'That the world may know that I do the will of the Father, arise, let us go hence.' Wherefore He is known to have then revealed the deeds of this sealed book, when He taught that He remained one Beginning with the Father: and, born of the Virgin, He bore true manhood; also taking upon Himself an undeserved suffering for the salvation of the world, rising by a triumphant death He opened the tomb after He had shattered hell; and when, as it were revisiting heaven, He sent to the disciples the promised Holy Spirit, by whose filling of the whole earth He acquired a multitude of the nations, and taught that He would be the awaited future Judge. And when He had opened one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures, saying as it were with a voice of thunder: 'Come and see.'
And behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him held a bow (an arrow), and a crown was given to him, and he went forth to conquer, and he went forth conqueror. First, as we have premised, it is set in the utterance, to which understanding being joined, it soon supplies the inner recesses of the action itself; and what proceeds in deed agrees with the word, and with the report of understanding—which in the other signs I wish the reader attentively to observe. For it said: 'I heard one of the four living creatures, saying: Come and see.' What is one living creature, this is the whole Church, which thunders with the great voice of preaching, inviting the succeeding Church to the faith: 'Come and see' (John 1); 'If any man thirst, let him come and drink' (John 7); 'Come ye to Him and be enlightened' (Psalm 34):
'Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee' (Ephesians 5). And behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him held an arrow, and a crown was given to him, and he went forth to conquer, and he went forth conqueror. This horse can be understood as the apostles and preachers of the Church's truth, whitened above snow by grace (Psalm 51), whose Rider is Christ. Therefore it is said to Him through the prophet (Habakkuk 3): 'Because Thou didst ascend upon Thy horses, and Thy horsemanship is salvation.' On which account He is also said to hold an arrow, which is more fitly compared to the preaching of the word of God, by which the inward parts of men, being pierced through, can bring forth the fruit of faith. Hence we read (Psalm 45): 'Thy arrows are sharp, O most mighty; the peoples shall fall under Thee.'
It signifies that a crown is truly owed to the preachers. And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying: 'Come and see.' That the same words of exhortation, of coming and seeing, are repeated in an unlike cause—since the white horse is set in good, but the red in evil—I think to be this: that just as from the good He promises joy for the victory of the Church, so from the evil He announces a warning out of the foreknowledge of things to come. For there follows: 'And there went out another horse that was red, and to him that sat thereon it was given that he should take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and a great sword was given to him.'
This red horse, as it were bloodied with another's blood, not its own, is proclaimed to fight against the victorious Church, when it is intimated to take away from the earth the peace which surpasses all knowledge—which is taught both by deed and by the sword. And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying: 'Come and see.' And I saw a black horse, and he that sat upon him had a balance in his hand. In which balance is signified a feigned weighing, by which they weigh out the merits of each. For whatsoever befits a just judge, transgressors also usurp. Thence is that saying: 'I will set my throne toward the north' (Isaiah 14). And because, God permitting, they were able to prevail for a time, He teaches in this manner: 'Hurt not the wine and the oil.'
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying: 'Two pounds of wheat for a penny, and thrice two pounds of barley for a penny, and hurt not the wine and the oil.' By wheat and barley He has spoken of the Church, whether in the great and the least, or in prelates and peoples. Now one pair of pounds is not less than three. For the same perfection is both in singularity and in Trinity. Thus the Lord (Matthew 13; Luke 13) says the leaven is hidden in three measures of meal, showing that from a little, the whole people is consecrated to wisdom and doctrine by the mystical number of the undivided Trinity. But He also teaches that the price of wheat and barley is one, even though one deservedly surpasses the other, yet by one price both were redeemed.
Otherwise, on account of the diversity of professions, I think the unequal number of one and three is set down. And by the penny is signified eternal life, which among the many mansions is common to all; so that even though, through the difference of merits, one there may be more exalted than another, enriched with a superior reward, yet none is more long-lived in comparison with another; where there will be one immortality for each, a common eternity remains for all. In the wine and the oil, therefore, He forbids the power of the sacraments to be violated, namely the anointing and the precious blood. Hence we read (Zechariah 9): 'What is His good, and what is His beautiful, but the corn of the elect and the wine springing forth virgins?' And in the psalm: 'Wine maketh glad the heart of man...'
'...and the face is made glad with oil' (Psalm 104). And when He had opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying: 'Come and see.' And I saw a pale horse, and he that sat upon him, his name was Death, and hell followed him; and power was given to him over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, with famine, and with death, and with the beasts, those who are on the earth. There are two parts in the world, one of God and the other of the devil. But the devil's part is subdivided into three parts, within and without, that is, the heathen, false brethren, and those separated by open error or schism. There are therefore three parts which war against the one. Over which He foretold that now a fourth power is given.
This He calls the Church, which on its part must be exercised by the various swords of the wicked. Which is also to be recognized in the number of the angels, so that against one and the same good He set three evil ones from the opposing side: the red one with the sword, the second the black with the balance, but the third pale with the sign of death—announcing by the sword war, by the black famine, by the pale death. And while He assigned plagues to each singly, moreover by the third also, or through it, numbering all things, He foretells the coming plagues, with the name of the beasts added. And because even so it could remain hidden whether the speech be simple or figurative, since a sword is wont to be inflicted both visibly on the body and spiritually on the soul;
so also concerning famine, whether it be recorded of the word of the Lord or of the body; but also concerning death, whether it here threatens eternal death to souls, or momentary death to bodies—yet it is clear that that fourth good one, against which He sets three evil ones on the opposite side, is to be exercised by all these visible temporal persecutions. For if any have been called according to the purpose of the will of God (Ephesians 1), they will remain in the fulness of the elect, especially those around whom He willed the sacraments of wine and oil to be preserved unharmed, by saying: 'Hurt not the wine and the oil'—in the wine signifying the price of redemption, in the oil the chrism of baptism.
Yea, having made mention of barley and of wheat, He shows that the Church cannot perish by any persecution of the wicked until the end of the age, in that He numbers these same kinds not ignobly, but with a consecrated number and with the amount of a price. And in short, that which those wickedly exercise for their own punishment, God the supremely good, turning it to the profit of His own, affords us an occasion for spiritual triumphs. And at last there follows: And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of God the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for their testimony; and they cried with a loud voice, saying: 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' And white robes were given to them, to each one.
Concerning those remaining ones indeed, whom God, even amid adversities, by the secret counsel of His working renders more safe, He says He saw the remains (relics), that is, the souls, of the martyrs—not in a vile place, nor in any place whatever, but under the altar of God; that is, either persevering in the unity of the Church, or under the testimony of the name of Christ, as it were under the altar of God, contending manfully unto death, as was said of the Maccabees, under the covenant of God: 'But blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.' Much more, therefore, do those who, knowing in the Lord that they have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, desiring to be clothed upon with their habitation which is from heaven (2 Corinthians 5), are on this account said to intercede.
But we conjecture these things thus, so that, the groans of hell being now loosed through the Passion of the Lord, we should not suppose the souls of the saints to come any longer to the lower regions. Which I think is here more fitly signified, so that, after the likeness of the Old Testament, where the golden altar is described to have been within, here by the term of the memorable altar there may be recognized the intellectual secret, as it were the inner Holy of Holies, in which here, the pledge of salvation having been received, pilgrims sigh, having hope as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, and entering even to the inner things of the veil, where for us the forerunner Jesus entered (according to the Apostle's saying, Hebrews 6), who thus insinuated the presence by the intention of Christ, so as to expound the figures.
'How long, O Lord holy and true, dost Thou not judge and not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?' Which is not to be believed in a carnal sense, as though they were inflamed with animosity of vengeance—since we know that by those placed here, through the abundance of charity, even enemies are loved (Mark 5)—but it is manifest that they prayed against the reign of sin, and asked such things out of desire for that Kingdom concerning which we say: 'Thy kingdom come' (Matthew 6). And we understand this to have been revealed to them by the presence of divine wisdom: that both the impious are inevitably to be smitten with eternal punishment, and that, while unto the end of the age the fount of heavenly grace flows forth, many are still to be joined to the fellowship of the holy martyrs.
Having received which answer, these are heaped up with unspeakable joy, which we rightly believe to be figured by the white robes. Therefore each received white robes, that is, so that through the perfection of charity, which is poured into the hearts of believers through the Holy Spirit, content with this consolation, they themselves would rather that it be deferred, for the number of the rest of the brethren to be filled up. For that which, inspired by God, they perform in vows through benevolence, they are said, as they intercede, to be forthwith informed by the answer; nor is it lawful to believe that they desire anything against the will of God, since their desires depend upon His will. And I saw, and when He had opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and behold the sun became black as sackcloth of hair.
By the sixth seal is recognized the sixth age of the world, about whose end the last persecution is announced, by whose vehement onset, as by an earthquake, He says the whole globe is shaken. The sun and the moon, Christ and the Church, because in the last persecution many, being terrified, will deny them, therefore the sun is said to be darkened. 'For if our Gospel is hidden,' he says (2 Corinthians 4), 'it is veiled in them that perish, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine.' Hence it is said (Matthew 24): 'So that, if it were possible, even the elect should be led into error.'
In this manner the sun is said to have become black, as though the power of Christ's works, or His doctrine, were temporarily darkened, or its defense delayed, when the impious are permitted to rage against the saints. Hence the prophet (Habakkuk 1): 'Wilt Thou keep silence in this, that the wicked devoureth the just?' Concerning Christ Himself finally we read (Luke 2): 'Behold, this One is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted.' In Him certain ones take progress, from whom others, being turned away, incur failing. The moon into blood: the Church is foretold to shed blood for Christ more abundantly than usual, with a great crash of persecutions pressing upon her. And so by her own blood, not another's blood—as that red horse is described as red with another's blood.
The stars fell to the earth in the manner in which a fig tree, shaken by a great wind, casts off its unripe fruits. By the stars are signified those who in the Church, when they are esteemed by all to be of the number of the elect and seem for a time to be eminent, yet, with the fury of persecution pressing more sharply, are said to fall from the summit of their state as it were from heaven—which the Lord foretells in the Gospel, saying (Matthew 24): 'For there shall be such tribulation as never was nor shall be. And unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened.' He sets the tree as the Church; the unripe fruits, which another translation calls unripe figs, as men;
by the agitation of the wind, the commotion of persecution, through which men, being shaken, are torn away from the Church. But they are properly compared to becoming unripe fruits, either on account of the unbelief which, being turned into a crooked bow (Psalm 78), they prefer to seek again, faith being abandoned; or on account of the immaturity of time, through which it comes to pass that, when the Church has sought their happy birth by conceiving, yet by an unhappy outcome she suffers a lamentable miscarriage of them. And the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled up. Rightly does it intimate that heaven (that is, the Church) departed as a scroll unrolled and not rolled up. For whatever has been rolled up can in no way be recognized by anyone. For what is unrolled is forthwith declared, being uncovered.
So also she, when she has been distinguished by manifest persecution, avoiding it, withdraws, so that she may not be seen as hidden by strangers, known only to herself (that is, to those to whom she can entrust herself) through the unity of the Spirit; she guards against the unknown and the foreign, and by the spirit of discernment conceals herself, lest, being understood, she be betrayed. Hence John: 'Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God' (1 John 4). And every mountain and the islands are moved from their places, and the kings of the earth, and the magistrates, and the tribunes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and free man. The Church too is figured by mountains and islands. For she is the city set upon a mountain (Matthew 5). On which account we read (Psalm 125): 'The mountains are round about it'; and (Isaiah...)
(Isaiah 24), 'In the islands of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel.' Which He foretells to be moved from its place by the impulse of persecution. But it can be taken in either part: in the good, indeed, taking precaution she is moved by fleeing; but in the evil, moved by a treacherous will she is turned to the worse, as He says (Revelation 2): 'I will move thy candlestick out of its place.' By the kings of the earth we understand the powerful, namely those fit by the judgment of their own discernment to stand firm with certainty. Magistrates, tribunes, the rich, and the strong—all these He wishes to be understood according to the diversity of offices and the quality of powers; and He foretells that none is a stranger to the trouble of that persecution, although no one doubts that the number of the elect is to be delivered. And every bondman and free man.
The free man is recognized as one free from the marriage bond, but the bondman as one joined in wedlock. They hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, saying to the mountains and the rocks: 'Fall upon us' (Luke 23), 'and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand before Him?' By the caves and rocks of the mountains we fittingly understand the refuges of the Christian faith. For it is written (Proverbs 30): 'The little hare, a weak people, maketh its bed in the rock'; with which sense the psalm accords, saying (Psalm 104): 'The high mountains are for the harts; the rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs and hares.'
Where also we recognize the exalted in the Church to be designated by the name of mountains, on account of the eminent knowledge of the charity of Christ (Philippians 3). These, therefore, the little ones now consult, with the crash of persecution urging them, seeking remedies of protection; they are said to seek the shelters of the firm rock; for to whatever of such mountains they flee, they are said to flee to the rock dwelling in them. 'And the rock,' he says (1 Corinthians 10), 'was Christ.' When, therefore, they are fortified by the counsels of those mountains, to be covered by saving admonitions and overshadowed by counsels, they entreat that, as it were, those very mountains fall upon them through the affection of compassion. For each one is covered under the shade of him by whose remedy of exhortation he is fortified beforehand. Hence Isaiah (chapter 2):
'And then,' he says, 'enter thou into the rock, hide thyself in a ditch, in the ground, from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the face of His fury, when He shall rise up to strike the earth.' What He here says those, compelled by grievous persecution, seek, this the prophet seems to exhort—that in that persecution too, which has no like, we should seek the refuge of Christ and of the Church, of the unconquered Head and the glorious Body. But that which He says, 'from the face of the Lamb sitting upon the throne,' is so that His coming may find them, namely, not reprobate, but stable in faith. Moreover the kind of speech is to be noted, which the Holy Spirit has wrapped up in this book. For up to the sixth seal He kept the order; and, the seventh being for a little while passed over, He recapitulates the same things;
and, weaving together two narratives as though following the order, He concludes with the seventh. But the recapitulation itself is to be understood according to the places. For sometimes He recapitulates from the origin of Christ's dispensation, sometimes from the Passion, sometimes from a middle time, sometimes concerning that persecution alone, or what He is about to say not long before. Now therefore, the sixth having been described, He returns to the origin, about to say the same thing briefly and otherwise. Chapter VII. After these things, he says, I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that they should not blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree. In these four corners the Church in John recognizes four kingdoms to be designated: of the Assyrians, and of the Medes, and of the Persians, and of the Romans:
which, in a certain way suffocating all things by their dominion, would allow none to breathe at the pleasure of its own right. Therefore: 'Lest they blow,' he says, 'upon the earth,' that is, upon those inhabiting the earth, 'nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree.' But therefore four, on account of just so many best-known parts of the world, which are the four corners, that is, four winds are to be understood, according to the prophecy of Daniel (chapter 7) saying: 'Behold the four winds of heaven fought upon the great sea, and four beasts diverse among themselves came up out of the sea.' And since the Church, through all four cardinal points of the world, seems still to have its portion intermingled with the kingdoms of the world, and among strangers to have its own, and within itself is known to have strangers: in the lands, the diversity of provinces;
in the sea, of islands; in the trees, because it is a kind of forest, He willed to signify beforehand, according to diversity, diverse offices also and qualities of men. And I saw an angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the sign of the living God. Here is declared the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who elsewhere is called the Angel of great counsel (Isaiah 9). Therefore from the rising of the sun, according to what we read of Him in Zechariah (Zechariah 6): 'Behold a man, the Orient is His name.' And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying to them: 'Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor any tree, until we seal the servants of our God in their foreheads.'
He is said to cry out, because by the power of most salutary preaching He restrained the adverse powers, lest, as they were wont, they should oppress the world with the undue cruelty of domination. But in these kingdoms, in which fervent idolatry held sway, even the strength of the four noxious angels is frustrated, as it were the authors in their ministers, namely by that voice: 'Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' (Matthew 3). Which even concerning the very number of demons some confess, saying to the Lord (Matthew 8): 'Art Thou come hither before the time to torment us?' Concerning this coming Daniel says (chapter 2):
A stone cut out of a mountain without hands, which struck the statue revealed to him in a dream, whose head was golden, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, but the shins of iron. In this statue the aforesaid four kingdoms are designated: in the gold, of the Assyrians; in the silver, of the Medes; in the brass, of the Persians; in the iron, that of the Romans is recognized, as Daniel, with the angel expounding, narrated (chapter 2), following on: 'But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and His kingdom shall not be delivered to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it itself shall stand forever.'
Furthermore that Stone, when the four kingdoms had been struck, as though the haughtiness of undue tyranny were destroyed, grew; and became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. Therefore He says that these four angels are now bridled by this power, lest with their wonted daring they be permitted to hurt the aforesaid kingdoms, until the number of the elect, known to God, be reckoned with the inviolable sign; concerning whom the Apostle says (Ephesians 1): 'Who chose us before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight, predestinating us unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself.' Insinuating this multitude opportunely now by the number of the mystery, there follows:
And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred forty-four thousand sealed, of every tribe of the children of Israel. Now by this number the whole Church is signified, for Trinity is also the ground of a quaternion, so that thrice four, twelve, and twelve times twelve makes a hundred forty-four. For that city itself is described to have twelve stadia in every direction; and the circuit of the city in solid a hundred forty-four cubits: whence it is evidently recognized that by this token of the mystical number an innumerable multitude of the elect is prefigured, as it were a finite number significantly commended for an infinite one. And at last, designating the number of the sealed, there follows, making mention of the several tribes.
Of the tribe, he says, of Juda, twelve thousand sealed. Thus He runs through the rest, from whose stock the lineage of the Israelite people is handed down to have descended. Of the tribe of Juda, twelve thousand sealed. Of the tribe of Ruben, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Aser, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephtali, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasse, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Isachar, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Zabulon, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand. About to run through the names of all the tribes, it is no wonder that, having begun from Juda, he revolved those same names by name;
for of the tribe of Juda the Lord Jesus Christ willed to be born: for this order is not woven together of earthly generations, so that, bringing forth the elder-born according to custom, it should arrive at Juda, who is the fourth; but by the decreed number of the redeemed, whereby He willed to signify the fulness of the elect, to which, willing to direct our attention by a necessary consideration, in naming the rest of the brethren also He did not preserve the order of birth, so that even after Ruben He set those younger in birth before their elders—which can be taught from a comparison of the books of Genesis (Genesis 26, 30, 35) and of Exodus (Exodus 1). Wherefore, if we should wish to speak more fully, this would burden the work more greatly.
Juda indeed, being interpreted, is said to mean praise or confession, as is also taught in the paternal blessing: 'Juda, thy brethren shall praise thee.' Ruben, seeing a son, or seeing the son. Simeon, he heard sadness, or the name of a dwelling. Levi, added. Isachar, is a reward. Zabulon, the dwelling of strength. Benjamin, son of the right hand. Dan, judgment, or judging the Hebrews as they pass over. Nephtali, breadth. Gad, temptation, or girded, or a robber. Aser, blessed. Joseph, increase. Manasses, forgotten, or necessity.
Since we know that diverse virtues are inherent in individual believers—so that, for example, in one the fulness of saving knowledge is eminent, but in another meekness alone excels—here nonetheless, necessarily according to the order of gifts and the grades of advancing souls, we see those twelve names arranged, not as they were begotten, nor as they were named entering Egypt: because there the origin of earthly generation, and in Exodus the cohabitation of the Egyptian region, is recorded. Wherefore I have taken care, the series of them being premised which is written in this book, to add also the order of their birth, with the interpretations of each, if by any means I may be able to demonstrate that this was not vainly changed.
We also admonish beforehand the little ones, lest they think this number is to be reduced to the deaths of the infants whom Herod slew (Matthew 2), as we have found some ignorant persons doing. For, to be silent about the rest, Herod is known to have slain infants of only one tribe, Juda, where according to the measure of his right—since as tetrarch he was permitted to have dominion—he raged madly as it pleased him; but here He mentions all the tribes, whose sequences of names, appending them to their own tribes and fitting them to the number, we shall be able more clearly to elucidate the aforesaid signification in the fulness of the elect, if we search out the secrets of this place.
For from Juda both the confession of sins, and praise, shines forth—the praise of virtues that is to be proclaimed—which befits the number of the sealed being born of that same tribe. For confession in the sacred pages is wont to be understood not only as reduced to sins, but also often for praise. Hence the psalm of the dedication of the house of David, that is, the twenty-ninth (the thirtieth): 'Let my glory sing to Thee, and let me not be pricked with remorse; O Lord my God, I will confess to Thee forever'; and the Lord, having no sin at all: 'I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.' Ruben, seeing a son, or seeing the son. In sons we recognize that works are often signified. And to the sons of light walking in the light it is said: 'Mayest thou see thy children's children; peace upon Israel' (Psalm 128).