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.
For God is not ignorant of them, nor does he read in this book in order to know; but rather his very foreknowledge concerning those things which cannot be deceived is the book of life, in which they are written — that is, foreknown beforehand. Now, the judgement being finished, in which he foretold that the evil are to be judged, it remains that he should speak also of the good. CHAPTER 21. 'And I saw,' he says, 'a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and earth passed away, and the sea is no more.' By this order comes to pass what he said above by anticipation, that he had seen one seated upon the throne, from whose face heaven and earth fled.
When the impious have been judged and condemned, then the fashion of this world shall pass away by the conflagration of worldly fires, just as the flood came about by the inundation of worldly waters, so that, heaven and earth being changed for the better, the bodies of the saints, by a fitting change of quality on both sides, may agree with incorruption and immortality; and the world, renewed for the better, may be aptly fitted to men also renewed for the better. But as to what he says, 'And the sea is no more' — whether it be dried up by that greatest heat, or whether it too be turned into something better — I could not easily say. For we read that a new heaven and a new earth are to come (Isa. 65); but of a new sea I do not recall having read anything anywhere.
But if perchance, as prophetic speech is wont, mingling its proper words with transferred ones, and as it were somewhat veiling what is said, he could have spoken of that sea by whose name this present age is known to be signified. For then this age shall no longer be the life of mortals, troubled and stormy, which he figured under the name of the sea. 'And I saw,' he says, 'the great city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, prepared by God as a new bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from heaven saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them.'
'And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither mourning nor crying, nor shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he that sat on the throne said: Behold, I make all things new.' This city is said to come down from heaven, because heavenly is the grace by which God made it; on account of which he also says to it through Isaiah: 'I am the Lord that makes you' (Isa. 45).
From heaven indeed it descended from its very beginning, from which, throughout the time of this age, by the grace of God coming down from above through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, its citizens are continually increased; but through the judgement of God, which shall be the last, through his Son Jesus Christ, so great and so new a splendour of it from God's gift shall appear, that no traces of the old will remain, since even the bodies shall pass over, new, from the old corruption and mortality to incorruption and immortality. For hence he promises, saying: 'And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither mourning nor crying, nor any pain': all of which things it is certain belong not to this life but to the life to come.
For now in this life, the holier anyone is, and the fuller of holy desires, the more abundant is he in prayer and weeping. Hence we read (Ps. 41): 'My tears have been my bread day and night,' and (Ps. 6), 'Every night I will wash my bed,' and things like these. 'And he said to me: These words are most faithful and true. And he said to me: It is done.' These things ought to be believed, not expounded, especially since he speaks of it as done, in the past, in such a way as to allow no one to doubt of the future. 'I am Alpha, the first and the last' (above 1). As at the beginning of the book he testified this to be so, so in this third part it was fitting that it be repeated, so that neither before him should there be believed to be a God, as Isaiah says (Isa. 43), nor another after him.
'I will give to him that thirsts of the fountain of the water of life freely.' From this fountain he waters those who do not believe on the way, which to those who conquer he offers to be drawn abundantly in the fatherland. Lest the pilgrims fail from thirst in this desert, they are given to drink, so that, made citizens, they may perpetually be inebriated from the torrent of God's delights. But both freely, because, as the Apostle says (Rom. 6), 'the grace of God is eternal life.' There follows: 'He that conquers shall possess these things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.' Here he mentions that begetting of which the Apostle speaks (Gal. 4): 'God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And if sons, then heirs also — heirs indeed of God, but co-heirs of Christ. For by hope we are saved' (Rom. 8).
When through hope one shall arrive at the reality, God himself shall be to the elect the reward of eternal blessedness, which, being possessed by him, they may possess for ever. But 'to the doubting and the unbelieving' — here 'the doubting' must be understood of those of whom the apostle James says (Jas. 1): 'A double-minded man is inconstant in all his ways.' 'And to the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and those who serve idols, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.' These, whether the vices of crimes or the scourges of punishments, are not to be expounded so as to be understood, but rather to be pondered how, through the grace of God, they may be shunned.
'And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues.' Just as in a good sense universality is often figured by the number seven, so in an evil sense the universality of plagues can be comprehended by the same number. But if he now asserts to be full those plagues which above he mentioned as poured out, it is to be wondered at how he kept silence about their being inflicted on the world — unless perhaps here he preferred to touch the sense briefly, since he knew he had already treated it more fully, so that he might neither omit mention of evils, and might soon turn his intention to the good figure of the Church, of which he sings (Ps. 27): 'I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.' There follows finally: 'And he spoke with me, saying: Come, I will show you the new bride, the wife of the Lamb' — that is, the Church.
'And he carried me away to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God.' This is, by the testimony of Truth, the city set upon a mountain (Matt. 5). Hence Isaiah (ch. 2) says: 'It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills' — either for the loftiness of that righteousness of which we read (Ps. 36): 'Your righteousness is like the mountains of God'; or because indeed both the apostles and the prophets are called mountains. Yet, surpassing all, the Lord Christ stands eminent as a mountain on the top of the mountains, 'of whose fullness,' he says, 'we have received, and grace for grace' (John 1). And well 'from heaven from God';
for then she is seen more beautiful, when, through the Spirit by whom her Bridegroom is believed to have been conceived and begotten, she has merited to bear the heavenly image. She, then, is the bride who is also the city. 'Having,' he says, 'the light of the glory of God.' To her the Lord says (Matt. 5): 'You are the light of the world,' which utterance befits the whole body of Christ, which the apostles then received from the mouth of Truth, being first in time and in merits. 'And that which illumines her is like a most precious stone, as it were a jasper stone shining like crystal.'
Although the jasper and the crystal are of different kind and colour, yet on account of the likeness he here fittingly joined the two; and since he soon compares her to most precious stones, he wished Christ to be understood as revealed, of whom blessed Peter says (1 Pet. 2): 'a corner stone, precious, founded in the foundation.' 'And it had a great and high wall, which had twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.' The wall of the Church is Christ, whom we read to be both great and lofty. 'Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy mountain,' and 'the Lord is high above all nations' (Ps. 48; Ps. 145; Ps. 113). But of the wall the prophet Isaiah says (ch.
26): 'In that day this song shall be sung in the land of Judah: Zion is the city of our strength; a Saviour shall be set therein as a wall and outer rampart. Open the gates, and let the just nation enter in, keeping the truth; the old error is gone.' Holding the same things in one spirit, they seem to narrate like things. There follows finally, also speaking of the gates: 'And twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.' We know indeed that through the twelve apostles our Lord furnished to all the first beginnings of entrance into the faith.
Yet the circumstance of this passage has recalled us from this interpretation, since he set before it the mention of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, as though wishing here the twelve patriarchs to be understood first, from whose stock we know the whole nation of the Israelites was specially propagated, and from whom, according to the apostle Paul (Rom. 11), 'a remnant, by the election of grace, was made saved,' adding (in the same place) that 'God has not cast off his people'; and therefore we ought to take the twelve patriarchs in as many gates, especially hearing that 'you do not bear the root, but the root you' (Rom. 11). For he says plainly, 'and names written of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.' Hence the Apostle confidently cries out (Rom. 9):
'Who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, whose is the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the testament, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and from whom is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever.' But the angels I think are here signified to be those elders and chiefs, by whose dispensation and leading that nation was wondrously governed. And if we remember that they are often called gods (Ps. 82), what wonder if we believe them to be called angels? 'He shall be brought,' it says (Exod. 22), 'to the gods'; and (Ps. 82), 'I have said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High' — so that, embracing the universality of the whole people, he might show it to consist of those set over and of the peoples.
'On the East three gates, on the North three gates, on the South three gates, on the West three gates.' Here he embraces that number twelve, which is often consecrated to us in the apostles together with their thrones for the fullness of universality. 'You shall sit,' he says, 'with me upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' (Matt. 19). For the odd number, that is the ternary, multiplied by the even quaternary — that is, three times four — makes twelve. There follows: 'And the walls of the city have twelve foundations, and upon them the names of the twelve apostles and of the Lamb.' The mention of the patriarchs having been sent before, he now mentions the apostles.
Since we know that the Church has but one foundation, that is Christ, we ought not to be moved that he here says she has twelve. For in Christ the apostles are also the foundations of the Church, of which the Apostle (1 Cor. 3): 'Other foundation,' he says, 'no one can lay besides that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus.' In him also the apostles are said to be light, when he says to them (Matt. 5): 'You are the light of this world,' though Christ is the sun, the true light 'which enlightens every man coming into this world' (John 1). Christ, therefore, is the illuminating light; but they are the illuminated light. In many places by like sayings Holy Scripture frequently intimates such things to us. Finally the apostle James says (Jas. 1):
'Of his own will he begot us by the word of truth, that we should be some beginning of his creature.' Yet Paul the apostle, secure in his authority to offer instruction, addresses them, saying (1 Cor. 4): 'In Christ Jesus, through the Gospel, I have begotten you.' Now God begets through the adoption of grace, but Paul begets in Christ, whether by the administration of the sacrament or by the preaching of doctrine — yet mindful of the divine admonition which says (Matt. 23): 'Call no one masters to you upon earth, for one is your master, who is in heaven.' Likewise also 'fathers.' The same Paul says elsewhere (1 Cor. 1): 'Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in the name of Paul?'
so that, suspending the intention and hope of all the faithful from all things, he might fix it on God by wholesome doctrine. In this sense the psalm (121) also sang, saying: 'I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, whence help shall come to me' — wishing the mountains to be understood as the apostles and prophets, whom Christ, the Sun of righteousness, chiefly irradiated. And lest he be thought to trust in names, he presently added, following on: 'My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth' (Ps. 121). Just as here too we ought to recognize the twelve foundations to be the apostles, yet called in the one foundation, Jesus Christ. To this pertains that here also he did not keep silence about the name of the Lamb, saying: 'And upon them the names of the twelve apostles and of the Lamb.'
The foundations, therefore, are the apostles, but on the one foundation, Jesus. And Christ alone, without the apostles, is rightly called foundation; but the apostles without Christ shall in no way be called foundations of the Church. So also the other things which we have thought fit to apply to this passage for the sake of comparison. For they merited to beget spiritually in Christ those faithful whom Christ alone, without them, would incomparably adopt if he willed. They merited also to be masters and pastors of the peoples in Christ, but so that their service might serve as soldiers to the heavenly Father, their master and pastor.
They, therefore, according to the measure which Christ apportioned to them by the benefit of their Lord; but Christ himself by a power singularly natural, of whom we remember it said in the Gospel: 'For God does not give the Spirit by measure' (John 3), for 'in him dwells all the fullness of divinity bodily' (Col. 2), 'of whose fullness we all have received' (John 1), 'and grace for grace.' There follows: 'And he who spoke with me had a golden reed to measure, that he might measure the city, and its gates, and its walls; and the city is set foursquare, and its length is as great as its breadth.' Above, John says to himself that a reed was given to him, as it were the dispensation of preaching committed to him:
but now he says that the angel who spoke to him had a golden reed, that he might measure, he says, the city and its gates and its walls. Christ, therefore, must be understood, who is 'the wisdom of God' (1 Cor. 1), 'reaching mightily from end to end, and disposing all things sweetly' (Wis. 8). Hence we read (Prov. 16): 'Receive wisdom as gold.' And indeed it is permitted to Christ alone to measure the city, who distributes to each of the spiritual faithful the gifts of graces, who also, as we read, 'has disposed all things in number, and measure, and weight' (Wis. 11). This measuring of the city is surely recalled by the Apostle when he says (Eph. 4): 'According to the measure of the giving of Christ'; and again (Eph. 3):
'To me, the least of all the saints, is given this grace, to evangelize among the nations.' Therefore, indeed, the city is set foursquare, and is said to be located with an equal dimension on every side, by which nothing is allowed to be changed in an unequal variation. For to be perfect according to the Apostle (1 Cor. 1), to be of the same mind, to have peace, is truly to subsist in the solid foursquare. This is the city which the Lord in the Gospel declares to be built upon a mountain — that is, founded upon itself (Matt. 5). To this end also he says to Peter, who bore the figure of the whole Church (Matt. 16): 'You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church.' As if he said: Upon myself I will build you. For the rock was Christ:
so, then, Peter is from the rock, just as a Christian is from Christ — teaching assuredly that the inventions of human error are to be fled, and only the defences of divine truth to be followed. 'And he measured,' he says, 'the city with the reed at twelve thousand furlongs, in length and breadth and height equal.' This is that solidity of unconquered truth, by which the Church of Christ, rightly resting upon it, is not allowed to be carried about by every wind of doctrine (Eph. 4). Now the number twelve, summed up upon itself, makes one hundred forty-four; for twelve times twelve make one hundred forty-four. And there follows: 'And the wall was measured at one hundred forty-four cubits, the measure of a man, which is of an angel.'
That the angel here is often put for the Church, an open abundance of passages testifies. And since the Church consists of those gathered out of men, and, exalted by the promises of Christ, hopes for equality with the angels, and her whole intention sighs after their society — therefore he says 'the measure of a man, which is of an angel'; or because that city consists partly of angels already abiding there in perpetual felicity, partly of pilgrims, that is, of men, being about to reign more fully. Otherwise, either because we trust that what has been subtracted from the heavenly habitation of the angels by a certain number of transgressors is to be restored by the number of the redeemed men. For it shall easily be replaced by a more abundant supply, yet shall not be diminished. Hence in Deuteronomy it is sung (ch. 32):
'He established the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God,' etc. 'And the building of its wall was of jasper stone.' Blessed Peter exhorts the people (1 Pet. 2) that they be built up, as living stones, into a spiritual house. There follows: 'But the city itself was of pure gold, like pure glass.' To this end he even mentions incongruous things, so that, by all the likenesses conferring on the one singular stone, Christ, a singular dignity, he might teach all things to serve him. For who does not know that gold rightly differs from glass and is distinguished by colour? And although it is not new for the Church to be figured by gold — she who is often described as conceived in golden candlesticks and vials for the worship of wisdom — yet this moves us, that he likens pure gold to pure glass.
But I think this signifies what the Apostle foretold, saying (1 Cor. 4): 'Do not judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and manifest the counsels of hearts.' For in glass nothing else is manifested outwardly than what is contained within. Wherefore this book, announcing that time in which thoughts are keenly declared to one another mutually, confidently wished to compare gold to glass; and whatever shall then be in the thought of the saints, adorned, shines with the honesty of wisdom, to which the comparison rightly agrees. For now, however great in virtue anyone excels, 'no man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him' (1 Cor. 2).
Otherwise, either because glass, in its own manner, altogether excels in its own kind. 'And the foundations of every precious stone.' And in the canticle of Tobias we read (ch. 13): 'All your walls are of precious stones.' And in Isaiah thus (ch. 54): 'Behold, I will lay your stones in order, and will found you upon sapphires, and I will make jasper your bulwarks, and your gates of graven stones, and all your borders of desirable stones'; and, as if he would expound what he was saying, lest you should conceive carnally the compass of an earthly structure, he subjoined and said (Isa. 54): 'All your sons taught of the Lord, and a multitude of peace to your sons,' etc. With these thoughts blessed Paul, singing in harmony, says (Eph. 2):
'Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone, in whom all the building, framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.' 'The first foundation, jasper.' What he said a while ago, 'the foundations of every precious stone,' he now runs through, enumerating them by name. 'The second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.' By these likenesses of all the stones are signified the ornaments and firm supports of the virtues by which each of the saints is spiritually adorned;
and in him the whole city is described as firm with these same stones, as with strength, and adorned with the cultivation of variety. 'And the twelve gates, each one of single pearls.' What we have said abundantly and more than enough concerning the one foundation, Christ, and the twelve apostles of the Lamb, this too it befits the reader to consider concerning the one pearl — that is, Christ, whom the merchant, finding, bought after selling all (Matt. 13) — and concerning the twelve. 'And its streets of pure gold, like clear glass.' He had already said that the city was of pure gold, like pure glass, and that its foundations are of every precious stone. This I judge is to be referred to the powerful of the Church.
Now concerning the streets he added, saying that they too are of clear gold, like clear glass, as though the streets did not pertain to the city described a while ago; but I conjecture that here the little ones are signified, of whom it is now said (Ps. 139): 'Your eyes saw my imperfection, and in your book all shall be written.' And again (Prov. 3), 'And with the simple is his conversation' — namely, that they too are not defrauded of this gift, and behold their thoughts by a mutual exchange. For just as the streets are placed in a lower position, so such persons seem to be saved in a humble place. But if in the streets the breadth of charity is to be understood, he wished to signify the perfect by diverse terms.
But then there shall no longer be any unworthy one there, none found little or infirm — although one may be more sublimely eminent than another by the disparity of a clearer reward: for 'star differs from star in glory,' says the Apostle (1 Cor. 15), 'so also is the resurrection of the dead.' 'But a temple I saw not in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.' Just as a body is built up of individual members, so a temple of precious stones; and since he does not wish us, given over to material contrivances, to think here anything carnal from ingrained custom, suspending us from this intention, he says: 'A temple I saw not in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof.'