that city cannot be entered except through Christ, who said (John 10): 'I am the door,' so that 'no one comes to the Father except through Me.' 'But outside shall remain the dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and those serving idols, and the poisoners, and all who love and make a lie.' To these men diligence in expounding is not to be applied, but solicitude in taking heed is to be expended. 'I, Jesus, sent My angel to testify these things to you in the seven churches.'
About to resume the sequence of the book, he assigns the intention of the first account, so that the later things may agree with the earlier. 'I am the root and origin of David.' The preaching of the divinity of Christ being premised, according to what I have expounded a while ago, he preaches also the form of the servant which He assumed for us, saying: 'I am the root and race of David, the bright and morning star.' With the grace of the New Testament shining forth, he shows the time of the first resurrection, when Christ rose from the dead. Hence we read (Psalm 130): 'From the morning watch until night let Israel hope in the Lord.' 'And the Spirit and the new bride say,' that is, Christ and the Church: 'We exhort, Come.' 'And let him who hears say: Come.' Explaining himself, he unfolds the affection of his exhortation, and says:
'And let him who thirsts come and drink; and let him who wills take the water of life freely.' How does he 'who wills' take it, since He said (John 6): 'No one comes to me unless the Father, who sent me, draw him'—except because from one at first unwilling we know one is made willing by divine inspiration? For here too he fittingly (affirms) free will by saying 'Let him who wills take,' so that immediately grace may be preached in that he says 'the water of life freely'; and so, with no preceding goods, let him take the water of life freely. For 'what,' says the Apostle (1 Corinthians 4), 'have you that you did not receive?' Therefore we receive even the will of coming from God freely, to whom we conferred no merit that we should exist—how much more that we should be made just out of sinners!
'I, John, testify to all who hear the words of the prophecy of this book.' This says He who commanded that testimony be borne. Whom he above records as the faithful witness, of Him now (he testifies) what He commanded to be borne in witness, lest the profit of so wholesome a book should be thought to be despised; he set his own person after in laudable humility, and opposes Christ to the despisers. For what the faithful witness, the Head, fulfilled, when He said (John 4): 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent me,' or the like—this may help to be fulfilled also by the body. 'If anyone shall add to these things, God shall add upon him the plagues written in this book.'
'And if anyone shall take away, the Lord shall take away his part from the book of life, and from the holy city, and from those things which are written in this book.' And Solomon says (Proverbs 30): 'Add nothing to His words, lest you be reproved and found a liar.' But here he added also the terror of the plagues, so that not only by the weight of authority he might press by admonishing, but also by threats might either rouse the slothful or restrain the rash. He who bears witness of these things says: 'Yea, I come quickly: Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.' The same Christ bears witness, who announces that He will come to the Church, to whom, after the manner of the Song of Songs (Canticles 2, 4, 5, 7), the devoted Church replies: 'Yea, come, Lord Jesus Christ,' who, praying, says, 'Your kingdom come' (Matthew 6),
'and in the unstained way You shall come to me.' Since the fullness of the work undertaken is therefore to be concluded with a devoted and due ending, and, being diffused more widely and digested in manifold ways, we know that it is grasped with difficulty—because neither does adequate memory support all things, nor will swift attention be able to fit the passages related to each single matter—I judge that we must proceed by necessary compendia, so that, the authority of the whole book having been run through, the sequence of the conclusion may again be unrolled by a brief recapitulation, intimated part by part, so that the text of all five books may summarily shine forth defined in one place, since it both receives the division of individual (books) and seems to obtain fullness throughout the whole.
In the seven angels of the churches, therefore, the unity of the universal Church—just as many—is described, with the necessary interposition of names; which unity, designated also in the golden candlesticks, teaches that it has the wicked mingled with the good, whose diverse quality is either soothed by praises unto progress, or is blamed by rebukes unto disgrace. This too he describes as to be recognized in the twenty-four elders, through the dispensation of Christ and the preaching of the evangelists, by a repeated signification. These things indeed in the first (book). But in the second book, the dignity of the book sealed with Christ at the head is said to be requited by the merit of the accomplished dispensation, so that the two in one flesh (Ephesians 5)
—Christ and the Church—may be understood, and that in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, hidden before, lay concealed, in whom they are taught (Colossians 2) to have shone forth, revealed in their own time. The same, on the white horse, formerly appeared in deed, sent forth, who is said to have proceeded, revealed, to sight. After Christ's triumph over death, he enumerates the future assaults upon the Church and the plagues of the human race, which he says are to be inflicted through the significations of the horses—the red, the black, and the pale. Among these he records the martyrs born beneath the altar of God; the sixth age of the world he announces by the sixth seal, to come at the end with a great onset of persecution.
In the four angels he attests the four kingdoms of the world, in a voice consonant with Daniel, whom the first ancient coming of Christ relates were not to harm the number of the elect; and lest they should be passed over even by a transient account, he inserted the names of the twelve tribes together with the number of the sealed. And that he might show one Church to exist out of the race of Israel and out of the nations, he soon added the calling of the nations. Of these he wished to narrate the faith out of their works, and the reward of faith.
In the third book also he describes the Church in the seven angels and trumpets, with a pleasing repetition after his manner, which he records is to be exercised by external and internal persecutions and perils, when, after the one angel who stood over the altar of God with a golden censer, he seems to have set opposite a second, third, and fourth as adversaries; and, the mention of the eagle being again interposed with the Church, from the pit of the abyss, among locusts, with smoke and war-horses, he says heretics come forth, whose bite is as of scorpions; among which he says the one 'woe' has passed away.
The action of the four angels, with the number of eighty and twice ten thousand times ten thousand, by which he describes in diverse manner the continual heresiarchs with horsemen having breastplates of fire and brimstone, and he soon annexes the error of heathenism, which is to be reduced to the second 'woe.' In the angel clothed with a cloud, the first coming of Christ is designated, by whose preaching he says sweetness in the mouth is produced from the good, and bitterness in the weakness of the belly from the wicked. But in the voice of the seventh angel, the end of the sixth age and the beginning of the seventh is announced. In the two martyrs, two kinds of martyrdom are to be recognized, and he says the third 'woe' has come.
With the mention of the second coming interposed, Christ's nativity again is narrated with the temple of God opened in heaven, that is, the Church, which, following the footsteps of her Head as victor, is said to have arisen from the battle of the dragon. In the fourth book accordingly there is dispute concerning the beast, which he says has seven heads and ten horns, in which is designated the adversity contrary to Christ and the Church; which, though he says it will prevail for a time by the signs of Antichrist, is nevertheless to be endured by the patient prudence of the saints. He forewarns that the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number, is to be investigated. After these things he circumscribes the Church steadfast in the elect, reckoned by the name of the Lamb and titled by the sacred number.