Book 20 Chapter 7-11 of the City of God. The Evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called The Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies. For the Apostle John says in the aforesaid book, and I saw an angel come down from heaven. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Those who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the first resurrection, his future and bodily, have been moved among other things, especially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saint should had thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labours of the six thousand years since man was created, and was on account of his great sin dismissed from the blessedness of Paradise into the woes of this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, there should follow, on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years, and that it is for this purpose the saints rise, that is, to celebrate this Sabbath. And this opinion would not be objectionable if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual and consequent on the presence of God, for I myself too once held this opinion. But as they assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe them are called by the spiritual chileasts, which we may literally reproduce by the name millenarians. It were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point. We prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture should be understood. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, No man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man, meaning by the strong man, the devil, because he had power to take captive the human race, and meaning by his goods which he was to take, those who had been held by the devil in diverse sins and iniquities, but were to become believers in himself. It was then for the binding of this strong one that the Apostle saw in the Apocalypse an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a chain in his hand, and he laid hold, he says, on the dragon, that old serpent which is called the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. That is, bridled and restrained his power so that he could not seduce and gain possession of those who were to be freed. Now the thousand years may be understood in two ways so far as occurs to me. Either because these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium, the latter part of which is now passing, as if during the sixth day which is to be followed by a Sabbath which has no evening, the endless rest of the saints, so that, speaking of a part under the name of the whole, he calls the last part of the millennium, the part that is which had yet to expire before the end of the world, a thousand years, or he used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world, employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time. For a thousand is the cube of ten. For ten times ten makes a hundred, that is, the square on a plain superfissies. But to give this superfissies height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is sometimes used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of promise to him that left all and followed him, he shall receive in this world an hundredfold, of which the apostle gives, as it were, an explanation when he says, as having nothing, yet possessing all things. For even of old it had been said the whole world is the wealth of a believer, with how much greater reason is a thousand put for totality, since it is the cube, while the other is only the square. And for the same reason we cannot better interpret the words of the psalm, he hath been mindful of his covenant for ever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, than by understanding it to mean to all generations. And he cast him into the Abyss, that is, cast the Devil into the Abyss. By the Abyss is met the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the church of God. Not that the Devil was not there before, but he is said to be cast in thither because, when prevented from harming believers, he takes more complete possession of the ungodly. For that man is more abundantly possessed by the Devil, who is not only alienated from God, but also gratuitously hates those who serve God.   And the addition of set a seal upon him seems to me to mean that it was designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the Devil's party and who did not. For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether even the man who seems to stand shall fall, or whether he who seems to lie shall rise again. But by the chain and prison-house of this interdict the Devil is prohibited and restrained from seducing those nations which belonged to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For before the foundation of the world God chose to rescue these from the power of darkness and to translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, as the apostle says. For what Christian is not aware that he seduces nations even now, and draws them with himself to eternal punishment, but not those predestined to eternal life. And let no one be dismayed by the circumstance that the Devil often seduces even those who have been regenerated in Christ, and begun to walk in God's way. For the Lord knoweth them that are His, and of these the Devil seduces none to eternal damnation. For it is as God from whom nothing is hid, even of things future, that the Lord knows them, not as a man who sees a man at the present time, if he can be said to see one whose heart he does not see, but does not see even himself so far as to be able to know what kind of person he is to be. The Devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said that he should not seduce any man, but that he should not seduce the nations, meaning no doubt those among which the Church exists, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, that is, either what remains of the sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are to elapse till the end of the world. The words that he should not seduce the nations till the thousand years should be fulfilled are not to be understood as indicating that afterwards he is to seduce only those nations from which the predestined Church is composed, and from seducing whom he is restrained by that chain and imprisonment, but they are used in conformity with that usage frequently employed in Scripture and exemplified in the psalm, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until he have mercy upon us, not as if the eyes of his servants would no longer wait upon the Lord their God when he had mercy upon them.  After that, says John, he must be loosed a little season. If the binding and shutting up of the devil means his being made unable to seduce the church, must his loosing be the recovery of this ability, by no means, for the church predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, the church of which it is said, the Lord knoweth them that are his, shall never be seduced by him. And yet there shall be a church in this world even when the devil shall be loosed, as there has been since the beginning, and shall be always the places of the dying being filled by new believers. For a little after John says that the devil, being loosed, shall draw the nations whom he has seduced in the whole world to make war against the church, and that the number of these enemies shall be as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever. This relates to the last judgment, but I have thought fit to mention it now, lest any one might suppose that in that short time during which the devil shall be loosed, there shall be no church upon earth, whether because the devil finds no church, or destroys it by manifold persecutions. The devil then is not bound during the whole time which this book embraces, that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, when he shall come the second time, not bound in this sense, that during this interval which goes by the name of a thousand years he shall not seduce the church, for not even when loosed shall he seduce it. For certainly, if his being bound means that he is not able or not permitted to seduce the church, what can the losing of him mean but his being able or permitted to do so, but God forbid that such should be the case. But the binding of the devil is his being prevented from the exercise of his whole power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or fraudulently deceiving them into taking part with him. If he were during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of men, very many persons, such as God would not wish to expose to such temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or would be prevented from believing, and that this might not happen, he is bound. But when the short time comes he shall be loosed, for he shall rage with the whole force of himself and his angels for three years and six months, and those with whom he makes war shall have power to withstand all his violence and stratagems. And if he were never loosed his malicious power would be less patent, and less proof would be given of the steadfast fortitude of the holy city. It would in short be less manifest what good use the Almighty makes of his great evil. For the Almighty does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation, but shelters only their inner man, where faith resides, that by outward temptation they may grow in grace. And he binds him that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing, or yet to believe, from whom the church must be increased and completed, and he will in the end loose him that the city of God may see how mighty an adversary it has conquered to the great glory of its redeemer, helper, deliverer. And what are we in comparison with those believers and saints who shall then exist, seeing that they shall be tested by the loosing of an enemy with whom we make war at the greatest peril even when he is bound? Although it is also certain that even in this intervening period there have been and are some soldiers of Christ so wise and strong that if they were to be alive in this mortal condition at the time of his loosing they would both most wisely guard against, and most patiently endure all his snares and assaults. Now the devil was thus bound not only when the church began to be more and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of the world when he is to be loosed. Because even now men are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall be, converted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them.   But it is a question whether during these three years and six months when he shall be loose and raging with all his force any one who has not previously believed shall attach himself to the faith. For how, in that case, would the words hold good, who entereth into the house of a strong one to spoil his goods, unless first he shall have bound the strong one? Consequently this verse seems to compel us to believe that during that time, short as it is, no one will be added to the Christian community, but that the devil will make war with those who have previously become Christians, and that, though some of these may be conquered and desert to the devil, these do not belong to the predestinated number of the sons of God. For it is not without reason that John, the same apostle as wrote this Apocalypse, says in his Epistle regarding certain persons, they went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us. But what shall become of the little ones? For it is beyond all belief that in these days there shall not be found some Christian children born but not yet baptized, and that there shall not also be some born during that very period. And if there be such, we cannot believe that their parents shall not find some way of bringing them to the labor of regeneration. But if this shall be the case, how shall these goods be snatched from the devil when he is loose, since into his house no man enters to spoil his goods unless he has first bound him? On the contrary, we are rather to believe that in these days there shall be no lack either of those who fall away from, or of those who attach themselves to the church. But there shall be such resoluteness, both in parents to seek baptism for their little ones, and in those who shall then first believe that they shall conquer that strong one even though unbound, that is, shall both vigilantly comprehend and patiently bear up against him, though employing such wiles and putting forth such force as he has never before used, and thus they shall be snatched from him even though unbound. And yet the verse of the Gospel will not be untrue who entereth into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods unless he shall have first bound the strong one. For in accordance with this true saying that order is observed, the strong one first bound, and then his goods spoiled. For the church is so increased by the weak and strong from all nations far and near, that by its most robust faith and things divinely predicted and accomplished it shall be able to spoil the goods of even the unbound devil. For as we must own that when iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold, and that those who have not been written in the Book of Life shall in large numbers yield to the severe and unprecedented persecutions and stratagems of the devil now loosed, so we cannot but think that not only those whom that time shall find sound in the faith, but also some who till then shall be without, shall become firm in the faith they have hitherto rejected and mighty to conquer the devil even though unbound, God's grace aiding them to understand the scriptures in which, among other things, there is foretold that very end which they themselves see to be arriving. And if this shall be so, his binding is to be spoken of as preceding, that there might follow a spoiling of him both bound and loosed, for it is of this it is said, who shall enter into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one. But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years understood in the same way, that is, of the time of his first coming. For leaving out of account that kingdom concerning which he shall say in the end, Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you, the church could not now be called his kingdom or the kingdom of heaven, unless his saints were even now reigning with him, though in another and far different way. For to his saints he says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Certainly it is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure things new and old. And from the church those reapers shall gather out the tares which he suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as he explains in the words, The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all offenses. Can he mean out of that kingdom in which there are no offenses? Then it must be out of his present kingdom, the church, that they are gathered. So he says, He that breaketh one of the least of these commandments, and teacheth men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth and teacheth thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven both the man who does not perform the commandments which he teaches, for to break means not to keep, not to perform, and the man who does and teaches as he did, but the one he calls least, the other great. And he immediately adds, For I say unto you that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, that is the righteousness of those who break what they teach, for of the scribes and Pharisees he elsewhere says, for they say, and do not. Unless therefore your righteousness exceed theirs, that is, so that you do not break, but rather do what you teach, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches, and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the church as it now is, for where only the one shall exist, it is the church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now his saints reign with him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter, and yet, though the tares grow in the church along with the wheat, they do not reign with him. For they reign with him who do what the apostle says, if ye be risen with Christ, mine the things which are above, where Christ siteth at the right hand of God, seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth. Of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven. In fine they reign with him who are so in his kingdom that they themselves are his kingdom. But in what sense are those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more, though they are in it until all offenses are gathered out of it at the end of the world, yet seek their own things in it and not the things that are Christ's? It is, then, of this kingdom militant in which conflict with the enemy is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in the present life that the Apocalypse speaks, and the words just quoted. For after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years, and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does, or of what is done in the Church in those days, in the words, and I saw seats, and then that sat upon them, and judgment was given. It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers, and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, What ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Once the Apostle says, What have I to do with judging them that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? And the souls, says John, of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, understanding what he afterwards says, reigned with Christ a thousand years, that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the Kingdom of Christ. Otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good and danger to run to his baptism that we might not pass from this life without it, nor to reconciliation if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from his body. For why are these things practiced if not because the faithful, even though dead, are his members? Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. And therefore in another part of this same book we read, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from hence forth, and now saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours, for their works do follow them. The Church then begins its reign with Christ now in the living and in the dead. For as the Apostle says, Christ died that he might be Lord both of the living and of the dead. But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only because they who have contended even to death for the truth themselves principally reign after death, but taking the part for the whole we understand the words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the Kingdom of Christ. As to the words following, and if any have not worshipped the beast nor his image nor have received his inscription on their forehead or on their hand, we must take them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the ungodly city itself and the community of unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of God. His image seems to me to mean his simulation to wit in those men who profess to believe but live as unbelievers, for they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians not from a true likeness, but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and his most glorious city, but also the tears which are to be gathered out of his kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, be not yoked with unbelievers? For such do not worship, that is, do not consent, are not subjected, neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice. They then who are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal flesh or are dead, reign with Christ, even now, through this whole interval which is indicated by the thousand years in a fashion suited to this time. The rest of them, he says, did not live. For now is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live, and the rest of them shall not live. The words added, until the thousand years are finished, mean that they did not live in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from death to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection arrives, they shall come out of their graves not to life but to judgment, namely to damnation, which is called the second death. For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished, that is, during this whole life in which the first resurrection is going on, whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of God and passed from death to life, that man shall certainly, in the second resurrection, the resurrection of the flesh pass with his flesh into the second death. For he goes on to say, this is the first resurrection, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, or who experiences it. That he experiences it who not only revives from the death of sin but continues in this renewed life. In these the second death hath no power. Therefore it has power in the rest, of whom he said above, the rest of them did not live until the thousand years were finished. For in this whole intervening time, cold a thousand years, however lustily they lived in the body, they were not quickened to life out of that death in which their wickedness held them, so that by this revived life they should become partakers of the first resurrection, and so the second death should have no power over them. CHAPTER X There are some who suppose that resurrection can be predicated only of the body, and therefore they contend that this first resurrection of the Apocalypse is a bodily resurrection, for say they, to rise again, can only be said of things that fall, now bodies fall in death. There cannot therefore be a resurrection of souls but of bodies. But what do they say to the apostle who speaks of a resurrection of souls? For certainly it was in the inner and not the outer man that those who had risen again, to whom he says, if ye have risen with Christ, mind the things that are above. The same sense he elsewhere conveyed, in other words, saying, that as Christ has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. So, too, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. As to what they say about nothing being able to rise again, but what falls, once they conclude that resurrection pertains to bodies only, and not to souls, because bodies fall, why do they make nothing of the words, ye that fear the Lord, wait for his mercy, and go not aside, lest ye fall, and, to his own master, he stands, or falls, and, he that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed, lest he fall. For I fancy this fall that we are to take heed against is a fall of the soul, not of the body. If then, rising again, belongs to things that fall, and souls fall, it must be owned that souls also rise again. To the words, in them the second death hath no power, are added the words, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And this refers not to the bishops alone and presbyters, who are now specially called priests in the church, but as we call all believers Christians on account of the mystical chrism, so we call all priests, because they are members of the one priest. Of them the Apostle Peter says, a holy people, a royal priesthood. Certainly he implied, though in a passing and incidental way, that Christ is God, saying priests of God and Christ, that is, of the Father and the Son, though it was in his servant form, and as Son of Man, that Christ was made a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. But this we have already explained more than once. CHAPTER 11 And when the thousand years are finished 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 to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. This then is his purpose in seducing them to draw them to this battle, for even before this he was want to use as many and various seductions as he could continue. And the words he shall go out mean he shall burst forth from lurking hatred into open persecution. For this persecution, occurring while the final judgment is imminent, shall be the last which shall be endured by the holy church throughout the world, the whole city of Christ being assailed by the whole city of the devil, as each exists on earth. For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Gete and Masigate, as some conclude from the initial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government. For John marks that they are spread over the whole earth when he says, the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, and he added that these are Gog and Magog. The meaning of these names we find to be Gog, a roof, Magog, from a roof, a house, as it were, and he who comes out of the house. They are therefore the nations in which we found that the devil was shut up as in an abyss, and the devil himself coming out from them and going forth so that they are the roof he from the roof. Or if we refer both words to the nations, not one to them and one to the devil, then they are both the roof, because in them the old enemy is at present shut up, and as it were, roofed in, and they shall be from the roof when they break forth from concealed to open hatred. The words, and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, do not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place, for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be, and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by the breadth of the earth, there shall also be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies, for they too shall exist along with it in all nations. That is, it shall be straightened and hard-pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty which is signified by the word camp. CHAPTER XII The words, and fire came down out of heaven, and devoured them, are not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. In this place fire out of heaven is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is heaven, by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is from God, for it is by God's grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, the zeal of thine house hath consumed me, so in a bad sense it is said zeal hath possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies. And now, that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. Or if by this fire coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John meant that blow, wherewith Christ in his coming is to strike those persecutors of the church, whom he shall then find alive upon earth, when he shall kill Antichrist with the breath of his mouth, then even this is not the last judgment of the wicked. But the last judgment is that which they shall suffer when the bodily resurrection has taken place. CHAPTER XIII This last persecution by Antichrist shall last for three years and six months, as we have already said, and as is affirmed both in the Book of Revelation and by Daniel the Prophet. Though this time is brief, yet not without reason is it questioned whether it is comprehended in the thousand years in which the devil is bound and the saints reign with Christ, or what of this little season should be added over and above to these years. For if we say that they are included in the thousand years, then the saints reign with Christ during a more protracted period than the devil is bound, for they shall reign with their king and conqueror mightily even in that crowning persecution when the devil shall now be unbound and shall rage against them with all his might. How then does Scripture define both the binding of the devil and the reign of the saints by the same thousand years if the binding of the devil ceases three years and six months before this reign of the saints with Christ? On the other hand, if we say that the brief space of this persecution is not to be reckoned as a part of the thousand years, but rather as an additional period, we shall indeed be able to interpret the words, the priests of God and of Christ shall reign with him a thousand years, and when the thousand years shall be finished Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. For thus they signify that the reign of the saints and the bondage of the devil shall cease simultaneously, so that the time of the persecution we speak of should be contemporaneous neither with the reign of the saints nor with the imprisonment of Satan, but should be reckoned over and above as a super-added portion of time. But then in this case we are forced to admit that the saints shall not reign with Christ during that persecution, but who can dare to say that his members shall not reign with him at that very juncture when they shall most of all and with the greatest fortitude cleave to him, and when the glory of resistance in the crown of martyrdom shall be more conspicuous in proportion to the hotness of the battle? Or if it is suggested that they may be said not to reign because of the tribulations which they shall suffer, it will follow that all the saints who have formally, during the thousand years, suffered tribulation shall not be said to have reigned with Christ during the period of their tribulation, and consequently even those whose souls the author of this book says that he saw, and who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and the word of God, did not reign with Christ when they were suffering persecution, and they were not themselves the kingdom of Christ, though Christ was then preeminently possessing them. This is indeed perfectly absurd and to be scouted. But assuredly the victorious souls of the glorious martyrs having overcome and finished all griefs and toils, and having laid down their mortal members, have reigned and do reign with Christ till the thousand years are finished, that they may afterwards reign with him when they have received their immortal bodies. And therefore during these three years and a half the souls of those who were slain for his testimony, both those which formerly passed from the body, and those which shall pass in that last persecution shall reign with him till the mortal world come to an end, and pass into that kingdom in which there shall be no death. And thus the reign of the saints with Christ shall last longer than the bonds and imprisonment of the devil, because they shall reign with their king, the Son of God, for these three years and a half during which the devil is no longer bound. It remains therefore that when we read that the priests of God and of Christ shall reign with him a thousand years, and when the thousand years are finished the devil shall be loosed from his imprisonment, that we understand either that the thousand years of the reign of the saints does not terminate, though the imprisonment of the devil does, so that both parties have their thousand years, that is their complete time, yet each with a different actual duration appropriate to itself, the kingdom of the saints being longer, the imprisonment of the devil shorter. Or at least that as three years and six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned as either deducted from the whole time of Satan's imprisonment, or as added to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we have shown above in the sixteenth book regarding the round number of four hundred years, which were specified as four hundred, though actually somewhat more, and similar expressions are often found in the sacred writings if one will mark them. CHAPTER XIV After this mention of the closing persecution he summarily indicates, all that the devil and the city of which he is the prince shall suffer in the last judgment, for he says, and the devil who seduced them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone in which are the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever. We have already said that by the beast is well understood the wicked city. His false prophet is either antichrist or that image or figment of which we have spoken in the same place. After this he gives a brief narrative of the last judgment itself which shall take place at the second or bodily resurrection of the dead as that had been revealed to him. I saw a throne great and white, and one sitting on it from whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, and their place was not found. He does not say, I saw a throne great and white, and one sitting on it and from his face the heaven and the earth fled away, for it had not happened then, that is, before the living and the dead were judged, but he says that he saw him sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled away, but afterwards. For when the judgment is finished this heaven and earth shall cease to be, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For this world shall pass away by transmutation, not by absolute destruction. And therefore the apostle says, for the figure of this world passeth away, I would have you be without anxiety. The figure therefore passes away, not the nature. After John had said that he had seen one sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled, though not till afterwards, he said, and I saw the dead great and small, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of the life of each man, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their deeds. He said that the books were opened and a book, but he left us at a loss as to the nature of this book, which is, he says, the book of the life of each man. By those books, then, which he first mentioned, we are to understand the sacred books old and new, that out of them it might be shown what commandments God had enjoined, and that book of the life of each man is to show what commandments each man has done or omitted to do. If this book be materially considered, who can reckon its size or length or the time it would take to read a book in which the whole life of every man is recorded? Shall thou be present as many angels as men, and shall each man hear his life recited by the angel assigned to him? In that case there will be not one book containing all the lives, but a separate book for every life, but our passage requires us to think of one only. And another book was opened, it says, we must therefore understand it of a certain divine power by which it shall be brought about that every one shall recall to memory all his own works, whether good or evil, and shall mentally survey them with a marvelous rapidity, so that this knowledge will either accuse or excuse conscience, and thus all and each shall be simultaneously judged. And this divine power is called a book, because in it we shall, as it were, read all that it causes us to remember. That he may show who the dead, small and great, are who are to be judged, he recurs to this which he had omitted, or rather deferred, and says, and the sea he presented the dead which were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them. This of course took place before the dead were judged, yet it is mentioned after. And so, I say, he returns again to what he had omitted. But now he preserves the order of events, and for the sake of exhibiting it repeats in its own proper place what he had already said regarding the dead who were judged. For after he had said, and the sea presented the dead which were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them, he immediately subjoined what he had already said, and they were judged every man according to their works. For this is just what he had said before, and the dead were judged according to their works. CHAPTER XV But who were the dead which were in the sea, and which the sea presented? For we cannot suppose that those who die in the sea are not in hell, nor that their bodies are preserved in the sea, nor yet, which is still more absurd, that the sea retained the good while hell received the bad. Who could believe this? But some very sensibly suppose that in this place the sea is put for this world. When John then wished to signify that those whom Christ should find still alive in the body were to be judged along with those who should rise again, he called them dead, both the good to whom it is said, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God, and the wicked of whom it is said, let the dead bury their dead. They may also be called dead because they wear mortal bodies, as the apostle says, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness, proving that in the living man and the body there is both a body which is dead and a spirit which is life. Yet he did not say that the body was mortal but dead, although immediately after he speaks in the more usual way of mortal bodies. These, then, are the dead which were in the sea, and which the sea presented, to which the men who were in this world because they had not yet died, and whom the world presented for judgment. And death and hell, he says, gave up the dead which were in them. The sea presented them because they had merely to be found in the place where they were, but death and hell gave them up or restored them because they called them back to life which they had already quitted.  For if it does not seem absurd to believe that the ancient saints who believed in Christ and His then future coming were kept in places far removed indeed from the torments of the wicked, but yet in hell, until Christ's blood and His descent into these places delivered them, certainly good Christians redeemed by that precious price already paid are quite unacquainted with hell while they wait for their restoration to the body and the reception of their reward. After saying they were judged every man according to their works, he briefly added what the judgment was.  By these names designating the devil and the whole company of his angels, for he is the author of death and the pains of hell. For this is what he had already by anticipation said in clearer language, the devil who seduced them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. The obscure addition he had made in the words in which were also the beast and the false prophet he here explains, they who were not found written in the Book of Life were cast into the Lake of Fire. This book is not for reminding God as if things might escape him by forgetfulness, but it symbolizes his predestination of those to whom eternal life shall be given. For it is not that God is ignorant and reads in the Book to inform himself, but rather his infallible prescience is the Book of Life in which they are written, that is to say, known beforehand. CHAPTER 16 Having finished the prophecy of judgment so far as the wicked are concerned, it remains that he speak also of the good. Having briefly explained the Lord's words, these will go away into everlasting punishment, it remains that he explain the connected words but the righteous into life eternal. And I saw, he says, a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and there is no more sea. This will take place in the order which he has by anticipation declared in the words, I saw one sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled. For as soon as those who are not written in the Book of Life have been judged and cast into eternal fire, the nature of which fire, or its position in the world or universe, I suppose is known to no man unless perhaps the Divine Spirit reveal it to someone. Then shall the figure of this world pass away in a conflagration of universal fire, as once before the world was flooded with a deluge of universal water. And by this universal conflagration the qualities of the corruptible elements which suited our corruptible bodies shall utterly perish, and our substance shall receive such qualities as chow by a wonderful transmutation harmonized with our immortal bodies, so that, as the world itself is renewed to some better thing, it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in their flesh to some better thing. As for the statement, and there shall be no more sea, I would not likely say whether it is dried up with that excessive heat or is itself also turned into some better thing. For we read that there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, but I do not remember to have anywhere read anything of a new sea unless what I find in this same book, as it were a sea of glass like crystal. But he was not then speaking of this end of the world, neither does he seem to speak of a literal sea, but as it were a sea. It is possible that, as prophetic diction delights in mingling figurative and real language, and thus in some sort veiling the sense, so the words, and there is no more sea, may be taken in the same sense as the previous phrase, and the sea presented the dead which were in it. For then there shall be no more of this world, no more of the surgings and restlessness of human life, and it is this which is symbolized by the sea. CHAPTER 17 And I saw he says a great city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, but neither shall there be any more pain, because the former things have passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. This city is said to come down out of heaven, because the grace with which God formed it is of heaven. Wherefore he says to it by Isaiah, I am the Lord that formed thee. It is indeed descended from heaven, from its commencement, since its citizens during the course of this world grow by the grace of God, which cometh down from above through the labor of regeneration and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But by God's final judgment which shall be administered by his Son, Jesus Christ, there shall by God's grace be manifested a glory so pervading and so new that no vestige of what is old shall remain, for even our bodies shall pass from their old corruption and mortality to new incorruption and immortality. Were to refer this promise to the present time in which the saints are reigning with their king a thousand years seems to me excessively barefaced when it is most distinctly said God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, but there shall be no more pain. And who is so absurd and blinded by contentious opinionativeness as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state God's people, or even one single saint, does live or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain, the fact being that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication. Are not these the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem? My tears have been my meat day and night, and every night shall I make my bed to swim, with my tears shall I water my couch, and my groaning is not hid from thee, and my sorrow was renewed. Or are not those God's children who groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life? Do not they even who have the first fruits of the spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of their body? Was not the Apostle Paul himself a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and was he not so all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow of heart for his Israelite brethren? But when shall there be no more death in that city except when it shall be said, O death, where is thy contention? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin. Obviously there shall be no sin when it can be said where is. But as for the present, it is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but the same Apostle John himself who says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. No doubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse, there are in it many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the reader, and there are few passages so plain as to assist us in the interpretation of the others even though we take pains. And this difficulty is increased by the repetition of the same things, in form so different that the things referred to seem to be different, although in fact they are only differently stated. But in the words God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, but there shall be no more pain. There is so manifest a reference to the future world and the immortality and eternity of the saints, for only then and only there shall such a condition be realized, that if we think this obscure, we need not expect to find anything plain in any part of scripture. CHAPTER 18 Let us now see what the Apostle Peter predicted concerning this judgment. There shall come, he says, in the last days scoffers. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. There is nothing said here about the resurrection of the dead, but enough certainly regarding the destruction of this world, and by his reference to the deluge he seems as it were to suggest to us how far we should believe the ruin of the world will extend in the end of the world. For he says that the world which then was perished, and not only the earth itself, but also the heavens by which we understand the air, the place and room of which was occupied by the water. Therefore the whole, or almost the whole, of the gusty atmosphere, which he calls heaven, or rather the heavens, meaning the earth's atmosphere, and not the upper air in which sun, moon, and stars are set, was turned into moisture, and in this way perished together with the earth whose former appearance had been destroyed by the deluge. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Therefore the heavens and the earth, or the world which was preserved from the water to stand in place of that world which perished in the flood, is itself reserved to fire at last in the day of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men. He does not hesitate to affirm that in this great change men also shall perish. Their nature, however, shall not withstanding continue, though in eternal punishments. Someone will perhaps put the question, if after judgment is pronounced the world itself is to burn, where shall the saints be during the conflagration, and before it is replaced by a new heavens and a new earth, since somewhere they must be because they have material bodies. We may reply that they shall be in the upper regions into which the flame of that conflagration shall not ascend, as neither did the water of the flood, for they shall have such bodies that they shall be wherever they wish. Moreover, when they have become immortal and incorruptible, they shall not greatly dread the blaze of that conflagration, as the corruptible and mortal bodies of the three men were able to live unhurt in the blazing furnace. CHAPTER 19 I see that I must omit many of the statements of the Gospels and Epistles about this last judgment that this volume may not become unduly long, but I can on no account omit what the Apostle Paul says in writing to the Thessalonians, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, etc. No one can doubt that he wrote this of Antichrist and of the day of judgment which he here calls the day of the Lord, nor that he declared that this day should not come unless he first came who is called the Apostate, apostate to it from the Lord God, and if this may justly be said of all the ungodly how much more of him. But it is uncertain in what temple he shall sit, whether in that ruin of the temple which was built by Solomon or in the Church, for the Apostle would not call the temple of any idol or demon at the temple of God. And on this account some think that in this passage Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the massive men who adhere to him along with him their prince, and they also think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read not in the temple of God but for or as the temple of God, as if he himself were the temple of God, the Church. And as for the words, and now ye know what withholdeth, that is, ye know what hindrance or cause of delay there is, that he might be revealed in his own time, they show that he was unwilling to make an explicit statement because he said that they knew. And thus we who have not their knowledge wish and are not able, even with pains, to understand what the Apostle referred to, especially as his meaning is made still more obscure by what he adds. For what does he mean by, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now holdeth let him hold until he be taken out of the way, and then shall the wicked be revealed? I frankly confess I do not know what he means. I will nevertheless mention such conjectures as I have heard or read. Some think the Apostle Paul referred to the Roman Empire, and that he was unwilling to use language more explicit, lest he should incur the columnius charge of wishing ill to the Empire, which it was hoped would be eternal. So that in saying, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seem to be as the deeds of Antichrist. And hence some suppose that he shall rise again and be Antichrist. Others again suppose that he is not even dead, but that he was concealed that he might be supposed to have been killed, and that he now lives in concealment in the vigor of that same age which he had reached when he was believed to have perished and will live until he is revealed in his own time and restored to his kingdom. But I wonder that men can be so audacious in their conjectures. However it is not absurd to believe that these words of the Apostle, only he who now holdeth let him hold until he be taken out of the way, refer to the Roman Empire, as if it were said, only he who now reigneth let him reign until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the wicked be revealed. No one doubts that this means Antichrist. But others think that the words, ye know what withholdeth, and the mystery of iniquity worketh, refer only to the wicked and the hypocrites who are in the Church until they reach a number so great as to furnish Antichrist with the great people, and that this is the mystery of iniquity because it seems hidden. So that the Apostle is exhorting the faithful tenaciously to hold the faith they hold when he says, only he who now holdeth let him hold until he be taken out of the way, that is, until the mystery of iniquity which now is hidden departs from the Church. For they suppose that it is to this same mystery John eludes when in his epistle he says, little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us. As therefore there went out from the Church many heretics whom John calls many Antichrists at that time prior to the end, and which John calls the last time, so in the end they shall go out who do not belong to Christ but to that last Antichrist, and then he shall be revealed. Thus various, then, are the conjectural explanations of the obscure words of the Apostle. That which there is no doubt he said is this, that Christ will not come to judge quick and dead unless Antichrist his adversary first comes seduce those who are dead in soul, although their seduction is a result of God's secret judgment already past. For as it is said, his presence shall be after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all seduction of unrighteousness in them that perish. For then shall Satan be loosed, and by means of that Antichrist shall work with all power and a lying though a wonderful manner. It is commonly questioned whether these works are called signs and lying wonders, because he is to deceive men's senses by false appearances, or because the things he does, though they be true prodigies, shall be a lie to those who shall believe that such things could be done only by God, being ignorant of the devil's power, and especially of such unexampled power as he shall then for the first time put forth. For when he fell from heaven as fire, and at a stroke swept away from the holy Job, his numerous household, and his vast flocks, and then as a whirlwind rushed upon and smote the house and killed his children, these were not deceitful appearances, and yet they were the works of Satan to whom God had given this power. Why they are called signs and lying wonders we shall then be more likely to know when the time itself arrives. But whatever be the reason of the name, they shall be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall deserve to be seduced, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Neither did the Apostles scruple to go on to say, For this cause God shall send upon them the working of error that they should believe a lie. For God shall send, because God shall permit the devil to do these things, the permission being by his own just judgment, though the doing of them is in pursuance of the devil's unrighteous and malignant purpose, that they all might be judged who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Therefore being judged they shall be seduced, and being seduced they shall be judged. But being judged they shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secret judgments of God, with which he has never ceased to judge since the first sin of the rational creatures, and being seduced they shall be judged in that last and manifest judgment administered by Jesus Christ, who was himself most unjustly judged, and shall most justly judge. Book 20. But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resurrection of the dead, but in his first epistle to the Thessalonians he says, We would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, etc. These words of the apostle most distinctly proclaim the future resurrection of the dead, when the Lord Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead. But it is commonly asked whether those whom our Lord shall find alive upon earth, personated in this passage by the apostle and those who are alive with him, shall never die at all, or shall pass with incomprehensible swiftness through death to immortality in the very moment during which they shall be caught up along with those who rise again to meet the Lord in the air. For we cannot say that it is impossible that they should both die and revive again while they are carried aloft through the air. For the words, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, are not to be understood as if he meant that we shall always remain in the air with the Lord, for he himself shall not remain there, but shall only pass through it as he comes. For we shall go to meet him as he comes, not where he remains, but so shall we be with the Lord, that is, we shall be with him possessed of immortal bodies, wherever we shall be with him. We seem compelled to take the words in this sense, and to suppose that those whom the Lord shall find alive upon earth shall in that brief space both suffer death and receive immortality. For this same apostle says, in Christ shall all be made alive, while speaking of the same resurrection of the body, he elsewhere says, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. How then shall those whom Christ shall find alive upon earth be made alive to immortality in him, if they die not, since on this very account it is said, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. Or if we cannot properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as by dying they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the sentence pronounced by God against the sinning father of the human race runs, earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return, we must acknowledge that those whom Christ at his coming shall find still in the body are not included in these words of the apostle nor in those of Genesis, for, being caught up into the clouds, they are certainly not sown, neither going nor returning to the earth, whether they experience no death at all, or die for a moment in the air. But on the other hand there meets us the saying of the same apostle when he was speaking to the Corinthians about the resurrection of the body, we shall all rise, or, as other manuscripts read, we shall all sleep. Since then there can be no resurrection unless death has preceded, and since we can in this passage understand by sleep nothing else than death, how shall all either sleep or rise again if so many persons whom Christ shall find in the body shall neither sleep nor rise again. If then we believe that the saints who shall be found alive at Christ's coming, and shall be caught up to meet him, shall in that same ascent pass from mortal to immortal bodies, we shall find no difficulty in the words of the apostle, either when he says, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die, or when he says, we shall all rise, or all sleep, for not even the saints shall be quickened to immortality unless they first die, however briefly. And consequently they shall not be exempt from resurrection which is preceded by sleep, however brief. And why should it seem to us incredible that that multitude of bodies should be, as it were, sown in the air, and should in the air forthwith revive immortal and incorruptible, when we believe on the testimony of the same apostle that the resurrection shall take place in the twinkling of an eye, and that the dust of bodies long dead shall return with incomprehensible facility and swiftness to those members that are now to live endlessly. Neither do we suppose that in the case of these saints the sentence, earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return, is null, though their bodies do not, on dying, fall to earth, but both die and rise again at once while caught up into the air. For thou shalt return to earth means thou shalt at death return to that which thou wert before life began. Thou shalt, when examine it, be that which thou wert before thou wast animate. For it was into a face of earth that God breathed the breath of life when man was made a living soul, as if it were said, Thou art earth with a soul which thou wast not, thou shalt be earth without a soul as thou wast. And this is what all bodies of the dead are before they rot, and what the bodies of those saints shall be if they die, no matter where they die, as soon as they shall give up that life which they are immediately to receive back again. In this way, then, they return, or go to earth, in as much as from being living men they shall be earth, as that which becomes cinder is said to go to cinder, that which decays to go to decay, and so of six hundred other things. But the manner in which this shall take place we can now only feebly conjecture, and shall understand it only when it comes to pass. For that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the dead when Christ comes to judge quick and dead we must believe, if we would be Christians. But if we are unable perfectly to comprehend the manner in which it shall take place, our faith is not on this account vain. Now, however, we ought, as we formerly promised, to show as far as seems necessary what the ancient prophetic books predicted concerning this final judgment of God, and I fancy no great time need be spent in discussing and explaining these predictions if the reader has been careful to avail himself of the help we have already furnished. Chapter 21 The prophet Isaiah says, The dead shall rise again, and all who were in the graves shall rise again, and all who were in the earth shall rejoice, for the dew which is from thee is their health, and the earth of the wicked shall fall. All the former part of this passage relates to the resurrection of the blessed, but the words the earth of the wicked shall fall is rightly understood as meaning that the bodies of the wicked shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we would more exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which refer to the resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first resurrection, the words the dead shall rise again, and to the second the following words, and all who were in the graves shall rise again. And if we ask what relates to those saints whom the Lord at his coming shall find alive upon earth, the following clause may be suitably referred to them. All who are in the earth shall rejoice, for the dew which is from thee is their health. By health in this place it is best to understand immortality, for that is the most perfect health which is not repaired by nourishment as by a daily remedy. In like manner the same prophet, affording hope to the good and terrifying the wicked regarding the day of judgment, says, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will flow down upon them as a river of peace, and upon the glory of the Gentiles as a rushing torrent. Their sons shall be carried on the shoulders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so shall I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall rise up like a herb. And the hand of the Lord shall be known by his worshipers, and he shall threaten the contumaceous. For behold the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind his chariots to execute vengeance with indignation and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with his sword, many shall be wounded by the Lord. In his promise to the good he says that he will flow down as a river of peace, that is to say, in the greatest possible abundance of peace. With this peace we shall in the end be refreshed, but of this we have spoken abundantly in the preceding book. It is this river in which he says he shall flow down upon those to whom he promises so great happiness that we may understand that in the region of that felicity, which is in heaven, all things are satisfied from this river. But because there shall thence flow even upon earthly bodies the peace of incorruption and immortality, therefore he says that he shall flow down as this river, that he may, as it were, pour himself from things above to things beneath, and make men the equals of the angels. By Jerusalem, too, we should understand not that which serves with her children, but that which, according to the apostle, is our free mother, eternal, in the heavens. In her we shall be comforted as we pass toil-worn from earth's cares and calamities, and be taken up as her children on her knees and shoulders. Inexperienced and new to such blandishments we shall be received into unwanted bliss. Where we shall see, and our heart shall rejoice. He does not say what we shall see, but what but God, that the promise in the gospel may be fulfilled in us, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. What shall we see but all those things which now we see not, but believe in, and of which the idea we form, according to our feeble capacity, is incomparably less than the reality? When ye shall see, he says, and your heart shall rejoice. Here ye believe, there ye shall see. But because he said, your heart shall rejoice, lest we should suppose that the blessings of that Jerusalem are only spiritual, he adds, and your bones shall rise up like a herb, alluding to the resurrection of the body, and, as it were, supplying an omission he had made. For it will not take place when we have seen, but we shall see, when it has taken place. For he had already spoken of the new heavens and the new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures of the things promised to the saints, and saying, There shall be new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind, but they shall find in it gladness and exultation. Behold, I will make Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a joy, and I will exult in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, and other promises which some endeavor to refer to carnal enjoyment during the thousand years. For in the manner of prophecy figurative and literal expressions are mingled so that a serious mind may, by useful and salutary effort, reach the spiritual sense, but carnal sluggishness or the slowness of an uneducated and undisciplined mind rests in the superficial letter and thinks there is nothing beneath to be looked for. But let this be enough regarding the style of those prophetic expressions just quoted, and now to return to their interpretation. When he had said, and your bones shall rise up like a herb, in order to show that it was the resurrection of the good, though a bodily resurrection, to which he alluded, he added, and the hand of the Lord shall be known by his worshipers. What is this but the hand of him who distinguishes those who worship from those who despise him? Regarding these the context immediately adds, and he shall threaten the contumatious, or, as another translator has it, the unbelieving. He shall not actually threaten, then, but the threats which are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in effect. For behold, he says, the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind his chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation and wasting with a flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all flesh with his sword, many shall be wounded by the Lord. By fire, whirlwind, sword, he means the judicial punishment of God. For he says that the Lord himself shall come as a fire to those that is to say to whom his coming shall be penal. By his chariots, for the word is plural, we suitably understand the ministration of angels. And when he says that all flesh and all the earth shall be judged with his fire and sword, we do not understand the spiritual and holy to be included, but the earthly and carnal, of whom it is said that they mind earthly things, and to be carnaly minded is death, and whom the Lord calls simply flesh when he says, My spirit shall not always remain in these men, for they are flesh. As to the words many shall be wounded by the Lord, this wounding shall produce the second death. It is possible, indeed, to understand fire, sword, and wound in a good sense, for the Lord said that he wished to send fire on the earth, and the cloven tongues appeared to them as fire when the Holy Spirit came. And our Lord says, I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword. And Scripture says that the Word of God is a doubly sharp sword on account of the two edges, the two Testaments. And in the Song of Songs the Holy Church says that she is wounded with love, pierced as it were with the arrow of love. But here, where we read or hear that the Lord shall come to execute vengeance, it is obvious in what sense we are to understand these expressions. After briefly mentioning those who shall be consumed in this judgment, speaking of the wicked and sinners under the figure of the meats forbidden by the old law from which they had not abstained, he summarily recounts the grace of the New Testament from the first coming of the Saviour to the last judgment of which we now speak, and herewith he concludes his prophecy. For he relates that the Lord declares that he is coming to gather all nations that they may come and witness his glory. For as the apostle says, all have sinned and are in want of the glory of God. And he says that he will do wonders among them at which they shall marvel and believe in him, and that from them he will send forth those that are saved into various nations and distant islands which have not heard his name nor seen his glory, and that they shall declare his glory among the nations and shall bring the brethren of those to whom the prophet was speaking, that is, shall bring to the faith, under God the Father, the brethren of the elect Israelites, and that they shall bring from all nations in offering to the Lord on beasts of burden and wagons which are understood to mean the aides furnished by God in the shape of angelic or human ministry, to the holy city Jerusalem which at present is scattered over the earth in the faithful saints. For where divine aid is given, men believe, and where they believe they come. And the Lord compared them in a figure to the children of Israel offering sacrifice to him in his house with Psalms, which is already everywhere done by the church, and he promised that from among them he would choose for himself priests and Levites, which also we see already accomplished. For we see that priests and Levites are now chosen not from a certain family and blood, as was originally the rule in the priesthood, according to the Order of Aaron, but as befits the New Testament under which Christ is the High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek, in consideration of the merit which is bestowed upon each man by divine grace. And these priests are not to be judged by their mere title, which is often borne by unworthy men, but by that holiness which is not common to good men and bad. After having thus spoken of this mercy of God which is now experienced by the church and is very evident and familiar to us, he foretells also the ends to which men shall come when the last judgment has separated the good and the bad, saying by the prophet or the prophet himself speaking for God. For as the new heavens and the new earth shall remain before me, said the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain, and there shall be to them month after month, and sabbath after sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship before me in Jerusalem, said the Lord, and they shall go out and shall see the members of the men who have sinned against me.  At this point the prophet closed his book, as at this point the world shall come to an end. Some indeed have translated carcasses instead of members of the men, meaning by carcasses the manifest punishment of the body, although carcass is commonly used only if dead flesh, all the bodies here spoken of, shall be animated, else they could not be sensible of any pain. But perhaps they may, without absurdity, be cold carcasses as being the bodies of those who were to fall into the second death. And for the same reason it is said, as I have already quoted, by this same prophet, the earth of the wicked shall fall. It is obvious that those translators who use a different word for men do not mean to include only males, for no one will say that the women who sin shall not appear in that judgment, but the male sex, being the more worthy, and that from which the woman was derived, is intended to include both sexes. But that which is especially pertinent to our subject is this, that since the words, all flesh shall come, apply to the good, for the people of God shall be composed of every race of men, for all men shall not be present, since the greater part shall be in punishment. But as I was saying, since flesh is used of the good, and members or carcasses of the bad, certainly it is thus put beyond a doubt that that judgment in which the good and the bad shall be allotted to their destinies shall take place after the resurrection of the body, our faith in which is thoroughly established by the use of these words. CHAPTER XXII But in what way shall the good go out to see the punishment of the wicked? Are they to leave their happier bodes by a bodily movement and proceed to the places of punishment, so as to witness the torments of the wicked in their bodily presence? Certainly not, but they shall go out by knowledge. For this expression go out signifies that those who shall be punished shall be without, and thus the Lord also calls these places the outer darkness to which is opposed to that entrance concerning which it is said to the good servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord, that it may not be supposed that the wicked can enter thither and be known, but rather that the good by their knowledge go out to them because the good are to know that which is without. For those who shall be in torment shall not know what is going on within in the joy of the Lord, but they who shall enter into that joy shall know what is going on outside in the outer darkness. Therefore it is said they shall go out because they shall know what is done by those who are without. For if the prophets were able to know things that had not yet happened by means of that indwelling of God in their minds, limited though it was, shall not the immortal saints know things that have already happened when God shall be all in all. The seed, then, and the name of the saints shall remain in that blessedness. The seed to it of which John says, and his seed remaineth in him, and the name of which it was said through Isaiah himself, I will give them an everlasting name. And there shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath, as if it were said, moon after moon, and rest upon rest, both of which they shall themselves be when they shall pass from the old shadows of time into the new lights of eternity. The worm that dieeth not, and the fire that is not quenched, which constitute the punishment of the wicked, are differently interpreted by different people. Some refer both to the body, others refer both to the soul, while others again refer the fire literally to the body and the worm figuratively to the soul, which seems the more credible idea. But the present is not the time to discuss this difference, for we have undertaken to occupy this book with the last judgment in which the good and the bad are separated. The rewards and punishments we shall more carefully discuss elsewhere. Daniel prophesies of the last judgment in such a way as to indicate that Antichrist shall first come and to carry on his description to the eternal reign of the saints, for when in prophetic vision he had seen four beasts signifying four kingdoms and the fourth conquered by a certain king who is recognized as Antichrist, and after this the eternal kingdom of the Son of Man, that is to say, of Christ, he says, My spirit was terrified, I, Daniel, in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me, etc. Some have interpreted these four kingdoms as signifying those of the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. They who desire to understand the fitness of this interpretation may read Jerome's book on Daniel, which is written with a sufficiency of care and erudition. But he who reads this passage, even half asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time assail the church before the last judgment of God shall introduce the eternal reign of the saints. For it is patent from the context that the time, times, and half a time means a year and two years and half a year, that is to say, three years and a half. Sometimes in Scripture the same thing is indicated by months. For though the word times seems to be used here in the Latin indefinitely, that is only because the Latins have no dual as the Greeks have, and as the Hebrews also are said to have. Times therefore is used for two times. As for the Ten Kings, whom as it seems Antichrist is defined in the person of ten individuals when he comes, I own I am afraid we may be deceived in this, and that he may come unexpectedly while there are not ten kings living in the Roman world. For one of his number ten signifies the whole number of kings who are to proceed his coming as totality is frequently symbolized by a thousand or a hundred or seven or other numbers which it is not necessary to recount. In another place the same Daniel says, and there shall be a time of trouble such as was not since there was born a nation upon earth until that time, and in that time all thy people which shall be found written in the book shall be delivered, and many of them that sleep in the mound of earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion, and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and many of the just as the stars for ever. This passage is very similar to the one we have quoted from the gospel at least so far as regards the resurrection of dead bodies. For those who were there said to be in the graves are here spoken of as sleeping in the mound of earth, or as others translate in the dust of earth. There it is said they shall come forth, so here they shall arise.  Neither is it to be supposed a difference, though in place of the expression in the gospel all who are in their graves the prophet does not say all, but many of them that sleep in the mound of earth. For many is sometimes used in scripture for all. Thus it was said to Abraham, I have set thee as the father of many nations, though in another place it was said to him, in thy seed shall all nations be blessed. Of such a resurrection it is said a little afterwards to the prophet himself, and come thou and rest, for there is yet a day till the completion of the consummation, and thou shall rest and rise in thy lot in the end of the days. There are many allusions to the last judgment in the Psalms, but for the most part only casual and slight. I cannot, however, omit to mention what is said there and express terms of the end of this world. In the beginning has thou laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, and as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. Why is it that porphyry, while he lords the piety of the Hebrews in worshiping a God great and true, and terrible to the gods themselves, follows the oracles of these gods in accusing the Christians of extreme folly, because they say that this world shall perish? For here we find it said in the sacred books of the Hebrews to that God whom this great philosopher acknowledges to be terrible even to the gods themselves. The heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish. When the heavens, the higher and more secure part of the world, perish, shall the world itself be preserved. If this idea is not relished by Jupiter, whose oracle is quoted by this philosopher as an unquestionable authority in rebuke of the credulity of the Christians, why does he not similarly rebuke the wisdom of the Hebrews as folly, seeing that the prediction is found in their most holy books? But if this Hebrew wisdom, with which porphyry is so captivated that he extols it through the utterances of his own gods, proclaims that the heavens are to perish, how is he so infatuated as to detest the faith of the Christians, partly, if not chiefly, on this account that they believe the world is to perish? How the heavens are to perish, if the world does not, is not easy to see. And indeed in the sacred writings which are peculiar to ourselves and not common to the Hebrews and us, I mean the evangelical and apostolic books, the following expressions are used. The figure of this world passeth away. The world passeth away. Heaven and earth shall pass away. Expressions which are, I fancy, somewhat milder than they shall perish. In the epistle of the Apostle Peter, too, where the world which then was is said to have perished, being overflowed with water, it is sufficiently obvious what part of the world is signified by the whole, and in what sense the word perished is to be taken, and what heavens were kept in store, reserved unto fire, against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. And when he says a little afterwards, the day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great rush, and the elements shall melt with burning heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burned up, and then adds, seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be? These heavens which are to perish may be understood to be the same which he said were kept in store, reserved for fire, and the elements which are to be burned are those which are full of storm and disturbance in this lowest part of the world in which he said that these heavens were kept in store, for the higher heavens in whose firmament are set the stars are safe and remain in their integrity, for even the expression of Scripture that the stars shall fall from heaven, not to mention that a different interpretation is much preferable, rather shows that the heavens themselves shall remain if the stars are to fall from them. This expression then is either figurative, as is more credible, or this phenomenon will take place in this lowest heaven, like that mentioned by Virgil, a meteor with a train of light, a thwart the sky gleamed dazzling bright, then an idea in woods, was lost. But the passage I have quoted from the psalm seems to accept none of the heavens from the destiny of destruction, for he says, The heavens are the works of thy hands, they shall perish, so that, as none of them are accepted from the category of God's works, none of them are accepted from destruction. For our opponents will not condescend to defend the Hebrew piety, which has won the approbation of their gods by the words of the apostle Peter, whom they vehemently detest, nor will they argue that as the apostle in his epistle understands apart when he speaks of the whole world perishing in the flood, though only the lowest part of it, and the corresponding heavens were destroyed, so in the psalm the whole is used for a part, and it is said they shall perish, though only the lowest heavens are to perish. But since, as I said, they will not condescend to reason thus, lest they should seem to approve of Peter's meaning, or ascribe as much importance to the final conflagration as we ascribe to the deluge, whereas they contend that no waters or flames could destroy the whole human race, it only remains to them to maintain that their gods lauded the wisdom of the Hebrews because they had not read this psalm. It is the last judgment of God which is referred to also in the fiftieth psalm in the words, God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall not keep silence, fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call the heaven above and the earth to judge his people. Gather his saints together to him, they who make a covenant with him over sacrifices. This we understand of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from heaven to judge the quick and the dead, for he shall come manifestly to judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came hiddenly to be unjustly judged by the unjust. He I say shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence, that is, shall make himself known by his voice of judgment, who before when he came hiddenly was silent before his judge when he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before the shearer opened not his mouth as we read that it was prophesied of him by Isaiah and as we see it fulfilled in the Gospel. As for the fire and tempest, we have already said how these are to be interpreted when we were explaining a similar passage in Isaiah. As to the expression, he shall call the heaven above as the saints and the righteous are rightly called heaven, no doubt this means what the apostle says, we shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. For if we take the bare literal sense, how is it possible to call the heaven above as if the heaven could be anywhere else than above? And the following expression, and the earth to judge his people, if we supply only the words he shall call, that is to say he shall call the earth also, and do not supply above, seems to give us a meaning in accordance with sound doctrine, the heaven symbolizing those who will judge along with Christ, and the earth those who shall be judged, and thus the words he shall call the heaven above would not mean he shall catch up into the air, but he shall lift up to seats of judgment. Possibly too he shall call the heaven may mean he shall call the angels in the high and lofty places that he may descend with them to do judgment, and he shall call the earth also, would then mean he shall call the men on the earth to judgment. And if with the words and the earth we understand not only he shall call, but also above, so as to make the full sense be he shall call the heaven above, and he shall call the earth above, then I think it is best understood of the men who shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, and that they are called the heaven with reference to their souls, and the earth with reference to their bodies. Then what is to judge his people, but to separate by judgment the good from the bad as the sheep from the goats? Then he turns to address the angels, gather his saints together unto him, for certainly a matter so important must be accomplished by the ministry of angels. And if we ask who the saints are who are gathered unto him by the angels, we are told they who make a covenant with him over sacrifices. This is the whole life of the saints to make a covenant with God over sacrifices. For over-sacrifices either refers to works of mercy, which are preferable to sacrifices in the judgment of God, who says, I desire mercy more than sacrifices. Or if over-sacrifices means insacrifices, then these very works of mercy are the sacrifices with which God is pleased, as I remember to have stated in the tenth book of this work. And in these works the saints make a covenant with God, because they do them for the sake of the promises which are contained in his New Testament or covenant. And hence when his saints have been gathered to him and set at his right hand in the last judgment, Christ shall say, Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave me to eat, and so on, mentioning the good works of the good, and their eternal rewards assigned by the last sentence of the judge.