Of the Lamb and of the virgins that follow him. Of the judgments that shall fall upon the wicked.
2 Virgins follovv the Lambe vvhithersoeuer, singing a nevv canticle. 6. One Angel Euangelizeth the Gospel: 8 an other Angel telleth the fall of Babylon: 9 the third declareth their tormants that haue adored the beast, Moreouer tvvo hauing sickles, 15 one of them is commaunded to reape dovvne the corne, 18 the other to gather the grapes as in vintage, vvhich are troden in the lake of Gods vvrath.
1And I beheld: and lo a Lamb stood upon mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty-four thousand, having his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.Ed ecco che io vidi l'Agnello, che stava sul monte di Sion, e con esso cento quarantaquattro mila persone, le quali avevano scritto sulle loro fronti il nome di lui, e il nome del Padre di lui.AND I looked, & behold a Lābe stoode vpon mount Sion, and vvith him an hundred fourtie foure thousand hauing his name, and the name of his Father vvritten in their foreheads.Et vidi: et ecce Agnus stabat supra montem Sion, et cum eo centum quadraginta quatuor millia, habentes nomen ejus, et nomen Patris ejus scriptum in frontibus suis. 2And I heard a voice from heaven, as the noise of many waters and as the voice of great thunder. And the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers, harping on their harps.E udii una voce dal cielo, come romore di molte acque, e come romore di gran tuono: e la voce, che udii, quasi di citaristi, che suonavano le loro cetere.And I heard a voice from heauen, as the voice of many vvaters, and as the voice of great thunder: and the voice vvhich I heard, as of harpers harping on their harpes.Et audivi vocem de cælo, tamquam vocem aquarum multarum, et tamquam vocem tonitrui magni: et vocem, quam audivi, sicut citharœdorum citharizantium in citharis suis. 3And they sung as it were a new canticle, before the throne and before the four living creatures and the ancients: and no man could say the canticle, but those hundred forty-four thousand who were purchased from the earth.E cantavano come un nuovo cantico dinanzi al trono, e dinanzi ai quattro animali, e seniori; e nissuno poteva imparare quel cantico, se non que' cento quarantaquattro mila, i quali furono comperati di sopra la terra.And they sang as it vvere a nevv song before the seate and before the foure beastes, and the seniors, and no man could say' the song, but those hundred fourtie foure thousand, that vvere bought from the earth.Et cantabant quasi canticum novum ante sedem, et ante quatuor animalia, et seniores: et nemo poterat dicere canticum, nisi illa centum quadraginta quatuor millia, qui empti sunt de terra. 4These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.Questi son quelli, che non si sono macchiati con donne: perché sono vergini. Questi seguon l'Agnello, dovunque vada. Questi furon comperati di tra gli uomini primizie a Dio, e all'Agnello,These are they vvhich were not defiled vvith vvomen. For they are virgins. These folovv the Lambe vvhithersoeuer he shal goe. These vvere bought from among men, the first fruites to God and the Lambe:Hi sunt, qui cum mulieribus non sunt coinquinati: virgines enim sunt. Hi sequuntur Agnum quocumque ierit. Hi empti sunt ex hominibus primitiæ Deo, et Agno:
5And in their mouth there was found no lie: for they are without spot before the throne of God.Nè si è trovata menzogna nella lor bocca: imperocché sono scevri di macchia dinanzi al trono di Dio.and in their mouth there vvas found no lie. for they are vvithout spot before the throne of God.et in ore eorum non est inventum mendacium: sine macula enim sunt ante thronum Dei. 6And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the eternal gospel, to preach unto them that sit upon the earth and over every nation and tribe and tongue and people:E vidi un altr'Angelo, che volava per mezzo il cielo, che aveva l'evangelio eterno, affin d'evangelizzare gli abitatori della terra, e qualunque nazione, e tribù, e lingua, e popolo:And I savv an other Angel flying through the middes of heauen, hauing the eternal Gospel, to euāgelize vnto them that sit vpon the earth, and vpon euery nation, and tribe, & tōge, & people:Et vidi alterum angelum volantem per medium cæli, habentem Evangelium æternum, ut evangelizaret sedentibus super terram, et super omnem gentem, et tribum, et linguam, et populum: 7Saying with a loud voice: Fear the Lord and give him honour, because the hour of his judgment is come. And adore ye him that made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of waters.E diceva ad alta voce: temete Dio, e onoratelo, perché è giunto il tempo del suo giudizio: e adorate lui, che fece il cielo, e la terra, e il mare, e le fonti dell'acque.saying vvith a loud voice, Feare our Lord, and giue him honour, because the houre of his iudgement is come: and adore ye him that made heauen and earth, the sea and al things that are in them, and the fountaines of vvaters.dicens magna voce: Timete Dominum, et date illi honorem, quia venit hora judicii ejus: et adorate eum, qui fecit cælum, et terram, mare, et fontes aquarum. 8And another angel followed, saying: That great Babylon is fallen, is fallen; which made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.E un altr'Angelo seguitò, e disse: è caduta, è caduta quella gran Babilonia, la quale col vino d'ira di sua fornicazione ha abbeverato tutte le genti.And an other Angel folovved, saying, Fallen fallen is that great Babylon, vvhich of the vvine of the vvrath of her fornication made al nations to drinke.Et alius angelus secutus est dicens: Cecidit, cecidit Babylon illa magna: quæ a vino iræ fornicationis suæ potavit omnes gentes. 9And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice: If any man shall adore the beast and his image and receive his character in his forehead or in his hand,E un terzo Angelo venne dopo di quelli, dicendo ad alta voce: chi avrà adorato la bestia, e la sua immagine, e avranne ricevuto il carattere nella sua fronte, o nella sua mano:And the third Angel folovved them, saying vvith a loud voice, If any man adore the beast and his image, and receiue the character in his forehead, or in his hand:Et tertius angelus secutus est illos, dicens voce magna: Si quis adoraverit bestiam, et imaginem ejus, et acceperit caracterem in fronte sua, aut in manu sua: 10He also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath: and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb.Anche questi beverà del vino dell'ira di Dio, mescolato col vino schietto nel calice dell'ira di lui, e sarà tormentato con fuoco, e zolfo nel cospetto de' santi Angeli, e nel cospetto dell'Agnello:he also shal drinke of the vvine of the vvrath of God, vvhich is mingled vvith pure vvine in the cuppe of his vvrath, and shal be tormented vvith fire & brimstone in the sight of the holy Angels and before the sight of the Lambe.et hic bibet de vino iræ Dei, quod mistum est mero in calice iræ ipsius, et cruciabitur igne, et sulphure in conspectu angelorum sanctorum, et ante conspectum Agni:
11And the smoke of their torments, shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night, who have adored the beast and his image and whoever receiveth the character of his name.E il fumo de' loro tormenti si alzerà ne' secoli de' secoli: e non hanno riposo né dì, né notte quei, che adoraron la bestia, e la sua immagine, e chi avrà ricevuto il carattere del nome di essa.and the smoke of their tormentes shal ascend for euer & euer: neither haue they rest day and night, vvhich haue adored the beast, and his image, and if any man take the character of his name.et fumus tormentorum eorum ascendet in sæcula sæculorum: nec habent requiem die ac nocte, qui adoraverunt bestiam, et imaginem ejus, et si quis acceperit caracterem nominis ejus. 12Here is the patience of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.Qui sta la pazienza de' santi, i quali osservano i precetti di Dio, e la fede di Gesù.Here is the patience of sainctes, vvhich keepe the commaundements of God and the faith of IESVS.Hic patientia sanctorum est, qui custodiunt mandata Dei, et fidem Jesu. 13And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me: Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours. For their works follow them.E udii voce dal cielo, che dissemi: scrivi: beati i morti, che muoiono nel Signore. D'ora in poi già dice lo Spirito, che riposino dalle loro fatiche: attesoché van dietro ad essi le opere loro.And I heard a voice from heauen, saying to me, Vvrite, Blessed are the dead which die in our Lord. from hence forth novv, saith the Spirit, that they rest from their labours for their vvorkes folow them.Et audivi vocem de cælo, dicentem mihi: Scribe: Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur. Amodo jam dicit Spiritus, ut requiescant a laboribus suis: opera enim illorum sequuntur illos. 14And I saw: and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sitting like to the Son of man, having on his head a crown of gold and in his hand a sharp sickle.E mirai: ed ecco una candida nuvola, e sopra la nuvola sedeva uno simile al figliuolo dell'uomo, che aveva sulla sua testa una corona d'oro, e nella sua mano una falce acuta.And I savv, and behold a vvhite cloude: and vpon the cloude one sitting like to the Sonne of man, hauing on his head a crovvne of gold, and in his hand a sharpe sickle.Et vidi: et ecce nubem candidam, et super nubem sedentem similem Filio hominis, habentem in capite suo coronam auream, et in manu sua falcem acutam. 15And another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat upon the cloud: Thrust in thy sickle and reap, because the hour is come to reap. For the harvest of the earth is ripe.E un altr'Angelo uscì dal tempio, gridando ad alta voce a colui, che sedea sopra la nuvola: gira la tua falce, e mieti, perché è giunta l'ora di mietere, mentre la messe della terra è secca.And an other Angel came forth from the temple, crying vvith a loud voice to him that sate vpon the cloude, Thrust in thy sickle, and reape, because the houre is come to reape, for the haruest of the earth is drie.Et alius angelus exivit de templo, clamans voce magna ad sedentem super nubem: Mitte falcem tuam, et mete, quia venit hora ut metatur, quoniam aruit messis terræ.
16And he that sat on the cloud thrust his sickle into the earth: and the earth was reaped.E quegli, che sedea sulla nuvola, menò in giro la sua falce sulla terra, e fu mietuta la terra.And he that sate vpon the cloude, thrust his sickle into the earth, and the earth vvas reaped.Et misit qui sedebat super nubem, falcem suam in terram, et demessa est terra. 17And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.E un altr'Angelo uscì dal tempio, che è nel cielo, che avea anch'egli una acuta falce.And an other Angel came forth from the temple vvhich is in heauē, him self also hauing a sharpe sickle.Et alius angelus exivit de templo, quod est in cælo, habens et ipse falcem acutam. 18And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud voice to him that had the sharp sickle, saying: Thrust in thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vineyard of the earth, because the grapes thereof are ripe.E un altr'Angelo uscì dall'altare, che aveva balìa sopra il fuoco: e gridò ad alta voce a quello, che aveva la falce acuta, dicendo: mena l'acuta tua falce, e vendemmia i grappoli della vigna della terra: perché le uve di lei son mature.And an other Angel came forth from the altar, vvhich had povver ouer the fite: and he cried vvith a loud voice to him that had the sharpe sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharpe sickle, and gather the clusters of the vineyard of the earth: because the grapes thereof be ripe.Et alius angelus exivit de altari, qui habebat potestatem supra ignem: et clamavit voce magna ad eum qui habebat falcem acutam, dicens: Mitte falcem tuam acutam, et vindemia botros vineæ terræ: quoniam maturæ sunt uvæ ejus. 19And the angel thrust in his sharp sickle into the earth and gathered the vineyard of the earth and cast it into the great press of the wrath of God:E menò l'Angelo l'acuta sua falce sopra la terra, e vendemmiò la vigna della terra, e (la vendemmia) gettò nel lago grande dell'ira di Dio:And the Angel thrust his sharpe sickle into the earth, and gathered the vineyard of the earth, & cast it into the great presse of the vvrath of God:Et misit angelus falcem suam acutam in terram, et vindemiavit vineam terræ, et misit in lacum iræ Dei magnum: 20And the press was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a thousand and six hundred furlongs.E il lago fu pigiato fuora della città, e uscì sangue dal lago fino alla briglia de' cavalli per mille secento stadi.and the presse vvas troden vvithout the citie, and bloud came forth out of the presse, vp to the horse bridles, for a thousand sixe hundred furlongs.et calcatus est lacus extra civitatem, et exivit sanguis de lacu usque ad frenos equorum per stadia mille sexcenta.
14:1
Witham
Behold a Lamb, by which is divers times represented our Saviour Christ. (Witham)
14:3
They sung as it were a new canticle. In these visions, after persecutions, are sometimes introduced rejoicings to encourage the servants of God in their sufferings from the wicked world.
Witham
No man could say (or sing) the canticle, but those hundred and forty-four thousand: by which are signified the elect, who were not defiled with women. Some expound this literally of those who always lived virgins; others understand all those who lived or died with a pure and clean heart, exempt from the corruption of vices, and of whom it is said, (ver. 5) that in their mouth was found no lie, and that they were without spot for the throne of God. (Witham)
14:4
Calmet
These are they, etc. In the style of the prophets, by fornication is meant idolatry, and virginity signifies cleanness from all sacrilegious worship. These, therefore, are virgins in this sense, who have not fallen into the impurities of creature worship. But others, as St. Augustine, understand it of persons who have lived in continency. The first, however, is the more literal sense. (Calmet)
14:6
Witham
Another Angel,...saying: Fear the Lord.[Ver. 6-7. I cannot but admire how Dr. W., after his learned modern divines, Mr. Mede and Mr. Whiston, could hook in the popish antichrist in so many places on this chapter, as ver. 7, where it is said fear God, the Christians, says he, are forewarned not to fall into any corruptions the visible Church afterwards fell into, particularly popery. According to a great many of our Protestant adversaries, the popes have been the great antichrist ever since the destruction of the heathen Roman emperors in the fourth age[century], and yet no man ever dreamt of it or suspected it. The Protestants tell the people, they need but open their Bibles and Testaments to see and find the monstrous popish antichrist, the frightful beast with seven heads and ten horns; and what is more strange than all the rest, not any one of the Latin or Greek Church for so many ages[centuries] could ever see the least appearance of what to them is visible at the first sight. The Greek Church, by an unfortunate schism, was divided from the Latin in the ninth age[century]: they wanted not learned men among them, well read in the Scriptures, who omitted nothing that could be alleged to justify their schism and separation from the pope of Rome. Is it possible that neither Photius nor any one among them should see this truth, so palpable that every Protestant presently discovers it at the opening of his New Testament? This at once would have justified their separation. This invention, which doubtless was suggested by the most subtle adversary of popery, first came, says the bishop of Meaux[Bossuet] on the Apocalypse, from the late Manicheans, a sect among the Albigenses, as infamous for their errors as for their morals, (see Nat. Alex. tom. 6. Saec. 11. and 12. p. 490. and tom. 7. Saec. 13. p. 66) who, among other detestable blasphemies against God, against Jesus Christ and his blessed Mother, taught the people that pope Silvester in Constantine's time was antichrist, and the Church from that time was become a den of thieves, and the harlot in the Apocalypse. I scarce think the reasons they brought will be approved by the writers of the late reformation, inasmuch, said they, as the Church and ministers of the Church were then permitted to receive ecclesiastical benefices and revenues. These heretics were followed in some points by Wycliffe and his disciples; but perhaps upon a strict examination, they only meant that the pope and bishops taught antichristian doctrine, and so were to be esteemed adversaries of Christ and precursors of antichrist. We may look upon Luther (though he denied the Apocalypse of St. John to be canonical Scripture) and the Lutherans and Calvinists, to be the true inventors of this empty and incoherent fable of the popish antichrist, twelve hundred years after the popes had successively one after another been the one, great, and famous antichrist. These lovers of novelty, liberty, and Church lands found the obscure revelations in the Apocalypse very convenient for their arbitrary fancies, where they could make the wicked Babylon not signify the heathen Roman empire, with St. Irenaeus and the primitive fathers, but to be the Christian popish Rome; and the scarlet whore must be the popes and cardinals who wear scarlet and purple. An argument not inferior to that Mr. Andrew Willet, who found out the pope to be the angel that opened with a key the bottomless pit, because, said he, who gives the cross keys for this arms but the pope? The last reformers of the faith found their ingenious expositions on the Apocalypse a fit means to stir up kings and princes, as well as the ignorant populace and unthinking mob against the tyranny of this Babylon: it is not my remark, nor that of the bishop of Meaux only, but of their learned Dr. Hammond, who, after he hath given us the extravagant and trifling ravings of Mr. Brightman, says, "that what such writers aim at, is to put the people in mind that they are to pull down antichrist. Nothing (says Dr. Hammond) can be more effectual towards the raising and fomenting of commotions." It is evident the country parson can never be at a loss, or want matter, to excite his parishioners (as occasion offers itself) to a detestation of popery and all papists, if he has but Mr. Brightman's revelations on the seven epistles in the second and third chapters of St. John's Apocalypse, written to the Protestant churches by name. See what we have cited on those chapters. If he keep by him Mr. Willet's expositions of the number of the name of antichrist, whereby he may prove that the three letters are each of them crosses, and that the sign of the cross, still retained by papists, is in very deed the cognizance of antichrist. He may confirm the same by Mr. Willet's evident demonstration, as he himself calls it. Take it in his own words, in his Synop. Papismi. Controv. 4. q. 16. "Antichrist, says he, is the great whore of Babylon, that is of Rome: and here, saith Willet devoutly, we are to note the singular providence of God, who suffereth not a jot of his word to fall to the ground: for even so verily, in the year 853[A.D. 853], next after Leo. IV. there was a right whore elected pope, called John, or if you will, Joan VIII. who fell in labour in the midst of a solemn procession: thus then by evident demonstration it appeareth that the pope is the whore of Babylon, and consequently antichrist." Is not this witty? No matter if by the same logic every whore that ever lived in Rome may be proved antichrist. But as for the story of pope Joan, David Blondel, a French hugonot, has shewn it to be a fable; for it neither was pope John, nor Joan, that succeeded Leo IV. in the year 853. Leo IV. died in July 853, to whom succeeded, in August or September of the same year, Benedict III. so that no place is found for pope John or Joan, to reign after Leo two years and five months, as the authors of that story pretend. The parson, if need be, may add the expositions on the seven vials of the learned and pious divine, Mr. Mede, as Dr. W. calls him: (though the bishop of Meaux looks upon him as a mere enthusiast) the effusion of the first vial, says Mede, was when the Waldenses and Albigenses, and the followers of Wycliffe, and Hus began to renounce popery. The second vial was completed by what is more eminently styled the reformation, begun by Luther, and carried on afterwards by many others. The third vial was completed partly by the laws made here in England in the reign of queen Elizabeth against popish priests, partly by the great overthrow given to the Spanish armada, in the year 1588, and also to the Spanish forces in the Netherlands. See the rest in Dr. W. p. 127. But Dr. W. with Mr. Whiston, looks upon the vials to be all still future. I cannot think that the learned men among the Protestants believe the popes to be antichrist, especially since time, that discovers what is true as to matters of fact, that are pretended to be foretold, has confuted the conjectures of de Moulin, Jurieu, Mede, Whiston, etc. I must here do justice to divers learned men of the Protestant communion. Grotius, in a letter (epist. 557.) to the Protestant John Gerard Vossius, tells him, "that they who did not believe the popes to be antichrist, nevertheless judged it necessary to give such interpretations, for the public good of the Protestant religion." See Mons. de Meaux in his advertisement, num. 1. The same Vossius answers, (ep. 571.) "that he himself having told a certain minister of Dort, whom he calls thickscull, (lourde tete) that he should not impose on the people, even against popery, that minister presently asked him if he was for taking the papists' part, whom, said he, we cannot run down too much, that the people may the more detest their Church. This, adds Vossius, is much the same as some others said to me at Amsterdam: why should not we say the pope is antichrist? must we leave off saying so? and make the people leave our communion more and more, as if too many did not leave it already?" This was a secret that was not to be divulged. Of our English Protestants, I have read Dr. Hammond's paraphrase and notes, on the second chapter of Thessalonians; and on the Revelation or Apocalypse, he never pretends that the popes are antichrist. The predictions in St. John, of the beasts, of the fall of Babylon, of the great harlot, he expounds, as fulfilled already, by the destruction of pagan Rome, and of its idolatry, superstitions, auguries, under the heathen emperors, much after the same manner as Alcazar, and as the bishop of Meaux and other Catholic writers. Mr. Richard Montague, in his Gag. p. 74, writes thus: "Whether the pope be that antichrist, or not, the Church (of England) resolveth not, tendereth it not to be believed any way. Some, I grant, are very peremptory indeed that he is. He, for instance, who wrote and printed it, I am as sure the pope is antichrist, that antichrist spoken of in the Scripture, as that Jesus Christ is God: but they that are so resolute, peremptory, and certain, let them answer for themselves. The Church is not tied, nor any one that I know of, to make good their private imaginations. For myself, I profess ingenuously I am not of opinion that the bishops of Rome personally are that antichrist....nor yet that the bishops of Rome successively are that antichrist," etc. He only holds the pope and papists to be antichrists improperly in the sense that St. John says, there are many antichrists. He cites for the same opinion Melancthon and others. Mr. Thorndike, in his just weights and measures, (chap. 2.) speaking to these two points, that the pope is antichrist, and papists idolaters. "The truth, says he, is they of the Church of Rome have overcharged us, in calling us heretics....but they that would have the pope antichrist, and the papists idolaters, have revived it upon them, and taken their revenge beyond the bounds of blameless defence....Let them not lead the people by the nose, to believe that they can prove the supposition, which they cannot," etc. The same Mr. Thorndike, in Apocalypse 19, p. 125, etc. shews more at large that their reverencing images in churches is no idolatry. And again, (p. 149) "having shewed, says he, why the Church of Rome cannot be charged with idolatry, I may from hence infer that the pope cannot be antichrist." Yet Dr. W. on the Apocalypse, has another argument to prove that the pope is antichrist, that is, by a new invention, the mystical antichrist, foretold by St. John, and his reign to be twelve hundred and sixty years, only because he supposeth that the pope and papists give divine honour, the honour that is due to God alone, to images, saints, and Angels. This he continually repeats, and takes it for a thing granted. It seems very strange, that so learned a doctor, after such mistakes have been canvassed and cleared, as appears by what hath been written by Mr. Thorndike on this subject, should still run on in this groundless supposition, contrary to all the protestations which the Catholics have constantly made. Every little papist boy or girl can assure the doctor, that they have been always taught to give divine honour and worship to God alone: they will recite to him the words of their catechism, that they pray indeed before images, to put them in mind of things thereby represented, but they do not pray to them, because they know they can neither see, nor hear, nor help them: they will tell him that the Angels and saints, even the blessed Virgin Mother of Christ, and the true mother of God made man, is no more than a creature below God, at an infinite distance; and so that the inferior honour that we pay to them, is nothing like to that supreme and divine honour, which we pay to God alone. In a word we know, and have always professed that images, Angels, and saints are but creatures; and as we are not such fools as to think them Gods, so neither are we so senseless as to pay them divine honour.] By this Angel are represented the preachers of the gospel, exhorting all men to the true faith and a good life. (Witham)
14:8
Witham
Another Angel,...saying:...She is fallen, she is fallen, that great Babylon. By Babylon, as observed before, may very probably be signified all the wicked world in general, whom God will punish and destroy after the short time of this mortal life: or may be signified every great city, and perhaps Rome returned to idolatry in the time of antichrist, a little before the end of the world, or may be signified the idolatry of heathen Rome, in the fourth age[century], when the Christian religion, under Constantine and his successors, began to triumph over paganism, that is according to those interpreters followed by Alcazar, Bossuet, P. Alleman, etc. which exposition Dr. Hammond thus expresseth: "the whole impure city of heathen Rome, under the title of Babylon, that old idolatrous city that had lain so heavy upon the people of God....should speedily be destroyed, for advancing the heathen worship." (Witham)
Challoner
It is probable that here by the great Babylon is meant the city of the devil; that is, the universal society of the wicked: as Jerusalem is taken for the city and the Church of God. (Challoner)
14:9
Witham
The third Angel followed....if any man shall adore the beast,...he also shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mingled with pure wine, etc. That is, he shall drink of the bitter cup of God's indignation, not mixed with water, or any thing to diminish its force, but with wine and wine; that is with punishments upon punishments for ever and ever. (Witham)
14:12
Witham
Here is the patience of the saints. Here patience is necessary, so as not to be carried away with such pleasures and vanities as are offered in the wicked Babylon, and to remain firm under persecutions with the pious inhabitants of Jerusalem. (Witham)
14:13
Witham
Blessed are the dead (all the dead) who die in the Lord, and not the martyrs only, for their works follow every one. (Witham)
Challoner
It is understood of the martyrs, who die for the Lord. (Challoner)
Calmet
For their works follow them. It is just that they rest at length from their labours, and enjoy for eternity the recompense of their fidelity. They land on the shores of their native country, enriched with the treasures of the good works they have done in this lower world. This is said in express contradiction to those who denied the necessity of good works, and maintained the indifference of actions. This seems to have been the doctrine of the Nicolaites and other heretics of those times. (Calmet)
Pastorini
The Holy Ghost confirms the sentence of their happiness, not only because at the moment of their departure their hard labours and penitential works cease, but their souls are admitted to a glorious immortality, the recompense of their good works. (Pastorini)
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Witham
Like to the Son of man. That is, to our Saviour Christ, sitting on a white cloud, with a crown of gold, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another Angel, desiring of him to do justice, by putting in his sickle, because the harvest of the earth was ripe, dry, and withered; that is the wicked, ripe for punishment. The like is again represented by the sickle, which is said to be put to the clusters of the vineyard: and they were cast into the great wine-press, or lake of the wrath of God, into hell, where the blood is said to come out even up to the horses' bridles, for a thousand and six hundred furlongs: a metaphorical way of expressing the exceeding great torments of the wicked in hell. But to pretend form hence to give the just dimensions of hell, is a groundless conjecture; of which see Cornelius a Lapide. (Witham)
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Babylon.... By Babylon may be very probably signified all the wicked world in general, which God will punish, and destroy after the short time of this mortal life: or it may signify every great city wherein enormous sins and abominations are daily committed; and that when the measure of its iniquities is full, the punishments due to its crimes are poured on it. It may also be some city of the description in the text, that will exist, and be destroyed, as here described, towards the end of the world.
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Die in the Lord.... It is understood of the martyrs who die for the Lord.
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In the liturgy The Epistle vpō S. Innocents day in Christmas.
Christ, and the same number of elect that were signed chap. 7.
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learne 〈◊〉.
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One state of life more excellēt then an other and virgins for their puritie passing the rest, & alwaies accompanying Christ according to the Churches hymne out of this place, Quecunque pergis, virgines sequuntur &c.
This the Church applieth to the holy Innocents that died first for Christ.
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Concordance Ps. 145.
Concordance Act. 14.
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Concordance Esa. 21.
The citie of the diuel, which is the vniuersal societie of the wicked misbeleuers & il liuers in the vvorld.
Concordance Ier. 51.
Concordance Apo. 18.
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The great damnatiō that shal folovv them that forsake Christ & the Church, & worship Antichrist or his image.
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Faith is not ynough to saluatiō, without fulfilling of Gods cōmaū dements.
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13. From hence forth novv.] This being specially spoken of Martyrs (as not onely S. Augustine seemeth to take it, Beza. but the Caluinists them selues, translating, in domino, for our Lords cause) the Protestants haue no reason to vse the place against Purgatorie or praier for the departed, seeing the Catholike Church and al her children confesse, Praying for the dead, and vnto Saincts, at the altar. that al Martyrs are straight after their death, in blisse, and neede no praiers. Vvhereof this is S. Augustines knovven sentence, He doeth iniurie to the Martyr, that praieth for the Martyr. Ser. 17 de verb. Apost. c. 1. and againe to this purpose he vvriteth thus most excellently tract. 84 in Ioan. We keepe not a memorie of Martyrs at our Lords table, as vve doe of other that rest in peace, that is, for the intent to pray for them, but rather that they may pray for vs &c.
But if vve take the vvordes generally for al deceased in state of grace, as it may be also, then vve say that euen such, though they be in Purgatorie and Gods chastisement in the next life, and neede our praiers, The place abused against Purgatorie, ansvvered. yet (according to the foresaid vvordes of S. Augustine) do rest in peace. being discharged from the labours, afflictions, and persecutions of this vvorld, and (vvhich is more) from the daily dangers of sinne and damnation, and put into infallible securitie of eternal ioy vvith vnspeakable comfort of conscience. and such in deede are more happie and blessed then any liuing, vvho yet are vsually in the Scriptures called blessed, euen in the middes of the tribulations of this life. Vvhereby vve see that these vvordes, from hence forth they shal rest from their labours, may truely agree to them also that are in Purgatorie, and so here is nothing proued against Purgatorie. Lastly, this aduerbe, á modo á modo, in Latin, as in the Greeke 〈Greek〉 〈Greek〉, doth not properly signifie, from this present time forvvard, Photius in Lexico. as though the Apostle had said, that after their death and so forvvard they are happie: but it noteth and ioyneth the time past together vvith the time present, in this sense, that such as haue died since Christs Ascension, vvhen he first entring into heauen opened it for others, goe not to Limbus Patrum, as they vvere vvont before Christs time, but are in case to goe straight to blisse, except the impediment be in them selues. Therfore they are here called blessed, that die novv in this state of grace & of the nevv Testament, in comparison of the old faithful and good persons.
In the liturgy The Epistle in a daily Masse for the dead.
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Concordance Ioel 3.
Concordance Mat. 13.
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〈Greek〉 lacū. fat, trough, lake.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.1
… And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand who were sealed, out of every tribe of the children of Israel; of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand, of the tribe of Roubem twelve thousand.” And he mentioned each of the tribes singly, with the exception of Dan. Then, some way further on,
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 2.23
… and I will look on the blood, and will protect you. And there shall not be in you the plague of wasting when I shall smite the land of Egypt.” Also in the Apocalypse: “And I saw a Lamb standing on Mount Sion, and with Him a hundred and forty and four thousand; and they had His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 1.5
… And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 9
… for neither will these Powers accept such addresses, but will even toss them away from them, when they have beheld their Master dishonored. “I have honored thee,” He saith, “and have said, Call upon Me”; and dost thou dishonor Him? If thou chant this incantation with faith, thou wilt drive away both diseases and demons,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.41
… And no man shall have power to learn that song save those for whom it is appointed. “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.14
… “Thou, Lord,” says the psalmist, “shalt save both man and beast.” I have myself said the same thing in other words, when I have spoken of virginity as gold and of wedlock as silver. Again, in discussing the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed virgins who were not defiled with women,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.40
… Herein is our love made perfect, if we have boldness in the day of judgement: that as he is, even so may we be in this world.” The Epistle of Jude also expresses nearly the same: “Hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” Let us read the Apocalypse of John, and we shall there find the Lamb upon Mount Sion,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of Holy Virginity 27
… Ye shall bring unto the marriage of the Lamb a new song, which ye shall sing on your harps. Not surely such as the whole earth singeth, unto which it is said, “Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, the whole earth” : but such as no one shall be able to utter but you. For thus there saw you in the Apocalypse a certain one
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 2.132
132. The soul has to depart from the surroundings of this life, and the pollutions of the earthly body, and to press on to those heavenly companies, though it is for the saints alone, to attain to them, and to sing praise to God (as in the prophet’s words we hear of those who are harping
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.10
… nay, more, upon all bishops, presbyters, and deacons, and the whole company of priests and levites, who know that they cannot offer sacrifices if they fulfil the obligations of marriage. Again, when I adduce evidence from the Apocalypse, is it not clear what view I take concerning virgins, widows, and wives? “These are they who sing a new song
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.7
… If filthiness is cleansed, how much more is cleanness kept from defilement. “A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit.” Yes, for “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but a new nature.” Wherefore the song also which we sing is a new song,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.40
… And that we may not suppose the reference to be to those who know not harlots, he immediately added: “For they continued virgins.” Whereby he shows that all who have not preserved their virginity, in comparison of pure and angelic chastity and of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, are defiled.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Widowhood 24
… and if there be any thing of this sort, she teaches you, who is now by time fixed, by love a well-wisher, by natural affection full of cares, by age secure. Do you specially, do you in such things consult her, who hath made trial of what you have made trial of. For your child sings that song,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.8
… for they continued virgins: and in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault.”
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Prayer 22
… for just so he says, “ Every man .” As, then, in the masculine sex, under the name of “man” even the “youth” is forbidden to be veiled; so, too, in the feminine, under the name of “woman,” even the “virgin” is bidden to be veiled. Equally in each sex let the younger age follow the discipline of the elder; or else let the male “virgins,”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Dress of Virgins 4
… and there are eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.” Again, also by this word of the angel the gift of continency is set forth, and virginity is preached: “These are they which have not defiled themselves with women, for they have remained virgins; these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.33
… “And the priest answered to David, and said, There are no profane loaves in my hand, except one sacred loaf. If the young men have been kept back from women, they shall eat.” Also in the Apocalypse: “These are they who have not defiled themselves with women, for they have continued virgins; these are they who follow the Lamb whithersoever He shall go.”
St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 1.5
… And remark, in addition to this, how very great in the sight of God is the dignity of virginity: “These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault,”
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 5.1.10
… He showed this by the fullness of his love, being well pleased even to lay down his life in defense of the brethren. For he was and is a true disciple of Christ, ‘following the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.’
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 7
… For this is the nature of folly and of audacity; it is either unduly elevated, or on the other hand it is equally depressed, never observing a proper proportion. We are equal to angels in this respect, that we have a Kingdom pledged to us, the choir,
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 3.5
… Remember, I beseech Thee, that this warrior of Thine was once a raw recruit with me. I have before me the declaration of Thy majesty: “Whosoever shall teach and not do shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” May he enjoy the crown of virtue, and in return for his daily martyrdoms may he follow the Lamb robed in white raiment!
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 48.10
… Again, when I adduce evidence from the Apocalypse, is it not clear what view I take concerning virgins, widows, and wives? “These are they who sing a new song which no man can sing except he be a virgin. These are ‘the first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb,’
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 77.12
12. I give you this, Fabiola, the best gift of my aged powers, to be as it were a funeral offering. Oftentimes have I praised virgins and widows and married women who have kept their garments always white and who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.22
22. However, she has finished her course, she has kept the faith, and now she enjoys the crown of righteousness. She follows the Lamb whithersoever he goes.
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 130.8
… and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” We are told that the bridegroom feeds among the lilies, that is, among those who have not defiled their garments, for they have remained virgins
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Vigilantius 6
… Will you lay down the law for God? Will you put the Apostles into chains? So that to the day of judgment they are to be kept in confinement, and are not with their Lord, although it is written concerning them,
St Jerome † AD 420 To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 34
… and then, in truth, as concerns Christ’s flesh, were fulfilled the words, “Who is this that cometh up all in white, leaning upon her beloved?” And that which is written in the same book: “My beloved is white and ruddy.” These men are his true followers who have not
Sulpicius Severus † AD 420 The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus 2.2
… the restraint is temporal, but the reward will be eternal. For the blessed Apostle John also speaks concerning these, saying that “they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”
Sulpicius Severus † AD 420 The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus 2.11
… Wherefore also blessed Peter issues a precept to this effect: “purify your souls”; and if he had not been aware of such a thing as defilement of the soul, he would not have expressed a desire that it should be purified. But we should also very carefully consider that passage which says, “These
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Good of Marriage 31
… even if there had been wanting to those men in habit of mind also, what is plain in the deed of the latter. Therefore let these follow the Lamb, boys singing the new song, as it is written in the Apocalypse, “who have not defiled themselves with women:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Of Holy Virginity 49
… but, because that same Apocalypse itself, wherein such unto one such were revealed, in this also praises them, that “in their mouth there was not found a lie:”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.28
… Moreover, in what place they are held with the Father is shewn, forasmuch as in the Father’s house, that is in His eternal mansion, they are preferred even before sons. Let them hear what is said through John; These are they which have not been defiled with women; for they are virgins, and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth (
Ecumenical Councils The Canons of the Holy Fathers Assembled at Gangra, Which Were Set Forth After the Council of Nice 1
… Paul “He that giveth his virgin in marriage doeth well, but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better,” together with the striking passage in the Revelation of those that were “not defiled with women for they are virgins,”
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 1
To all those who love and cherish their life which is in Christ through God the Father, and obey the truth of God in hope of eternal life; to those who bear affection towards their brethren and towards their neighbours in the love of God; to the blessed brother virgins,
Pseudo-Irenaeus Pseud-Irenæus 1
… which he showed in the fulness of his love, in that he had of his own good-will offered to lay down his own life in defence of the brethren. For he was and is a genuine disciple of Christ, ‘following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.’
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Against Lying 3
… But not so have the Martyrs understood the Apostle, the true, the holy Martyrs. They saw and held that which is written, “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation;” and, “In their mouth was found no lie:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Against Lying 33
… but concerning a citizen of that city which is above and free, our mother, eternal in the heavens. And to our asking it is answered, “No lie is of the truth.” The sons of that city, are sons of the Truth. That city’s sons are they of whom it is written,“In their mouth was found no lie:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 30
“Moreover,” says he, “in Job himself it is said: ‘And he maintained the miracle of a true man.’ Again we read in Solomon, touching wisdom: ‘Men that are liars cannot remember her, but men of truth shall be found in her.’ Again in the Apocalypse: ‘And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault.’”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen De Principiis iv.section24
… “The breath of our countenance, Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under Thy shadow we shall live among the nations;” at the time, viz., when He will more worthily transfer all the saints from a temporal to an everlasting Gospel, according to the designation, employed by John in the Apocalypse, of “an everlasting Gospel.”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 1.14
… For at the end an exalted and flying angel, having the Gospel, will preach it to every nation, for the good Father has not entirely deserted those who have fallen away from Him. John, son of Zebedee, says in his Apocalypse:
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus 2
… “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach over the earth, and over all nations, and tribes, and tongues, and peoples, saying with a loud voice, Fear God rather, and give glory to Him: for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 124.13
13. After saying that according to the apocalypse of John “the everlasting gospel” which shall be revealed in heaven
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 55.7
… and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; and they shall have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 63.1
… and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever; neither shall they have rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus 3
… and the smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever: and they shall have no rest day or night, whosoever worship the beast and his image.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.60
… and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Thessalonians 4
… Take away his goods, and surely he will bless Thee to Thy face.” ( Job i. 10, 11 , Sept.) He makes trial; if he sees anything weak, he makes an attack, if strong, he desists. “And our labor,” he says, “be in vain.” Let us all hear, how Paul labored. He does not say work, but “labor”; he does not say, and you be lost, but “our labor.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.9
… 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 henceforth and now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works do follow them.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.21
… and adore Him who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
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1. AND I SAW, AND BEHOLD THE LAMB STOOD. — John throughout this passage calls Christ the Lamb, and he delights wonderfully in that word for reasons which I have reviewed at chapter V, verse 6, and because he alludes to Isaiah XVI, 1: "Send forth the Lamb, O Lord, the ruler of the earth, from the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion." For John here depicts this Lamb already sent forth, and standing in Sion with many of his similar followers. Third, and chiefly, because he deals here with virgins who follow the Lamb. For these are αγνοι, that is, chaste. Christ therefore the Lamb (as is signified in this vision) loves lambs and ewes and rams, loves the innocent, virgins and Martyrs. Whence St. Augustine, sermon 1 On the Innocent: "Lambs ought to be sacrificed, because the Lamb who is to be crucified is coming, who takes away the sins of the world." Christ loves lambs and the chaste: just as iron is drawn by a magnet, so the Lamb draws his own to Christ. Whence the Apostle says: "I have espoused you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," II Corinthians XI, 2. Hence again Christ wishes his own to be sheep, so that they allow themselves to be ruled by him as sheep by a shepherd, wholly resigned into him. For he "leads forth his people like sheep;" he himself is the shepherd of sheep, concerning which John the Evangelist says, chapter X: "My sheep hear my voice." It is wonderful that lambs newly born recognize their mother's bleating among a thousand sheep and mothers, and straightway run to their mother's udders: thus also a mother recognizes her own lamb among a thousand lambs. So the faithful of Christ hear and recognize his voice, both internal and external. Whence Christ also says: "I know my sheep, and mine know me." Hence he will place these sheep and lambs on his right hand in judgment, and lead them with him to heaven; but the goats he will thrust down from his left into the depths of hell. Such were David and St. Paul saying: "For thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us." Such were the Apostles, strong as lions, but meek and patient as lambs, as disciples of the Son of God the Lamb, who heard from him: "Go, behold I send you as lambs among wolves," Luke X, 3. STOOD UPON MOUNT SION — because the temple had been built by Solomon in Sion; hence Sion allegorically signified the new Church militant under Christ, because it began in Sion. For, as Isaiah predicted at chapter II, verse 3: "Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem." For Sion, signifying in Hebrew a watchtower, signifies the height of all holiness, which continually looks upon God, intends and contemplates him, and ascends to him and strives toward him daily with great strides of virtue. Sion therefore, as St. Jerome testifies, in book I Against Jovinian, denotes the summit of virtues, which will be in these holy virgins at the end of the world, similar to that which the Apostles attained in Sion on the day of Pentecost. John therefore sees here the Lamb's virgin army at the summit of virtues, and in a like perfection of spirit, such as was given to the Apostles and the inhabitants of Sion on mount Sion. For there the Apostles and other first Christians were clothed with power from on high; there they received the divine Spirit in their inmost hearts, so that they might give to all future ages a mirror and example of chastity, poverty, contempt of riches and the world, charity, and heavenly life; there moreover they were imbued with heavenly strength to preach the name of Christ throughout the whole world, and to pour out their life, if need be, for him readily and willingly. With the same spirit and virtue will these Sionites, virgins and martyrs, be clothed, when they are about to contend against Antichrist. Anagogically moreover, mount Sion signified the Church triumphant in heaven, and here it signifies it symbolically and literally. For John throughout this passage takes Sion, temple, altar, incense, etc., in the anagogical sense, so that namely here they signify literally the heavenly homeland, the glory of the citizens of heaven, thanksgiving, joy and happiness. For, as the Psalmist says, Psalm LXXXIII, verse 8: "God shall be seen in Sion." Thus St. Gregory, book V Commentary on the book of Kings, chapter III, says that Sion is the highest summit of supernal happiness. John therefore saw here the Lamb's followers and soldiers against Antichrist, namely virgins and Martyrs, already triumphing with victory won in Sion, that is in heaven, whence he immediately adds concerning their voice: "And I heard a voice from heaven." You ask why John says: "I saw above the mountain," and not, in the mountain? I answer, first, that it may signify that Virginity far surpasses all the height of worldly structure, equally as of common virtue. "From heaven," says Ambrose, book I On Virgins, "it sought what it might imitate on earth. This (virginity) transcending clouds, air, Angels and stars, found the Word of God in the very bosom of the Father, etc. Elias also, because he is found to have been mixed with no desires of bodily intercourse, was therefore caught up in a chariot to heaven. For incorruption makes one near to God." Nay, it even reflects and expresses in virgins the image of the Holy Trinity before other men; for the Holy "Trinity is the first virgin:" for the Father is unbegotten; the Son is αμητωρ, who is begotten of the Father alone without a mother; the Holy Spirit is not begotten, but spirated. Wherefore just as the wind breathes forth a breeze and spirit, not begets it: so also the Father with the Son spirates the Holy Spirit, not begets it. For which reason blessed Nazianzen rightly sings in a poem On Virginity: The first Triad is virgin; since the Son born of the Father without beginning is: for neither did the Father draw his origin from any. Hence Nazianzen hears that virginity so far excels marriage, as the soul excels the flesh, heaven the earth, God excels and surpasses man. Hear also St. Gregory, book V on the book of Kings, chapter III: "Virgins are well said to be in a sublime place, because what surpasses human nature is situated on the highest summit of virtues. Whence also that virgin beloved of Jesus, hinting at the place of virgins, says: I saw above the mountain of Sion the Lamb standing, and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand; these are they who have not been defiled with women: for they are virgins. They are said to be in the mountain with the Lamb, because by the merit of incorruption, whereby they separate themselves from earthly and carnal delights, they are elevated in the eternal glory of the Redeemer." Hence again Nazianzen says: "Chastity shone forth dividing the world," as if establishing a certain supreme world divided from and elevated above this lower one, and placing virgins above all others in it. For which reason St. Cyprian, book On the Dress of Virgins, and from him St. Augustine, book IV On Christian Doctrine, chapter XXI, speaking of virgins: "That is the flower of the Church's offspring, the beauty and ornament of spiritual grace, the joyful disposition of praise and honor, a work whole and incorrupt, the image of God corresponding to the holiness of the Lord, the more illustrious portion of Christ's flock. The Church rejoices through them, and in them the glorious fruitfulness of holy mother Church flourishes abundantly; and the more glorious virginity adds to its number, the more does the mother's joy increase." And St. Jerome, epistle 17 to Marcella: "Certainly a certain flower and most precious stone among ecclesiastical ornaments is the choir of monks and virgins." Finally the Wise Man, Ecclesiasticus XXVI, 20: "All weighing is not worthy of a continent soul." Secondly, above the mountain signifies that virginity is a difficult matter, and that he who wishes to be a virgin must, as it were, strive and climb as if over a very high mountain, and emulate the life of the heavenly ones and Angels. For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 250 On the Seasons: "Among all the contests of Christians, the battles of chastity alone are harder, where the struggle is daily, and victory rare; chastity has drawn a grave enemy, who is conquered daily, and yet is feared." For which reason Christ did not wish to command it, but to counsel it, and to allure to it as to a sublime matter, saying: "He that can take it, let him take it," Matthew XIX, 12. Hence all the Fathers equal virgins, nay prefer them to Angels. Nazianzen calls virginity "the rival of angelic glory." St. Ambrose, book On Virginity: "Chastity made Angels: he who kept it is an Angel; he who lost it, a devil." St. Augustine, book On Virginity, chapter XXIII: "Virginal integrity, and by pious continence immunity from all intercourse, is an angelic portion, and in corruptible flesh a meditation of perpetual incorruption." St. Cyprian, book On the Discipline of Virgins: "When you persevere chaste and virgins, you are equal to the Angels of God." St. Bernard, epistle 52 to Henry Archbishop of Sens: "Chastity makes an Angel of a man. A chaste man and an Angel differ indeed from each other, but in happiness, not in virtue; and if his chastity is happier, yet his is known to be stronger. Chastity alone is that which in this place and time of mortality represents a certain state of immortal glory." Nay, Christ himself, Matthew XXII, 30: "In the resurrection," he says, "they shall neither marry, nor be married; but shall be as the Angels of God in heaven." Hence again Viegas notes that "upon the mountain" signifies that virgins, if they wish to guard and preserve their virginity, ought to flee the other sex, to withdraw into cells, cloisters and mountains. For, as Tertullian says, in the book On the Veiling of Virgins: "Every public appearance of a good virgin is a passion of defilement: however much she may strive with good intention, it is necessary that she be endangered by her public appearance, while she is struck by uncertain and many eyes, while she is tickled by the fingers of those pointing her out, while she is loved too much, while she grows together amid constant embraces and kisses; thus the forehead is hardened, thus modesty is worn away, thus it is dissolved: pure virginity fears nothing more than itself; it does not even wish to endure the eyes of women." The same, in the book On the Dress of Women: "Since we are all temples of God, with the Holy Spirit brought into us and consecrated, the guardian and priest of that temple is chastity, which permits nothing unclean or profane to be brought in, lest that God who dwells therein, offended, abandon a defiled seat." Virgins therefore, fleeing with Lot the burning of Sodom, should think that saying of the Angel spoken to them equally as to him, Genesis XIX, 17: "Save thy soul, look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about; but save thyself in the mountain, lest thou be consumed also." Thus Nazianzen, in the Exhortation to Virgins: "Rightly dost thou proceed, virgin, thou shalt be saved in the mountains, look not back to Sodom, lest thou be hardened into a statue of salt." See St. Jerome, epistle to Eustochium, on the Guarding of Virginity; St. Basil, Ambrose, Ephrem, Nazianzen, and all who have written on virginity. A wonderful example of chastity, and equally of flight, gave St. Pelagia, a virgin of Antioch and martyr of fifteen years, whose feast the Church celebrates on July 9: whom St. Ambrose celebrates wonderfully, book III On Virgins, at the beginning; and St. Chrysostom wrote two homilies on her praises, which are extant in Lipomanus, volume VII; and St. Augustine celebrates her too, book I of the City of God, XXVI. She, being alone at home, and seeing herself surrounded by persecutors, that is, as St. Ambrose says, "by robbers of faith or modesty," her mother and sisters absent, empty of protection but fuller of God: "What do we do," she said, "if we do not provide, captive virginity? Let us die, if it be permitted, or if they will not permit it, let us die. Now I shall overturn the sacrilegious altars by throwing myself down, and I shall extinguish the kindled fires with blood." Therefore she threw herself down from on high, and thus flew into heaven. For this the word itself "thrown down" hints at, and St. Chrysostom asserts it plainly. Wherefore it is strange that Baronius in the Martyrology should say that St. Ambrose asserts that she and her mother threw themselves into a river. For St. Ambrose asserts this of her sisters, not of herself. For he adds: "But when the detestable persecutors saw the prey of modesty snatched from them, they began to seek her mother and sisters. But they, with spiritual flight, already held the field of chastity: when suddenly, pressed on one side by persecutors, on the other excluded from flight by a rushing river, they were enclosed for the crown. 'Why do we fear?' they said. 'Behold water, who forbids us to be baptized? And this is the baptism by which sins are forgiven, kingdoms are sought. Let the water receive us which opens heaven, covers the underworld, hides death, makes Martyrs. We beseech thee, Creator of all things, God, that the water neither scatter our bodies bereft of spirit, nor let death separate our burials, whose life affection did not separate; but let there be one constancy, one death, one also burial.' Having spoken these things and paused a moment, with their garments girded about so as to cover their modesty nor impede their step, with joined hands as if leading a dance, they proceed into the middle of the channel, where the water was more torrential, where the depth was more abrupt, directing their steps thither. None drew back her foot, none suspended her step, none attempted to find where to set her foot: anxiously as the earth met them, glad at the shallows, joyful at the depth. You would see the pious mother binding her hands in a knot, rejoicing over her pledge, fearing for her fall, lest the waters take her daughters from her. 'These to thee,' she said, 'O Christ, I offer as victims, leaders of virginity, guides of chastity, companions of passion.' But who could rightly wonder at such constancy in the living, when even the dead vindicated the immobile position of their bodies? the water did not strip the corpses, the swift course of the river did not roll them about. Nay, even the holy mother, though bereft of sense, yet preserved by piety the embrace she had held, and the religious knot which she had bound, nor did death loosen, so that she who had paid the debt of religion, died with piety as heir. For those whom she had joined to martyrdom, she vindicated even to the tomb." ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR THOUSAND. — Some think, as St. Jerome in book I Against Jovinian, and Alcazar, that these are the same as those same number sealed in chapter VII; but it is far more true that they are different: for these are virgins; those are the faithful and holy of every state, even conjugal; those are all Jews, these are both Jews and Gentiles. Therefore the number of virgins is described here, as also their lot, which will be at the time of Antichrist, inasmuch as they will have most powerfully overcome that most powerful vice of lust, to which then both the flesh, and more the Antichrist will incite, at that time most strongly. For the very words themselves, and the text itself clearly signify this; for nothing compels us to have recourse to allegories or tropes. Thus Aretas, Ribera, Viegas and others, who take these plainly as they sound, not of others than virgins to be in the end of the world. Furthermore Viegas thinks that here a definite number is put for an indefinite: For there will be more virgins, he says, in the end of the world than 144 thousand, as is evident from the fact that infants and children alone, who are certainly virgins, will be more. For in Nineveh alone in the time of Jonah, there were more than 120 thousand small children and innocents, Jonah IV, 11; therefore he himself thinks the number one hundred signifies the universality of infants and virgin children who will be then: but the number forty signifies the universality of virgins dedicated to God, which will be then: finally the number four signifies all men and women, who in the world will then practice virginity. More truly and more literally Ribera thinks that precisely at the end of the world there will be 144 thousand virgins. For what other reason would John precisely set down and define this number? why would he add four to forty, not six or eight, unless because it signifies precisely so many will be? For neither can that reason be assigned here which was given in chapter VII. For there only those are enumerated who from each of the twelve tribes of the Jews will be elected, and from each twelve thousand are numbered (because the number twelve is a symbol of universality, and signifies all the faithful, who are disciples and children of the twelve both Patriarchs and Apostles), which conflated into one make 144 thousand. But here St. John numbers promiscuously all virgins, both of the Gentiles and of the Jews. To the argument of Viegas he responds that infants and small children are not numbered here: for in these virginity is not a virtue, but a condition of age. But these are enumerated as virgins, who will stand and contend against Antichrist for virginity unto death, and therefore all receive the laurel of virginity from God, many also of martyrdom. For it is certain that small children, as they are not capable of virtue, so also not of the laurel of virginity. St. Cyprian notes, in the book On the Habit of Virgins, that here only male virgins are numbered, not females; because John does not say: "These are," but "these are, who are not defiled with women;" yet through males females are also signified, because woman is a portion of man, and taken from man. But truly I say both females and males are numbered here. For in females, as being frailer, virginity will be stronger and more generous. In the masculine gender, as being nobler, the feminine is understood, as if indeed both. For John could not otherwise speak and embrace both at once. For if he had said in the feminine: "These are," he would have excluded males. For males are not usually comprehended and understood under females, as females are under males. Furthermore the Church reads these in place of the Epistle in the feast of the Holy Innocents: whence some have thought that the Innocents slain by Herod were 144 thousand. But rashly: for the Church merely accommodates these to them, because they are innocent, while it knows at the letter these do not pertain to them, but to virgins to come. HAVING THE NAME OF HIM (the Lamb), AND THE NAME OF HIS FATHER WRITTEN ON THEIR FOREHEADS. — This writing, or character of the Lamb will be opposed to the character of Antichrist, of which in the preceding chapter, at the end. The sense therefore is, as if to say: These virgins, followers of the Lamb, freely professed and called themselves servants, indeed spouses of Christ and God the Father, that is, they offered and consecrated to God and Christ not only faith and religion, but also perpetual virginity forever, in the manner of martyrs, who consecrated their blood and life to God. For chastity also has its martyrdom, and that a difficult and long one. Again, these were known by all and called familiar and intimate to Christ and the Father, and to be in His court and household as it were first and princes, indeed queens, as it were brides, of whom Paul says in II Corinthians XI, 2: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." This is a catachresis. For it is not necessary to say that this name will in fact be inscribed on the foreheads of virgins. Yet symbolically John saw this inscribed upon them, to signify this free profession of theirs which I have mentioned. If anyone, however, wishes it to be inscribed in fact for their honor and glory, I shall not object; especially since the character of the Antichrist, to which this is opposed, will be real and visible, as I have said in the preceding chapter, at the end. See what is said concerning the sign of the cross, by which all the faithful will be signed at the time of the Antichrist, chapter VII, verse 3. Note here again that chastity is the principal, royal and divine virtue, so that virgins are marked with the name of God, and bear His name and title on their foreheads. Wherefore King David, fallen from the royal degree of chastity into adultery, prays in Psalm L, 14, saying: "Confirm me with a principal spirit;" where for principal the Hebrew is נדיבה nedibah, that is, prince, which is fitting for a king and prince, as if to say, Restore to me the Spirit of chastity as a prince, which I lost through adultery, and confirm me with it, so that I may again bear and represent a king and prince. Secondly, Hugo: "Virgins have the name of God written on their foreheads, because they are called by the same name as God: for they are called gods." For thus God says to judges: "I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High;" much more will He say the same to virgins.
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2. AND I HEARD A VOICE FROM HEAVEN, AS THE VOICE OF MANY WATERS. — The one and same voice and jubilation of 144 thousand, namely virgins, is here compared to three different voices or sounds: first, to the sound of many waters, because it was sonorous, and composed of many various voices and sounds, just as many waters falling or dashing against rocks are sonorous, and produce a great and varied noise. Secondly, to the sound of great thunder, which is not only sonorous, but also terrible and dreadful, as being heavenly; and this first, because the voice of virgins is heavenly, and will be terrible and dreadful to the impious and unchaste at the end of the world like thunder. Thus St. Paul disputing concerning chastity, justice, and judgment, Felix the unchaste governor was struck with fear, Acts XXIV, 25. Secondly, because as thunder is born from the collision of clouds, and from the violence of lightning bursting forth from a cloud, so thirdly, this voice of virgins is similar to the sound of a harp, first, because it is most sweet, and with most sweet singing it soothes God, Angels and Saints. For these virgins, singing with their mouth, equally as playing harps with their hands, sing together a new and unheard song in the world. Thus Scipio in Cicero, in the book On the Republic, says that the state is a harmony. "As in strings and pipes, and in song itself and voices a certain harmony must be maintained from distinct sounds: so from the highest, middle and lowest orders interspersed as sounds, the state by moderated reason should be harmonized by the consent of the most dissimilar: and what harmony is called by musicians in song, that is concord in the state, the tightest and best bond of safety in every republic, and that it can in no way exist without justice," as St. Augustine relates, book II On the City of God, chapter XXI. Secondly, the sound of the harp signifies the consonance of all virtues in virgins: thus St. Jerome in Isaiah XVI, verse 11. For virginity is produced by abstinence, penance, humility; it is nourished by prudence, fortitude, obedience; it is perfected by solitude, silence, charity, prayer and other virtues: for all virtues keep watch around virginity as it were, so that they protect it, and form a choir around it as it were. Thirdly, Rupertus: "Harps signify the hearts of the faithful, in which through faith heavenly music dwells." Faith therefore is compared to a harp, and because faith alone is not sufficient for salvation, hence the strings of God's commandments must be extended in it, and these must be handled and played with hands, that is, by working and executing they must be perfected and fulfilled, so that complete harmony may be made. Fourthly, the stretching and sound of the strings in a harp signifies the stretching and mortification of the flesh, which is the mother and nurse of virginity, and therefore sounds most sweetly in the ears of God. Thus Ansbertus: "That those triumphing over the beast are said to have harps of God, understand it thus, as if to say, They themselves were harps of God, namely having hearts dedicated to praises, and resonant with the consonant truth of either testament. Or certainly they have harps, namely the pleasures of the flesh fixed to the wood of passion. For the passion of Christ is the wood of the harp; the strings stretched over it are the bodies of the saints dead to earthly desires. Concerning which Paul says: They that are Christ's have crucified their flesh with the vices and concupiscences. Of whom also the Psalmist speaks with their voice, Psalm CXVIII, 8: 'Pierce my flesh with Thy fear; for I am afraid of Thy judgments.'" So also St. Gregory, in the second book of his Morals, chapter XXXI, where he explains that passage from Job, chapter XXX: "My harp is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of those that weep," speaks thus: "Since the organ sounds through pipes, and the harp through strings, the harp can fittingly designate right action, while the organ designates holy preaching. By the pipes of the organ, we understand the mouths of preachers; by the strings of the harp, we not unreasonably understand the intention of those living rightly. When this tends toward another life through the affliction of the flesh, the string, as it were attenuated in the harp, sounds through the admiration of those beholding it. For the string is dried so that it may produce a fitting song in the harp; because indeed holy men mortify and dry their body through fasting, and subject it to servitude, and tend from the lowest to the highest things." This therefore is the harp of the cross of Christ, which the harp of David prefigured, which he himself playing drove away the evil spirit that was tormenting Saul, I Kings XVI, 23. For, as Eucherius says there, and from him Bede and Angelomus: "This boy, singing sweetly, indeed strongly, on the harp, restrained the malignant spirit that was working in Saul; not that that harp had such great power, but it was a figure of the cross of Christ, which was mystically borne from wood and the stretching of sinews, and the passion itself was sung, and by it then the spirit of the demon was oppressed: in this morally giving an example, that we provoke the pride of the rich by humble speech to some good;" and pressing down the pride of the flesh by mortification, stretching and playing, we sing a sweet and chaste melody to God. For just as in honors humility, in riches poverty, so also in delights chastity is in peril. St. Charles Borromaeus felt and taught this above all others, who, declaring war on all pleasures in order to preserve chastity, lived an exceedingly austere life; and he wrote to a certain Cardinal, "without penance and austerity of life it is impossible to preserve chastity," inasmuch as the flesh, the demon and the world assail it so greatly. Wherefore chastity is said to be from chastisement, says St. Thomas, II II, Question CLI, article 1: "The name of chastity is taken from this, that through reason concupiscence is chastised, which after the manner of a child is to be restrained," as is evident from the Philosopher, in II Ethics, final chapter. For just as children, because they lack reason by which they can be governed, must be ruled and restrained by the rod: so also concupiscence, which is like a child, must be tamed by chastisement. This is what St. Jerome says to Furia: "The burning arrows of the devil are to be extinguished by the rigor of fasting and vigils." If you object that you will thereby become weak or infirm, St. Jerome responds in the Life of St. Paula: "It is better that the stomach ache than the mind." And St. Anthony with Athanasius: "Believe me, brothers, Satan greatly fears the vigils of the pious, their prayers, their fasting, their voluntary poverty." Indeed, Christ himself, Mark IX, 28: "This kind can go out by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." In the Chronicles of St. Francis, part I, book VI, chapter XXXII, it is related that a certain person asked the holy man: Why did John the Baptist, sanctified in the womb, go into the desert, and there live so austere a life? The Saint responded: Tell me also: Why is fresh meat, even if it be good, salted? And when he said, so that it may be preserved and not corrupted; the Saint added: "So likewise the Baptist salted his body with the salt of penance, so that he might preserve it holy and pure from sin," according to what the Church sings of him: "Lest even a light stain could mar his life by hunger." It is an axiom of St. Francis, which he asserted he had learned from experience: "Demons dread and flee from austerity of life and rigor of penance; but they draw near to those who have delicate flesh, and they tempt and assail them strongly." Thus in the Chronicles of the Order of St. Francis, part I, book I, chapter XXI. Hence mystically Alcazar (although he himself thinks this to be literal): The voice, he says, of the Apostles was as a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters and of a great thunder, because like heavenly thunder it struck the minds of those hearing it, and prostrated them and converted them to Christ; but the voice of the faithful of primitive times, who were perfect and as it were Religious, and therefore stood upon Mount Sion, was like the voice of harp-players. First, because the concord and consonance of all of them was most sweet. Second, because they praised God not only with their mouth, but also with their hands, that is, with pious and holy works. Third, because stretched in afflictions, persecutions, martyrdoms and tortures like strings upon a harp, they gave thanks to God, which was a great praise and glory of God and the Apostles, and confusion and wonder to the Gentiles: and this is a new canticle and unheard of in former ages which they sang, namely the exulting glorying of the Apostles, Martyrs and faithful in the very storms and torments of persecutions. To these harp-players therefore that saying of the Psalmist fittingly applies, Psalm 32, 2: "Give praise to the Lord on the harp;" and Psalm 42, 2: "I will confess to thee on the harp, O God, my God." Such a harp-player was St. Boniface the Martyr, whose feast the Church celebrates on the 14th of May, who when he was being flayed with iron nails, and sharp reeds were being driven between the nails and flesh of his hands, and molten lead was being poured into his mouth, this alone was heard as the voice of him as it were playing the harp: "I give thanks to thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God."
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3. AND THEY SANG AS IT WERE A NEW CANTICLE. — The word "as" here is not a note of similitude, but of truth and assertion; for it often signifies this among the Hebrews. Thus in John, cap. I, vers. 14, it is said: "We saw his glory as of the only begotten." Where it is clear that "as" is not assimilative, but assertive; for the sense is, as if to say, We saw his glory such and so great as was fitting and becoming to the only begotten Son of God. Secondly and better, St. John uses "as" throughout here, because he did not hear the actual real voices of the virgins in themselves, but those only were presented and represented to him through prophetic and imaginative vision, or to his intellect or mind, so that it seemed to him that he heard them. For imagination, and more so intellect, eminently contains all senses and sensations. Wherefore in the intellect it is the same thing to see and to hear, as I have shown in the First Canon on Isaiah. Furthermore, this new canticle is the praise of God, exultation and jubilation of the virgins on account of so rare and signal a gift of chastity, granted to them before many others (to whom this was denied). Thus St. Gregory, III part. Pastor., admon. 29, Ribera and others. "Singularly," says St. Gregory, "to sing a canticle to the Lamb is to rejoice with him forever before all the faithful, even in the incorruptibility of the flesh. Which other elect can indeed hear this canticle, though they cannot sing it; because through charity they are indeed joyful in their sublimity, although they do not attain to their rewards." Moreover, what this canticle is in particular, or individually, happy experience will teach us, when in heaven we shall sing it, or hear it. Truly the Wise One says: "Innocence is a silver trumpet." Furthermore, just as virginity is a virtue new and proper to the New Testament, almost unknown in the old: so also its reward and canticle will be new. In like manner St. John calls the commandment of charity new, Epist. I, cap. II, vers. 7. See the things said there. AND NO MAN COULD SAY. — It seems it should be corrected to "learn": for this is what the Greek μαθειν signifies, as if to hint that other Saints are desirous of this canticle, equally as of the laurel of virginity, but cannot aspire to it; for virginity once lost cannot be repaired. The Roman Bible, however, St. Gregory and others read "say"; and the sense comes to the same thing: for a canticle is learned so that it may be said and sung. It is memorable what we read of St. Emeric in his Life among Surius, on the 4th of November, that a certain Conrad on account of enormous sins, by command of the Pontiff, wore an iron breastplate bound to his naked body with iron chains, until the chains were divinely loosed, and the writing of sins described on paper was obliterated: and that he visited many temples of Saints in hope of indulgence, but in vain; finally he went to the sepulchre of St. Stephen, king of Hungary, who appearing to him said: "Rise, friend, and go to the monument of my son Emeric, which is near by. He, because by preserving the integrity of the flesh he merited singular grace with God, will obtain for you pardon of your deeds. For he is of that number who have not defiled their garments, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, and sing before the throne of God a new canticle." And the man awakes, and immediately betakes himself to the chapel of Blessed Emeric, pours forth prayers there, and sooner than expected the iron bonds burst asunder, the paper of sins showed no trace of written letters. WHO WERE PURCHASED FROM THE EARTH. — The Syriac: These were purchased by Jesus from among men as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. The Arabic: These are they who were purchased from among men first, to God and the Lamb, as if to say, These are they who by the price of the blood of Christ received this perfect purity of body and soul, so that being higher than the earth they might live here a heavenly life, and therefore they are of God as "firstfruits," that is, the most select and most acceptable fruit and oblations, such as in the Old Testament were the firstfruits of fruits and men. It appears therefore that Christ for virgins as for most precious gems prayed in a peculiar manner, labored, and offered, destined and applied the price of his blood to God the Father.
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4. THESE ARE THEY WHO WERE NOT DEFILED WITH WOMEN; FOR THEY ARE VIRGINS. — From this it is clear that in the literal sense we are dealing here with properly so-called virgins, who will exist in the time of Antichrist. Wherefore it is mystical, not literal, what Alcazar thinks, namely that virgins here are called all those who do not defile themselves with disordered affection for created things, and who follow Christ bearing the cross even to the mount of Calvary in steadfast contempt of temporal things and of life, and in desire for divine glory: such were the Christians of the primitive Church (whence they are called here the firstfruits), and now are the Religious, who pursue angelic purity, and join the observance of God's precepts with the observance of the counsels, which is to "follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." It is also mystical what Ambrose says in cap. XI, epist. 2 to the Corinthians, vers. 1, citing this passage: "By women he signified error, because error began through woman; as also Jezabel in Apocalypse II, 20 is called a woman, on account of the wife of Ahab, who in zeal for Baal slew the Prophets, when idolatry is understood, by which morals and the truth of faith are corrupted. For if, by women, you understand women, so that you think virgins are so called because they kept their bodies undefiled, it excludes from this glory the saints, because all the Apostles, except John and Paul, had wives." Our Jerome follows St. Ambrose. Prado in Ezech. cap. XVI, 13: "These are they who were not defiled with women; for they are virgins, that is, Martyrs, who refused to exhibit worship to idols even at the cost of their lives, and persevered constant in undefiled faith." THESE FOLLOW THE LAMB WHITHERSOEVER HE GOETH. — "Follow," namely by the steps not so much of the body as of the soul, intellect and will, namely as it were inseparable, and supremely beloved by him, companions and attendants of the Lamb, they follow him into all the heavenly joys which are promised to those following the Lamb, that is, to the pure of heart; for these are the joys of the Lamb and of the lambs, that is of virgins; but they will not follow into the joys of lions, or of bulls and calves slaughtered, namely of Martyrs, heralds and doctors of the Gospel. Francis Ribera, however, understands this following, as to all and every heavenly joy and reward: Because, he says, those virgins at the end of the world excel also in martyrdom, doctrine and other virtues; wherefore they will receive all joys and rewards. But even if this be true of many in the future, nevertheless St. John here speaks properly only of the virginity itself of those last virgins, and its reward; for he commends them from virginity alone. Therefore better do Viegas and Alcazar think that by this phrase: "Follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth," nothing else is signified than that the Lamb is wonderfully delighted in virgins, so that he wishes them never to depart from his side, but to accompany and follow him everywhere; just as virgins of the first rank and most noble accompany a virgin queen and bride, according to that Psalm XLIV: "The queen stood on thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety." And: "The daughters of Tyre with gifts, etc. Virgins shall be brought to the king after her, her neighbours shall be brought to thee. They shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought into the temple of the king." For just as a queen has all her pleasure, conversation and consolation in her maidens' chamber, which surrounds her perpetually like a choir: so Christ has the same in his assembly of virgins. Again, just as musicians follow a prince, and with wonderful harmony delight him, and are his delights: so also virgins Christ. For they themselves are the harpers of Christ, who harping on their harps, as I said vers. 2, wonderfully delight him. Finally, just as a bride accompanies a bridegroom, so virgins accompany Christ: for they are the brides of Christ; as the Apostle says II Corinthians XI, 2. Christ therefore loves virgins, and is delighted in them, as a bridegroom in a bride. Beautifully St. Augustine, in the book On Holy Virginity, chapter XXVII: "Where do we think this Lamb goes: into what leaps and meadows? Where, believe me, are the grasses of joys, not the vain joys of this world, the lying follies: nor joys such as in the very kingdom of God will be for other non-virgins, but distinct from the lot of all other joys. The joy of the virgins of Christ is from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, on account of Christ. For to others are other things, but to none such things. Go into these, follow the Lamb, because indeed the flesh of the Lamb is surely virgin. For He retained in Himself when grown what His conception and birth did not take from His mother." And chapter XXIX: "The rest of the multitude of the faithful, who cannot follow the Lamb for this, will see you: they will see, nor will they envy; but rejoicing with you in what they do not have in themselves, they will have it in you. For neither will that new song, which is your own, be able to be sung by them, but they will be able to hear it, and to delight in your so excellent good." He adds in chapter II: "No one guards the good of virginity except God Himself who gave it, and God who is charity. Therefore charity is the guardian of virginity, and humility is the dwelling place of this guardian. For there dwells He who said, upon the humble and quiet, and trembling at His words, His spirit rests. More easily do the humble married follow the Lamb, and if not wherever He goes, certainly as far as they are able, than proud virgins." Tertullian, book I to His Wife, speaking of virgins: "To God the maidens are beautiful, they live with Him, they converse with Him: they handle Him day and night, they assign their prayers as it were as dowries to God; from Him they obtain dignity, as it were as marriage gifts, whenever they desire. Thus they have seized for themselves the eternal good of the Lord, and already on earth, by not marrying, are reckoned among the family of angels." St. Bernard to his sister On the Manner of Living Well, sermon 12: "If you have followed Christ with your whole mind, and have loved Him with your whole mind, without any doubt you will rejoice with Him in the heavenly homeland, and with Him you will follow the holy virgins, wherever He goes. If you have adhered to Christ with all devotion, and have sighed for Him day and night in this present age, without doubt you will exult with Him in the heavenly palace, and among the choirs of virgins you will sing to Him sweet hymns, as it is written: Thou that feedest among the lilies, surrounded by the choirs of virgins, adorning the brides with glory, and rendering rewards to the bridegrooms. Wherever you go, virgins follow, and singing praises after you they run about, and sound forth sweet hymns." Whence he adds: "I beseech you, beloved sister, that you feel no sweetness except in Christ, seek no love except in Christ, and love no beauty except in Christ." St. Jerome, volume II, epistle 11: "Let him enjoy the crown of virtue, and on account of the daily martyrdoms of the apostolate follow the Lamb." From this passage virginity is painted in emblems as a pale young maiden, thin, with eyes of beauty, wearing a crown of flowers on her head, clothed in white linen, showing joy in her countenance, playing a harp in her hand, following the Lamb in the midst of a meadow. Thus St. Clement the Pontiff, kinsman of the Emperor Domitian, cultivated perpetual virginity, as St. Ignatius teaches in his epistle to the Philadelphians. He likewise marvellously exalted this same virtue and taught others, as is evident from his encyclical Epistles, and Epiphanius testifies, heresy 30. Wherefore by his example and exhortation St. Flavia Domitilla, herself the niece of Domitian, whom St. Clement had espoused to Aurelian, he consecrated a virgin to God; Euphrosyna, Theodora and other most noble virgins obtained illustrious martyrdom for faith and virginity. For this reason Clement, relegated by the Emperor Trajan to Chersonese, when he found many Christians condemned to the mines there and suffering from lack of water, pouring forth prayers for them, he saw a lamb standing, which lifted its right foot, as if indicating to St. Clement the place of a spring. Therefore Clement, approaching the place where the lamb stood, and striking with a small blow the place which was beneath the lamb's foot, immediately drew forth a most beautiful spring, which, bursting forth with great force, made a river; from which all the Christians then and thereafter quenched their thirst. By this miracle the pagan natives were converted to the faith of Christ. Thus his Life relates, and Baronius, in the year of Christ 100; whence also in the office of the Church we read these antiphons of St. Clement: "While St. Clement prayed, the Lamb of God appeared to him." And: "I saw upon the mountain the Lamb standing, from beneath whose foot a living spring flows forth: the rushing of the river gladdens the city of God." In St. Clement therefore, while still living, was fulfilled that passage from the Apocalypse VII, 17: "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall rule them and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life." For he himself was a follower of the Lamb of God, that is, a virgin, and on account of virginity a Martyr, shortly after John wrote this, so that he seems to have alluded to him here: nay, under Clement the Pontiff and while these things which I have said were beginning, St. John wrote the Apocalypse and these very things. It appears therefore that he wished to encourage and strengthen Domitilla and other virgins then flourishing and about to undergo martyrdom for virginity, by this vision and these praises of virginity to bear it courageously. Thus at the same time St. Peter stirred up St. Praxedes and St. Potentiana; St. Paul, St. Thecla and very many others; St. Matthew, St. Iphigenia, daughter of the King of the Ethiopians, to vow virginity to God. For this reason St. Matthew, while sacrificing at the altar, was slain by Hirtacus, brother of the king, who desired Iphigenia as his wife, and thus became "a victim of virginity," as Hippolytus says in his book On the Twelve Apostles; likewise Paul was beheaded by Nero, because he withdrew Christian virgins from his lust and dedicated them to God, as I showed in the preface to St. Paul from St. Chrysostom. Thus St. Agnes after her death appeared crowned, with virgins shining and most splendidly clothed, following the Lamb. Hear St. Ambrose, book V, epistle 34: "While the parents of Blessed Agnes kept vigil with constant watchings through the night at her tomb (which stands near Rome on the Numentana Way, a temple of marble and gems most illustrious, which whenever I visit, I feel myself and others filled with wonderful joy and devotion), they see in the silence of midnight an army of virgins, all clothed in cyclas woven of gold, passing by with great light. Among them they see the Blessed Virgin shining in similar raiment, and at her right hand the Lamb whiter than snow, who, asking the holy virgins to pause for a moment, standing before her parents said: See that you do not mourn me as dead, but rejoice for me and congratulate me, because with all these I have received bright seats; and I am joined in heaven to him whom while placed on earth I loved with all the intention of my soul." Thus the Lamb was followed by Blessed Catherine of Siena, to whom this eulogy is given: She passed to her Spouse adorned with three crowns. And this: Sweet sign of charity, While the lover of chastity Changes his heart in the virgin. Wherefore from this fiery heart of Christ she in her Epistles darts forth burning flames of Christ upon all, and in all does nothing other than to inflame with the love of Christ the Pontiffs, Cardinals, Prelates, Princes, Cities, Doctors, etc., to whom she writes, and to incite and spur them to his perfect following: whom therefore she frequently calls the little lamb, and thus begins and concludes each Epistle likewise: "In Jesus sweet, Jesus love." Morally, St. Bernard, sermon 1 on "Sent": "On both sides astonishment, on both sides miracle: and that God obeys a woman is humility without example; and that a woman rules over God is sublimity without peer. In the praises of virgins it is sung singularly that they shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth: but with what praises do you judge (the Blessed Mary) worthy, who also goes before? Learn, O man, to obey; learn, O earth, to be subject; learn, O dust, to obey; blush, proud ash. God humbles himself, and do you exalt yourself?" And below: "The Lamb follows, defiled and humble; the virgin also follows, proud; but neither whithersoever he goeth: for neither can he ascend to the purity of the Lamb who is without spot, nor does he deign to descend to his meekness, by which namely not before the shearer, but before the slayer he was silent. Yet the sinner chose the healthier part of following in humility than the proud in virginity; since both his uncleanness is purged by his humble satisfaction, and her chastity is stained by pride." Finally, with these very words our St. John called to Christ the Lamb in heaven St. Edward, king of the English, in the year of the Lord 1066. Concerning whom hear Alfred, Abbot of the Cistercian order (who flourished in the year of the Lord 1164), in his Life. St. Edward "denied nothing to any one asking in the name of St. John the Evangelist; for he loved him more closely after the Prince of the Apostles. Whence it came to pass that a certain pilgrim, the chamberlain being absent, importunately asked alms of the king in the name of St. John the Evangelist. To whom the King gave a precious ring, having nothing else at hand. It happened after this that two Englishmen set out to Jerusalem to adore the Saviour's sepulchre. Who on a certain day, turning aside from the public road, followed various byways; and as the sun was setting, dark night came on. And when they knew not what to do, whither to turn, there appeared to them a certain venerable old man, who led them to the city. Having been received with hospitality, a table was prepared, and they, most sumptuously refreshed, gave their limbs to rest. But when morning came and they went out of the city, the old man said: Men, brothers, doubt not that you shall return to your homeland with the greatest prosperity; for God will make your journey prosperous, and I for the love of your king will fix my eyes upon you in every way. For I am John, the Apostle of Christ, who embrace your king with the greatest affection on account of the merit of his chastity. This ring therefore, which he gave to me appearing in pilgrim's garb, carry back, announcing to him that the day of his death is at hand; whom within six months visiting I shall visit, that he may follow the Lamb with me whithersoever he goeth. Having said these things, he vanished; and they returning prosperously to their homeland, related in order to the king what they had seen and heard." THESE WERE PURCHASED (how they were purchased I said at the end of verse 3) from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. — First, because they offered virginity as firstfruits most pleasing to God. For just as the first fruits are most savory and most pleasing in their newness, so also is virginity to God. He alludes to Jeremiah chapter II, verse 3: "Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend." For just as Israel was chosen before all the Gentiles, and beloved of God, and offered to him as firstfruits, that he might be the first people faithful and holy: so from all Christians virgins, as the noblest firstfruits and most acceptable to God, are set apart and offered. Second, just as through the firstfruits of fruits offered to God, all the remaining fruits are reckoned as offered to God, and blessed by him, as is clear from Proverbs III, 9, where it is said: "Honour God with thy substance, and give him the firstfruits of all thy fruits, and thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine." So likewise through virgins as firstfruits offered to God, God blesses and benefits their whole families, and the whole Church, making them fruitful, and increasing them with temporal and spiritual goods. Whence St. Ambrose, book III On Virginity, teaches that where there are many virgins, there husbands are more fruitful. Most excellently St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, who equated marriage with virginity: "If virgins are firstfruits of God; therefore widows and those continent in marriage will be after the firstfruits, that is in the second and third degree: nor can the lost people be saved before, unless they offer such victims of chastity to God, and reconcile the immaculate Lamb with the purest sacrifices."
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5. AND IN THEIR MOUTH THERE WAS FOUND NO LIE. — Because they have gone very far from heresy and idolatry (which are most pernicious lies against God and His worship, and which will flourish especially in the time of Antichrist). For the next disposition to these is the license of the flesh and lust, which, as it impelled Solomon to idolatry, III Kings XI, 1, so today it impels many to heresy and infidelity, and will impel more at the end of the world. Just as therefore those who indulge the flesh and Venus easily fall into heresy: so virgins who resist the vices of the flesh are and will be removed from it. Secondly, the glory of virgins is sincerity and truth, and virginity itself brings this brightness with it, because when they strive to please God alone, there is no reason why they should win for themselves the favor of men through flattery, lies, cosmetics and deceits; so that of them it may be justly said what Christ said of Nathanael, John I, 47: "Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile." Just as therefore we commonly say, Show me a liar, I will show you a thief; for lying accompanies theft; for thieves conceal and protect their thefts with lies: so likewise if any doubt about someone's chastity should arise, you might say: Show me a liar, I will show you an incestuous person: show me a truthful person, I will show you a chaste one. Hence the Arabic version renders it, and there is not found what of lying in their mouth. WITHOUT SPOT (in Greek αμωμοι, that is, blameless, irreproachable) FOR THEY ARE BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD. — For this gives the reason for the preceding things, why namely there is found no lie in their mouth, and consequently why they are chosen as first fruits to God and the Lamb, because namely they were and are pure and immaculate, because they lived a virginal and angelic life without spot. Understand spot as a graver one, which could be objected to them, for example of lying, lust, etc. For otherwise no one passes through this life without some blemish and venial spot. "For if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," says John, epistle I, chapter I, verse 6. Note here ten epithets and praises of virgins. First, verse 1, that they stand with the Lamb upon mount Sion. Secondly, that they have the name of the Lamb and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. Thirdly, verse 2, that they are harpers of God, but loud as thunder. Fourthly, verse 3, that they alone sing a new canticle before the throne of God, the four living creatures and the 24 elders. Fifthly, that they were bought from the earth. Sixthly, verse 4, that they are not defiled with women: for they are virgins. Seventhly, that they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. Eighthly, that they are first fruits to God and the Lamb. Ninthly, verse 5, that there is found no lie in their mouth. Tenthly, that they are without spot before the throne of God. Hence we read that similar praises were given to many virgins. Thus to St. Agatha the Angels placed this epitaph: "A holy mind, willing, honor to God, and liberation of the fatherland." Thus the Magnates of Poland in the name of the whole kingdom gave to Blessed Stanislaus Kostka this praise, as it were a summary of his life: "To a most chaste youth, most noble in humility, most rich in poverty, a contemner of human things, a most fierce conqueror of himself, etc., who from boyhood merited to be visited by the infant Jesus with His mother when sick, and to be refreshed by two Angels, in the presence of St. Barbara the Martyr, with the bread of heaven. Who, desiring the perfect life, neglecting the nobility of his race and most ample resources, gave his name to the Society of Jesus; and in it most tenacious of the religious institute, becoming in a short time an example of exact discipline, to the rewards strenuously contending promised, in the 18th year of his age, of Christ 1568, on the 14th of August, beyond everyone's expectation (his death having been foretold) called away more quickly, illustrating Poland by being born, the Religious Order by living, Rome by dying, and from there seeking heaven, with his glory. On account of the glory of admirable works after death, by Pope Clement VIII honored with the appellation of Blessed, by Paul V increased by public placement of his image, and a lamp lit at his tomb," etc. Finally Sostratus of Byzantium in Achilles Tatius, book II, relates that there was a grove at Byzantium, and in it an olive tree, which by a wonderful prodigy is said to have been made fertile by fiery rain. And Pausanias in the Athenian accounts relates that the olive of Minerva, set on fire by the Persians when the city was burned, was consumed, and on the same day sprouted to the height of two cubits. The olive is a symbol of the virgin, who from the very loss seeks compensations and unconquered strength, which produces eternal triumphs. Tertullian speaks excellently to the Martyrs: "It is a business transaction, to lose something, so that you may gain greater things." Therefore a man and a patient virgin are like the sky, which becomes clear and shines through and after clouds.
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6. AND I SAW ANOTHER ANGEL FLYING. — "Another," namely from Michael, of whom cap. XII, vers. 7. Or rather "another," in Greek αλλον, that is another and different, namely from the two following vers. 8 and 9. Thus Alcazar. For John saw here three Angels, of whom the first announces the day of judgment, the second the fall of Babylon, the third the wrath of God, fire and sulphur of hell upon those who shall have adored the beast. You will ask, who are these? First, Alcazar, referring all these things to the primitive Church, takes three leaders of Christ, opposed to three leaders of enemies, namely to the dragon, the beast of the sea, and the beast of the earth, that is to the devil, the world and the flesh, for example St. John, Paul and Peter, who as soldiers of Christ animated [the faithful] to overcome the kingdom of the dragon and of paganism. For the voice of the first Angel was taken from St. John, of the second from St. Paul, of the third from St. Peter. The first therefore, namely St. John, flies through the midst of heaven, because like an eagle he perceived divine things, and flew up to the very Most Holy Trinity itself, saying: "In the beginning was the Word," etc. Again, he flies through the midst of heaven, so that he might be seen and heard by all. He has the eternal Gospel, because he preached and wrote the Gospel, that is the most joyful message, concerning the overthrown devil, and concerning the happiness and eternal joys which God promised to those who fear Him, so namely that they should not fear Domitian, nor torments, nor death, but God alone. Furthermore, in that he cries out: "Because the hour of His judgment comes," he does not understand the final judgment, but that of which Christ [speaks], John XII, 31: "Now is the judgment of the world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out." For Christ by His first coming cast the demon out of his unjust possession, that is from the Gentiles: and then there was judgment, in Greek κρισις, that is, a day as it were decisive of the disease and death, that is of the expulsion of the devil. The second Angel, namely Paul, sings of the ruin of Babylon, that is of pagan Rome and the pagan Roman Empire, when Constantine and his Christian successors began to reign; for Paul predicted this II Thess. II, 7, saying: "The mystery of iniquity already worketh; only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way." The third Angel is St. Peter, who equally as this Angel threatens eternal fires of hell to carnal and luxurious men. But I say that this Angel, as also the following two shown in the vision to John, signify symbolically three preachers, through whom the Angels proclaim these very things here recounted by John, to the whole world in its end. Whence they fly through the midst of heaven, so that it is signified through preachers, who through the midst of the world and all its regions will run throughout the whole Church, which is here called heaven, as I said cap. XII, vers. 2, that these things are to be proclaimed. We saw something similar cap. VIII, vers. 6 and 13. For the sweet providence of God uses men, not Angels, to teach and admonish men. Thus Ticonius, Bede, Rupert, Ansbert, Anselm, Gagneius, Ribera and others. Whence also Victorinus takes through these three Angels three famous preachers, of whom the first shall be Elias, the second the companion of Elias, whom he himself thinks shall be Jeremiah, but falsely, as I said cap. XI; the third someone similar to these. We can secondly, with Viega, refer these three Angels to an imaginary vision, so that John namely seemed to himself to see them, and to hear them speaking thus, only for this reason, that he himself might commit to writing what he saw and heard: but not that these Angels represented future preachers in the time of Antichrist. For something similar is vers. 13. HAVING THE ETERNAL GOSPEL. — The Gospel is called eternal, because God and Christ in it announce and promise eternal goods in the heavens to their followers, so that men might despise both temporal pleasures and likewise pains; whence he cries out: "Fear the Lord, because the hour of His judgment comes (that is approaches, is at hand)." Wherefore anagogically St. Jerome, in his epistle to Avitus, What is to be guarded against in the books of Origen περιαρχων: "The eternal Gospel, that is, the future one in the heavens." It is called "eternal," namely in comparison with this Gospel of ours, which is temporal, and preached in a passing world and age. Moreover the Gospel which shall be preached to the Blessed in heaven, will be the announcement and revelation of blessedness, and of all goods in God, and that these shall endure in them eternally. Aureolus through this Angel understands St. Boniface, who sent by Pope Gregory, in the year of Christ 741, preached the Gospel to the hard Frisians, Thuringians and Austrians, and shook them with fear of judgment and hell, and impelled them to the worship, fear and love of the one God. But this is an adaptation and application, not an explanation of this Angel, who shall be at the end of the world.
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7. SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE: FEAR THE LORD, AND GIVE HIM HONOUR, BECAUSE THE HOUR OF HIS JUDGMENT IS COME. — Again, Vincentius Justinianus in the Life of Blessed Vincent Ferrer, Part I, chapter XII, asserts that a certain dead man was publicly restored to life before many by Blessed Vincent, so that by that miracle he might confirm that he was that Angel which the Apocalypse, chapter XIV, verse 6, reported to have been seen by John flying through the midst of heaven and crying out: "Fear the Lord, because the hour of His judgment is come." He understands the Angel not as a literal angel, but as a symbolic one, and similar to a literal one, namely one who was sent by God to undertake a similar mission, and to lead men to penance and fear of God, and who similarly to this Angel would cry out: "Fear the Lord, because the hour of His judgment is come." Morally, St. Augustine in Sentences, sentence 248: "Love leads to every good work and fear of God; love leads to every sin and fear of the world. That good may be apprehended and evil avoided, it must be discerned what ought to be loved and what ought to be feared."
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8. AND ANOTHER ANGEL FOLLOWED, SAYING: FALLEN, FALLEN IS THAT GREAT BABYLON. — He alludes to Jeremiah LI, 8: "Suddenly Babylon is fallen and broken." And to Isaiah XXI, 9: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the graven images of her gods are broken unto the ground." In which places the Prophets describe literally the fall and destruction of Babylon and the kingdom of the Chaldeans which was to come through Cyrus. Now what is understood here by John literally, I shall say in chapter XVII, verse 5, and throughout the whole chapter XVIII; for there this destruction of Babylon is depicted graphically; wherefore these things are to be referred to that passage. For in the Apocalypse, as also in the other Prophets, there is frequent hysteron proteron, as I said in the Canons prefixed to Isaiah. These things therefore pertain to chapter XVIII, verse 2; for there it is said: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon;" unless you say that "fallen" is taken here differently, namely so as to signify an instantaneous act and as it were beginning: "fallen," that is, now Babylon begins to fall, and shortly with headlong ruin it will fall. Aureolus understands by Babylon Constantinople, and holds that the destruction of the Empire of Constantinople is predicted here, because its Emperors were for the most part heretics, either Arians, or Eutychians, or Monothelites, or Iconoclasts, or Schismatics.
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9. AND A THIRD ANGEL FOLLOWED THEM, SAYING WITH A LOUD VOICE: IF ANY MAN SHALL ADORE THE BEAST, AND HIS IMAGE, AND RECEIVE HIS CHARACTER IN HIS FOREHEAD, OR IN HIS HAND. — The threat of this third Angel together with the admonition of verse 10 is treated, where the punishment of those who shall adore the beast is described. The character of the Antichrist, opposed to the name of the Lamb and of the Father written in the foreheads of virgins (verse 1), is a mark by which his followers shall be distinguished; and to receive it is to consent to the worship and dominion of the Antichrist. See what is said in chapter XIII at the end concerning this character.
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10. AND HE SHALL DRINK OF THE WINE OF THE WRATH OF GOD, WHICH IS MIXED WITH PURE WINE. — Erasmus translates it, of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out, or given to drink as pure, or unmixed wine. For the Greek κεραννυσθαι, that is to mix, also signifies to pour out and to give to drink: for formerly they drank from horns, whence from κερας, that is horn, were called crateres, as it were κερατηρες: hence κεραννυειν signifies to pour into a horn, or some similar vessel. Thus Athenaeus in the Deipnosophists, book XI, and others. Hence also antiquity affixed horns to Dionysus (that is Bacchus, who was the inventor of wine); indeed it even called him a bull. But it is better to translate properly here, that which is mixed. For the ancients (as even now the Italians, Spanish, French, etc. do, and as physicians teach is most useful, and as it were a divine invention) both for the sake of health and sobriety, mixed and diluted wine with water, as Athenaeus teaches in the place cited, and Plutarch, book VIII of the Symposium, question VI. For the most ancient peoples drank unmixed wine, but not without harm: whence Polyphemus in the tragedy of Aristias, which is entitled Cyclops, rebuked Ulysses, saying: "You have ruined the liquor of wine by pouring in water," as if wine were corrupted by water, when on the contrary by the judgment of physicians it is made better and more healthful: for which reason to dilute wine with water was taught and invented by Staphylus, son of Sithenes, according to the testimony of Pliny, book VII, chapter LVI. Moreover Genebrardus in the Chronology: "First among the Greeks, Melampus the physician prescribed to dilute wine with water in the year of the world 2847; at which time among the Hebrews, Deborah and Barak were judges, forty years before Gideon; namely from the earliest times the Greeks were devoted to unmixed wine: hence to act Greek." Thus Plato admonishes that we temper Bacchus the drunken god with Nymphs (that is with waters: for Nymphs preside over these) with sober goddesses. A common verse recounts three benefits of wine mixed with water, that is diluted with water. For it says: Mixed with water it grows, becomes sweet, knows not how to harm. John therefore says that this wine of the wrath of God will be mixed, not with water, but with pure wine, that is with another pure wine. For such wine thus mixed with another is more potent and more intoxicates. Thus Andrew, Ribera and others, as if to say: This wrath and punishment of God will be mitigated by no clemency, no consolation, but rather will be increased by all desolation and sorrow. For thus to mix is taken elsewhere, as in Isaiah XIX, verse 14: "The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the spirit of giddiness," that is, God mixed in it (Egypt) various spirits of errors and giddiness. Proverbs IX, verse 5: "Drink the wine which I have mingled for you." For the ancients were temperate, and therefore diluted wine with water, as I have already said. Psalm LXXIV, 9: "The cup in the hand of the Lord of wine unmixed full mixed." If unmixed, how mixed? I answer, it is unmixed and yet mixed with another unmixed wine, or with the dregs of wine, from which we shrink, so that it may more quickly and more vehemently bring sleep and drunkenness to the drinker. Isaiah V, verse 22: "Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness!" In Hebrew, to mix strong drink, that is sicera, that is intoxicating liquors, for example various wines which more disturb the stomach and brain, and therefore more intoxicate. In these places for mixed and to mix, in Hebrew it is מסך masach, which properly signifies to mix (indeed the Latin misceo seems to be derived from masach), not to pour out, for נסך nasach signifies to pour out, not masach. Since therefore the Hebrew masach the Septuagint translates εκερασε, it follows that it likewise signifies to mix, not to pour out.
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11. AND THE SMOKE OF THEIR TORMENTS. — The Syriac and Arabic versions: the smoke of their torments, that is, the fire of hell and the punishment of the reprobate. It is a metonymy: for the effect is put for the cause, namely smoke for fire. For in hell there does not appear to be smoke, or smoking fire, because there is nothing corruptible or resolvable there, but all things are constant and solid, namely the same sulphurous fire, unchanging and perpetually consistent in itself. He alludes to Isaiah, chapter XXXIV, verse 10, where the Prophet, speaking of the destruction and conflagration of Bosra, which was the metropolis of Idumaea, by Nebuchadnezzar, says: "In perpetuity shall its smoke ascend." This therefore is "Tartarus belching forth horrible heat from its jaws," as Lucretius says, book III. Wherefore truly a certain damned man appearing to his friend, who was offering his prayers for him, answered: "Without repentance are the judgments of God in hell. While the pole rotates the stars, while the sea beats upon the shores, for my crimes I shall be punished. If the whole world should seek remedies for me, yet I shall suffer eternal and innumerable kinds of punishments." DAY AND NIGHT — that is, always. For properly among the infernal regions there will be no day, just as among the supernal regions and the Blessed there will be no night; but for these one perpetual day, for those one and perpetual night. Morally, let sinners who have received the image of the beast by sinning, that is, of the devil, consider these things; likewise those whom the beast tempts and solicits to sin, namely what are the fruits, what are the punishments of sin. Namely first, that the sinner shall drink of the wine of wrath, that is, of the gall of God. Second, that this wine is mixed with the pure bitterness of all punishments, without any water or drop of consolation. Third, that he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur. Fourth, that he shall be a reproach and a mockery in the sight of the holy Angels, and before the sight of the Lamb. Fifth, that the smoke of his torments shall ascend for ever and ever. Sixth, that he shall never have rest day and night, neither from corporeal fire, nor from the worm of conscience throughout all eternity. Considering these things, let him be struck down, and let him say: I shall not be so mad as to buy eternal gall for a little honey, as to bring upon myself immense fires of hell and sulphur for slight pleasures of sin: "For what delights is momentary, but what torments is eternal." Wherefore with these words of the Apocalypse, St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 6, exhorts the faithful to resist tyrants and Antichrist even unto martyrdom. "Antichrist comes, but Christ also comes upon him; the enemy rages and is fierce, but the Lord follows immediately, about to avenge our sufferings and wounds. The adversary is angry and threatens, but there is One who can deliver from his hands. He is to be feared, whose wrath no one can escape. If anyone worships the beast and his image, etc., he shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God." And soon after: "Behold a sublime and great contest, and glorious with the reward of a heavenly crown, so that God may behold us contending, and opening His eyes upon those whom He has deigned to make His sons, may enjoy the spectacle of our contest. His Angels behold, and Christ also beholds. What dignity of glory, what happiness to contend with God presiding, and to be crowned with Christ as judge! Let honor provoke the whole to battle, and sorrow the fallen." And below: "O that day, what and how great it shall come, brothers, when the Lord shall begin to review His people, and by the examination of divine knowledge to recognize the merits of each, to send the guilty and our persecutors into hell, and to render to us the reward of faith and devotion," etc.
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12. HERE IS THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS, WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, AND THE FAITH OF JESUS. — These are words, not of the third Angel, but of John, who draws out this as it were an epiphonema, and adds a note to the three voices of the three Angels, as if to say: When Babylon has fallen, and all the impious shall drink of the chalice of the wrath of God, then shall appear the fruit not of faith alone, as heretics wish, but of the patience and obedience of the Saints, who, fearing the Lord and the day of judgment, among so many impious, among so many temptations, persecutions, torments and martyrdoms, have constantly kept even unto death both the faith of Jesus and the commandments of God. For these shall be immune from the plagues by which the impious shall be punished on the day of judgment, and moreover shall be enriched with ample rewards, namely eternal happiness.
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13. AND I HEARD A VOICE FROM HEAVEN SAYING TO ME: WRITE: BLESSED ARE THE DEAD WHO DIE IN THE LORD. — Some understand this of Martyrs, who die "in the Lord," that is, for the Lord, or on account of the Lord. Thus Jacob, Genesis XXIX, verse 18, in the Hebrew is said to have served ברחל Berachel, that is, in Rachel, that is, for Rachel, seven years for Laban: and thus elsewhere often ב, that is, in, is taken for on account of. Thus St. Ambrose, Ansbertus, Haymo, Alcazar, who says: This voice speaks of those who have firmly resolved to die (for this resolution of dying is what "die" signifies) rather than commit any wickedness against God, as if to say: Those who straightway firmly determine within themselves to sacrifice their very life willingly to Christ, and to devote themselves to death when it shall be necessary: from that very moment of time they will begin to enjoy great peace and tranquility of soul, and to rest from labors and hardships. For this is what follows: "From now on, says the Spirit, that they may rest," as if to say: Before they actually die, straightway as they devote themselves to death for Christ, from that time already, having laid down their labors, they will rest, as if they had truly fallen. See here how efficacious and happy is a serious and effective purpose of serving God; for it makes the faithful live in complete peace and tranquility, as soon as they have resolved, and have plainly determined within themselves to embrace strenuously the cross, labors and death of Christ; again it makes them efficacious in their work, as I shall presently say. But more plainly and more fully others will refer this to any Saints whatsoever, whether Confessors or Martyrs. For all these are blessed, because they die "in the Lord," that is, in faith, charity and grace, and in the friendship of God. Thus Primasius, Andreas, Bede, Richard, Joachim, Pannonius and others. Whence St. Bernard: "To die for the Lord is the mark of Martyrs; but to die in the Lord is the mark of Confessors." Again, "in the Lord," that is, in the Lord's as it were hand, or rather bosom, they "die," that is, sleeping they rest, as is said of St. Stephen, Acts, chapter VII (which even now the pious use in the death of the faithful, and say): "He fell asleep in the Lord." BLESSED ARE THE DEAD, etc. — St. Cyprian most excellently exhorts his people to steadfast patience in his book On Mortality, or concerning the plague then raging: "Let not adversities weaken or break the faith of Christians, but rather let them show forth virtue in the struggle, since all injury from present evils ought to be despised, through confidence in future goods. The governor is known in the tempest, the soldier is proved in battle. Adversities do not call away from the virtue of faith, but strengthen it in suffering, etc. What sublimity it is to stand upright amid the ruins of mankind!" And soon after: "Mortality provides for Christians what martyrdom does: we have begun willingly to desire it, while we learn not to fear death. It is not an exit, but a passage, and having run through the temporal journey, a crossing over to eternal things." So also St. Bernard, chapter XV On the Nature and Dignity of Divine Love, calls death a Passover. "This passage to life, the wretched unbelievers call death, but the faithful, what else but a Passover? because he dies to the world, that he may live perfectly to God. He enters the place of the tabernacle of wonder even unto the house of God." Again St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 6 to Tibaritan: "A graver and fiercer battle now impends, to which the soldiers of Christ ought to prepare themselves with robust virtue (with the persecution of Decius and Valerian impending), considering for this reason that they daily drink the chalice of the blood of Christ, that they themselves also may be able to shed blood for Christ." The same in his Exhortation to Martyrdom teaches "that injuries and pains of persecutions are not to be feared, because the Lord is greater to protect than the devil to attack." Wherefore "in persecutions let no one think what danger the devil brings, but let him consider what aid God provides. Let no one think it difficult or hard to become a Martyr, when he sees that the people of Martyrs cannot be numbered." The same (or whoever is the Author), in the tract On the Praise of Martyrdom, gives these titles or spurs scattered throughout to martyrdom. First: "It gives fearless minds to suffering." Second: "The mind grows in battle; though struck repeatedly, it clings immovable, like a rock beaten by waves." Third: "By death it condemns life, that by death it may preserve life." Fourth: "The soldier laden with triumphal spoils from the enemy, rejoices in his wounds." Fifth: "Nor should those fear, whose hope is eternity and heavenly life, and whose salvation rejoices in the promised immortality." Sixth: "Those to whom this world is despised in mind, and the face of the age is estranged, to whom this world is always in place of a prison. Nor can you love martyrdom unless you first hate the world." Seventh: "By martyrdom, as it were a companion, you are adorned with the blood of Christ." And at the beginning: "Though the hoof rebounds against the ribs of those enduring and returns to the wound, and though the strap comes back with the torn part of the body to those beaten with scourges, yet he stands immovable, stronger than his torments: turning over in his mind only this, that in that cruelty of executioners, Christ himself suffers more for which he suffers. What then is martyrdom? the end of sins, the terminus of danger, the guide of salvation, the teacher of patience, the house of life: which being completed, it also kills those things which in future trial could have been reckoned as torments." See the same in the book On the Good of Patience. Moreover St. Augustine in Sentences, sentence 148: "Death even of the pious is a penalty of sin. But for this reason it is called good to them, because they use it well, for which the end is to temporal evils, and a passage to eternal life. For as injustice uses badly not only evils, but also goods: so also justice uses well not only goods, but also evils." This good use is made especially through patience, as St. John here indicates, concerning which St. Augustine, sentence 33: "The whole salvation of the faithful, the whole strength of patience, is to be referred to him who is wonderful in his Saints; because unless the Lord were in them, human frailty would succumb to the fury of the impious." Note: Ambrose and Alcazar understand by the dead here those who are dead not to the body, but to the world, or who are dead not physically, but mystically and spiritually; for those who are physically dead cannot die again, yet this is what is said of the dead here. For he says: "Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord." Whence Aureolus refers these things to Monasticism restored on Mount Cassino in the year of Christ 716, when also Carloman, brother of Pepin king of the Franks, was made a monk there, as also Chilperic, King of the Franks, and other sons of kings and princes were made monks. For monks are mystically and civilly dead, both because they are removed from worldly affairs, and because with St. Paul they bear about the mortification of Jesus always in the body, and more in the soul. Concerning whom the same Apostle says in Colossians III, verse 3: "You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." These therefore rejoice with a twofold fruit. The first is, that they enjoy continuous peace and joy of conscience, as experience shows, and the divine voice here promises, saying: "That they may rest from their labors." The second is, that "their works follow them," because when with their firm resolution they have as it were devoured death, for this reason afterwards in the work itself they do not fail in strength, but are found rather stable, and in their actions efficacious, constant, patient and faithful lovers of Christ, according to that in Proverbs XII, 20: "They that take counsels of peace, joy shall follow them." But these things are partly accommodated, partly mystical and tropological. I say therefore according to the letter that "dead" is taken broadly, namely for the dead both in the present and in the future, and in the past, so as to signify both those dying and those about to die, as well as those already in fact dead, as if he said: "Blessed" are "the dead," that is, those dying, those about to die and those dead; who die, will die, or have died in the Lord. For thus the Hebrews often extend the tenses of their verbs, so that under the past they understand the present and future; and conversely under the present the past and future, and under the future the present and past. Furthermore, in order that anyone may die in the Lord, he must live in the Lord, that is, in God's grace, law and will. Balaam said, Numbers chapter XXIII, 10: "Let my soul die the death of the just, and let my last end be like theirs." But he would have said more wisely: "Let my soul live the life of the just, that it may die the death of the just." For almost a good death follows a good life, and a bad death a bad life, as St. Augustine says. Just as therefore one cannot die in Rome who has not lived in Rome; so he who has not lived in God cannot die in God: and conversely, he who has lived joined with God will also die in God. Finally, note here that the blessed are not said to be living, but dead, so that it may be signified that before death no one is blessed, nor should anyone be called blessed. The Greek makes this clearer, which distinguishes thus, so that "henceforth" which follows is the end of the preceding sentence, so that the sense is: "Henceforth," that is, hereafter, those who shall have died in the Lord will be blessed. Finally, what follows is: "yea, saith the Spirit," that is, even the Spirit says, or certainly the Spirit says; for "yea" is indeed of one affirming and asseverating. The Gentile Philosopher Solon saw this very thing through a shadow, to whom Croesus, the wealthy king of the Lydians, showing his riches, asked whether he knew anyone more blessed than himself; Solon answered that he knew Tellus, his fellow citizen, who, having left behind honorable children, when nothing had been lacking to him in life, fighting bravely for his fatherland with glory had fallen. Croesus then asked, after Tellus, whether he knew any other more blessed; Solon answered that he knew Cleobis and Biton, men singular both between themselves and toward their mother in piety, who, when the oxen were slow, had themselves taken the yoke of the wagon, and had joyfully drawn their mother to the temple of Juno while the citizens congratulated her: thence, after the sacred rites were completed, they feasted and did not rise the next day, but in such great glory had sweetly exchanged life with death. What of us? (said Croesus, now inflamed with anger) do you count us in no number among the blessed? to whom Solon said: "He is blessed whose prosperity God has confirmed by his end and death; but the blessedness of one still living and exposed to dangers in life is, like the proclamation and crown of one contending, fleeting and vain." Croesus took this ill, and shortly after, captured by Cyrus and condemned to the pyre, exclaimed: Solon, Solon, Solon, now I experience that your opinion concerning blessedness was true. Thus Plutarch in his Life of Solon. For this reason the Church calls the day of the death of the Saints their birthday, because on that day they are born again into a blessed and glorious life. Therefore she calls and celebrates the birthdays of the Saints, not those on which they are born with sin to mortal life, but those on which through temporal death they pass over to blessed and immortal life. Morally, St. John hints here that the death is blessed and perfect of those who "in the Lord," that is, in the remembrance, invocation, and love of the Lord God, and therefore in the act of charity, breathe out their soul; which therefore ought to be desired by all and truly done. Thus St. Augustine died reciting with tears the penitential Psalms in the act of contrition, which is an act of the love of God, as Possidius testifies in his Life. St. Jerome died exhorting his followers to the love of God and neighbor. St. Ambrose, suddenly after the holy Synaxis, was caught up, conversing with Christ the Savior, and expired. St. Anthony of Padua gave back his soul to God, reciting a hymn to the blessed Virgin, exulting in Christ. St. Thomas Aquinas, lifting his eyes and hands to heaven, pronouncing in a loud voice those words from the Song of Songs, chapter 7, verse 11, last explained by him: "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field," dying flew away to heaven. St. Louis, with eyes fixed on heaven, sighing with ardent hope and love: "I will go into the house of the Lord, I will adore in thy holy temple, and I will give glory to thy name," gave back his spirit to God and heaven. Blessed Peter Celestine, who, renouncing the pontificate, returned to the desert, after great labors and crosses, decrepit, singing the one hundred and fiftieth psalm like a swan, with these last words of his: "Let every spirit praise the Lord," passed away immortal. John Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, in whom sanctity contended with learning to excess, having explained fifty properties of divine love from the Song of Songs, with a living face, mouth and heart, repeatedly and sighing: "O Lord, thy love is strong as death," gave back his loving soul to the beloved God. St. Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies, holding in his hand and frequently kissing the crucified Christ, and repeating: "O Jesus, God of my heart," placed his spirit in his heart. More blessed are they who die not only in the act, but from the act and force of the love of God. Thus the Blessed Virgin died from languor and desire of seeing her Son Christ. For she spoke that word of the Bride in the Canticles: "Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples, for I languish with love." Thus St. Mary Magdalen died from love, who daily by the force of love was lifted up into the air seven times by Angels. For on a certain Sunday, caught up into the church, and there given to contemplation, bathed in tears, with arms raised, receiving the Most Holy Synaxis from St. Maximinus, she flew to Christ her beloved. St. Francis from the vehemence of love suffered frequent ecstasies and swoonings, and at length, having received the sacred stigmata, transformed as it were into Christ crucified, his natural strength and spirits consumed, he wasted away by the force of divine love, and failing, pronouncing that verse of the hundred and forty-first Psalm: "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name; the just wait for me, until thou reward me," he expired in the forty-fifth year of his age. Thus from the vehemence of love St. Catherine of Siena shortened her life and hastened her death, dying in the flower of her age, in the thirty-third year; St. Charles Borromaeus, dying in the forty-sixth year of his age; our Stanislaus Kostka, whose heart burned so with love that water frequently had to be poured upon it to cool it, whence he did not reach the twentieth year of his age. FROM NOW ON THE SPIRIT SAYS THAT THEY REST (wrongly Beza, "that they rest") FROM THEIR LABORS. — "From now on," that is, from this time and henceforth into eternity, namely from the time of death they immediately rest, and shall rest for all ages. Thus Ambrose, Haymo, Bede, as if to say: Until death one must labor, strive, suffer; after death it is said: "When he shall have given sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord." Thus, says St. Bernard, serm. De Virgin., "St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, seeking Rome, when he came to Auxerre, turned aside to the tomb of St. Cassian; calling him by his own name: How are you, dearest brother? And he from the tomb: I rest sweetly in peace, and await the coming of the Redeemer." For "from now on" in Greek is ναι, that is, yea, truly, so indeed, nay rather, surely. The heretics object: If all the just immediately after death rest from their labors; therefore none go to Purgatory and its torments. I answer by denying the consequence. For first, what is said here of the just resting from labors, understand it of this life, which they have indeed exhausted in the mortification of passions, in the observance of divine law, and in the endurance of persecutions. These indeed immediately after death shall rest from them; but if they still have any stain, it must be cleansed in Purgatory. Add that they rest in Purgatory in the certain hope of salvation and glory soon to come, which, when it shall arrive, they shall truly enter into eternal rest. Second, Turrianus, and from him Francis Suarez, III part., tract. De Poenitentia, disp. XLV, sect. 1, hold that St. John here speaks only of the perfectly just, who are bound by no stain of guilt, even venial, nor by any debt of punishment for guilt to be paid, but are altogether pure and free. These indeed, since they have no debt, immediately pass into eternal rest. Third, Gregory of Valencia, III part., tract. De Locis animarum post mortem, disp. XI, Quaest. I, puncto 1, answers that the word "from now on" is not to be referred to the determined time of the death of each just person, but to all that time of the Church militant. For God willed here to signify that at this very time when the Church now wages war on earth and suffers persecutions, it also has its place in the kingdom of heaven, and a certain triumphant Church, where the Blessed rest, when they have been thoroughly purified: nor do they await the time of the last judgment and the resurrection of bodies, that the souls of the pious be received into beatitude, and this in order that by this means he might encourage them to constancy in persecution. Whence it preceded: "Here," that is, at this time, "is the patience of the Saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus;" and soon after it adds: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from now on," etc. Thus also St. Augustine, lib. XX De Civit., cap. IX. SPIRIT, — το πνευμα, namely the Holy Spirit. Second, Haymo, Richard and Ansbert: "Spirit, that is the Most Holy Trinity." Third, Pannonius: "Spirit, that is, the Angel who spoke to John." FOR THEIR WORKS (for δε, that is, but, is taken for γαρ, that is, for: thus Maldonatus notes and Beza confesses) FOLLOW THEM. — In Greek μετ αυτων, that is, with them, as if to say, They accompany them closely and inseparably (just as servants accompany their master, especially a prince, says Hugo), so that before the King of glory they may appear with the most beautiful retinue of works. "For what reason," says St. Bernard, "do works follow the Saints, except that they may praise them in the gates, their works?" Secondly, works, that is, the reward of works. Thus Anselm, Richard, Haymo. Works therefore precede by merit, but will follow by reward. In death friends, riches, honors abandon us; works alone will follow us, as Barlaam declares with beautiful similitudes to King Josaphat, in Damascene's History, cap. XIII. Death therefore strips man of riches, not of works. Note: Just as good works follow man, so also do evil ones. Whence St. Augustine, homil. 42, among 50, cap. VIII: "This is the unhappiness of men: on account of which they sin (namely, riches, pleasures, honors), dying here they leave behind, and they carry their very sins with them." On the contrary, the Saints leave behind here their labors and sorrows, through which they merited, and they carry with them their very virtues and merits to receive their reward immediately. Beautifully St. Bernard, serm. 2 in the Feast of All Saints: "How great is their happiness, how immense their joy, who indeed exult with threefold gladness, from the remembrance of virtue passed, from the exhibition of present rest, from the certain expectation of future consummation! For each soul says, to whom it has now been given to arrive at this rest: In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and rest, because Thou, O Lord, hast singularly established me in hope. And: Return, O my soul, into thy rest, because the Lord hath been bountiful to thee. Because He hath delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling. This is the most sweet bed of the soul, which no tears now wash or water, when God shall wipe away every tear from her eyes." And soon after: "Let therefore the bed of the blessed soul be the purity of her conscience; let her pillow be tranquility; let her covering be security: so that on this bed meanwhile she may sleep delightfully, rest happily," etc. And above: "Let no one suspect some small rest or joy of those who, freed entirely from all trouble, recollect their years in the sweetness of their soul; they rejoice for the days in which they were humbled, the years in which they saw evils; with joyful admiration and wonderful gladness they consider the dangers which they escaped, the labors which they endured, the contests which they overcame; and for all these things with certain and undoubted faith they await the blessed hope, and the coming of the glory of the great God and their Savior, who will raise up their bodies configured to the brightness of His own body." The same St. Bernard, epist. 103 to Romanus: "O how blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, hearing from the Spirit, that they rest from their labors! Not only this, but moreover joy succeeds from newness, and from eternity security. Good therefore is the death of the just on account of rest, better on account of newness, best on account of security. On the contrary the death of sinners is worst. And hear why it is worst. For it is evil in the loss of the world, worse in the separation of the flesh, worst in the double torment of worm and fire."
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14. AND I SAW, AND BEHOLD A WHITE CLOUD, AND UPON THE CLOUD ONE SITTING LIKE UNTO THE SON OF MAN. — Namely Christ the King and Judge, who shall sit in judgment upon a white cloud, to indicate His brightness, and in judgment there shall be no place for deceit and pretenses, but all things shall be manifest and sincere. He has a sharp sickle, because He comes to reap the whole world and to put an end to it: thus Andrew. Whence in Matt. cap. XIII, vers. 39, it is called "harvest," that is, reaping, "the consummation of the age." Aureolus understands by the Son of Man Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who, made king of the Franks in place of Chilperic, extended that kingdom, defeated the Lombards, and brought aid to the Roman Pontiff. But this is an accommodation, not a genuine interpretation.
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15. AND ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT OF THE TEMPLE, — that is, from the inner sanctuary of God in heaven, namely from the place of the Blessed in heaven, bearing namely to Christ the desire of all Saints and heavenly beings concerning the consummation of the world, the punishment of the impious, and the glory of the just: concerning which he said in chapter VI, verse 10: "How long, O Lord, dost thou not avenge our blood?" He therefore says to Christ: SEND THY SICKLE (that is, reap), FOR THE HARVEST OF THE EARTH IS RIPE. — Alcazar understands by harvest a rich crop of souls, and a copious conversion of the Gentiles, which the Apostles gathered by their preaching, sent by Christ for this very purpose, concerning which it is said in Luke X, 2: "The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few." But here the matter concerns the harvest of the world on the day of judgment. For it alludes to Joel III, 13: "Send in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe:" where it is clear that the day of judgment is being discussed from the fact that verse 12 preceded it: "Let the nations be roused, and come up to the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about." The sense therefore is, as if the Angel were saying: O Christ, reap, that is, harvest men, animals and all living things. For this is what the souls of Martyrs and all Saints desire, who have sent me as an envoy to thee for this reason, because truly the harvest is ripe, that is, because the number of the elect is complete, and likewise the course of the world, and the ages appointed by God have already passed away. But properly here he intends to say that the number of the Elect is complete; for God loves these especially and intends them, and for their sake has arranged the whole age, and has either shortened or prolonged it. And this is the sickle and harvest of wheat. For concerning the sickle of the reprobate, it follows, and the following Angel introduces it. Thus St. Gregory, book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter X, Bede, Ansbertus, Haymo, Pannonius, Viegas, Ribera and others. St. Gregory gives the reason why the judgment of God is compared to a sickle: "The power of divine judgment, because it embraces all things within itself by cutting, is signified by the name of sickle; for in a sickle whatever is cut, in whatever direction it bends, falls inward. And because the power of the judgment on high cannot be avoided in any way (for we are within it, whatever we try to flee), rightly, when the coming judge is shown, he is said to hold a sickle: because, as he powerfully meets all things, he cuts them off and surrounds them."
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16. AND HE THAT SAT UPON THE CLOUD, THRUST HIS SICKLE INTO THE EARTH, AND THE EARTH WAS REAPED. — Moreover Christ obeys the petition of this Angel, and of the Martyrs and the Blessed, and reaps the pious and the elect, and puts an end to the world. This is what he adds: "And he that sat upon the cloud, thrust his sickle into the earth, and the earth was reaped." Aureolus, following the thread of his chronology, understands by this angel Pope Stephen, who went forth from the temple, that is from Rome, in the year of Christ 753, on account of the persecutions of Aistulf, king of the Lombards, and went into France to Pepin, imploring his aid. Pepin therefore, having gathered his forces, as it were with his sickle reaped the army of Aistulf.
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17. AND ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT OF THE TEMPLE (the heavenly one, as I said in verse 15) HAVING ALSO A SICKLE, — not a reaping sickle, but a vintage sickle, or pruning sickle. This sickle therefore is a curved knife, which vintagers use in many places, and with it they prune vines and gather the vintage, and cut off grapes. This sickle signifies the punishment and destruction of the impious: for he will gather these as vintage in the following verse. You will ask, who is this Angel? Primasius, Ansbertus, Beda, Pannonius, Viegas and others answer that this Angel, like the preceding one, is Christ: for Christ has both sickles, namely both the reaping sickle of wheat, that is of the elect, and the vintage sickle of grapes, that is of the impious. Ribera more rightly thinks that this is properly speaking an Angel, and one different from the preceding ones. For Christ is not called an Angel here, but the Son of Man. This Angel therefore goes forth to cooperate with Christ, and to reap the impious at his nod and command, while Christ reaps the pious and the saints, as I said in the preceding verse. For fittingly reward is attributed to Christ, but punishment to the Angel. For kings are accustomed, as it befits and adorns them with clemency and liberality, to distribute rewards by themselves, but to inflict punishments through others: for this is what royal majesty requires.
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18. AND ANOTHER ANGEL CAME OUT FROM THE ALTAR, WHO HAD POWER OVER FIRE: AND HE CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE TO HIM THAT HAD THE SHARP SICKLE, SAYING: THRUST IN THY SHARP SICKLE, AND GATHER THE CLUSTERS OF THE VINEYARD OF THE EARTH. — Three angels are here distinguished in verses 15, 17, 18: The first, in verse 15, says to the Son of Man: "Thrust in thy sickle, and reap." The second, in verse 17, is the vintager about to gather the clusters of the earth. The third is he who admonishes the second to gather the clusters. You may ask, who are these? Alcazar responds that these words are taken from Joel, chapter III, verse 13: therefore the first angel is Joel, the second is Moses, the third is Elijah. Moses is a type of wisdom, Elijah of zeal. There is introduced here by prosopopoeia the mystical Moses, that is, wisdom, crying out to the mystical Elijah, that is, to zeal, that he cast the sickle and gather the clusters of Christ's Confessors, namely the Martyrs. For it is zeal that impels the Saints to shed their blood for Christ: which in the new law under Christ was to come to pass, as Joel predicted, and which Moses and Elijah prefigured. He holds, as do some others, that this angel is sent for this purpose, that he might aid and strengthen the Martyrs in their agony, and therefore has power over fire, that is, over charity, that he might kindle it in the Martyrs. Therefore the mystical Elijah, that is, zeal, says to the mystical Moses, that is, wisdom: "Thrust in thy sickle, and gather the clusters of the earth," because the cutting off of these grapes and their casting into the winepress, that they may be crushed there, that is, passions and martyrdoms, are things which directly touch heavenly wisdom, which God bestows abundantly upon His martyrs. Moreover, the clusters are cast into the great lake of the wrath of God, because the number of Martyrs was very great, who by their blood extinguished the wrath of God against His enemies, and reconciled it to men. Pannonius also understands Elijah by this angel. For Elijah seems to be signified when it is said that this angel has power over fire: for Elijah had this, who three times called down fire from heaven, as I said in chapter XI, verse 5. He himself, however, gives another sense, as if to say: Elijah cries out to Christ, that He exercise judicial power and vengeance upon the impious and Antichristian in the end of the world. To this pertains the exposition and prophecy of Abbot Joachim, who by this angel understood and predicted the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, to be instituted shortly after his time. For thus he speaks, explaining this angel: "There shall arise an Order, which appears new, and is not. Clothed in black garments, and girt above with a leather belt. These shall increase, and their fame shall be spread abroad: and they shall preach the faith, which they shall also defend even unto the consummation of the world in the spirit and power of Elijah. Which shall be an Order of Hermits emulating the life of angels. Whose life shall be as a burning fire in the love and zeal of God, to burn up thorns and thistles, that is, to consume and extinguish the pernicious life of the wicked, lest the evil any longer abuse the patience of God." St. Antoninus, citing this oracle of Joachim, in the last title, III part of his History, proves from it that he had the prophetic spirit. For Joachim said and predicted this about the year of the Lord 1200. The Order of Hermits of St. Augustine was instituted, or rather restored, by Innocent IV the Pontiff, in the year of the Lord 1243, as the same St. Antoninus teaches, III part., title XXIV, chapter XIV, and from him Father Jerome Platus, book II On the Good of Religious Life, chapter XXII. Thirdly, Ansbert and Haymo wish this angel, equally as the preceding one, to be Christ, who has power over fire, because He can send the Holy Spirit into the hearts of the faithful. For, as He Himself says in Luke XII, 49: "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" He goes forth from the altar, because He is the High Priest. But here the matter is not about martyrdom or the sending of the Holy Spirit, but about the day of judgment and vengeance, and consequently this fire is not that of charity, but of the conflagration of the world or of hell. Fourthly, Aureolus and Lyra by this angel holding the sickle understand Charlemagne, who mowed down the infidels; by the other angel coming forth from the altar they understand Pope Adrian, who sought the aid of Charlemagne against Desiderius, king of the Lombards: whom therefore Charlemagne took alive, and extinguished the kingdom of the Lombards. But these are accommodated senses, not genuine ones. I say therefore with Ribera, Viega and others, that the three angels who, besides Christ, of whom verse 14, are here in verses 15, 17 and 18 enumerated, are these: The first is in verse 15, the legate of the Martyrs, who in their name beseeches Christ, that he reap with his sickle the wheat, that is, the Saints and the elect, and gather and collect them to himself through angels from the four quarters of the world, so that they may rise to glory, and ascend with him to heaven. The second, in verse 17, is the angel who at the end of the world shall reap the impious: whence he has a sharp sickle. The third in this verse is likewise an angel, who secondly commands that he draw forth the sickle and reap the impious. He is therefore properly called an angel, equally as the second, who shall preside over the impious both at their death through the second angel, and at the punishments of hell, not by himself, but through demons to be inflicted. He goes forth from the altar, because, in chapter VI, it was said that under the altar rest the souls of the Martyrs demanding vengeance: hence therefore he goes forth as it were the legate of the Martyrs, equally as the first, beseeching God for vengeance, so that he may thrust the murderers of Martyrs, and all the wicked into tartarus, and having obtained this, he commands the second angel, the executor of divine vengeance, that with his sickle he vintage the clusters, that is, the impious. Hence he has power over fire, so that namely he may bring upon the world the fire of conflagration, as Andrew says; or so that he may cast the reprobate into the fire of hell, as Arethas and Bede wish, namely by delivering them to demons, who may snatch them away into tartarus. Note: As by harvest and wheat both here and in Matthew III, 12, and chapter XIII, verse 29, the elect are signified: so by vintage and clusters the reprobate are signified, because they shall fill the cup of divine wrath, to be trodden by it outside the city, that is, outside the Church, or outside heaven, in the infernal winepress, as follows. He alludes again to Joel III, 13, where when the Prophet had spoken of wheat and harvest: "Put in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe;" he adds concerning clusters and vintage: "Come and go down, for the winepress is full, the vats abound: for their malice is multiplied." Thus throughout Scripture vintaging is taken for punishment, as in Psalm LXXIX, 13: "Why hast thou broken down the hedge thereof, and all they who pass by the way do pluck it?" In Lamentations I, 12, Jerusalem is thus introduced in her desolation lamenting and saying: "She hath gleaned me, as the Lord hath spoken in the day of his fierce wrath." And verse 22: "Glean them, as thou hast gleaned me." Isaiah also in chapter XVI, verse 9, speaking of the destruction of Idumaea, says: "Upon thy vintage, and upon thy harvest the voice of them that tread hath rushed in." He alludes also to Zechariah V, 1, where he himself saw a flying sickle according to the Septuagint. Thus Cyril there.
14:19
19. AND HE SENT AN ANGEL WITH A SHARP SICKLE INTO THE EARTH, AND HE GATHERED THE VINTAGE OF THE EARTH, AND CAST IT INTO THE GREAT WINEPRESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD. — Otherwise Viegas: "The reaping sickle of wheat," he says, "pertains to the old: for just as harvest is dry and hoary, so also is old age; but the pruning sickle of grapes pertains to the young, who are as it were beautiful clusters and flourishing, and full of juice and blood: death indeed reaps and prunes both." But the former sense is more apt, as is evident from the text and from what has been said. Whence also it follows: "into the winepress of the wrath of God," in Greek εις ληνον, that is, into a vat, into which the liquid of grapes is pressed out and received.
14:20
20. AND BLOOD CAME OUT OF THE WINEPRESS UP TO THE BRIDLES OF THE HORSES FOR A THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED FURLONGS. — The Arabic translator renders it, and blood came out of the winepress to the bridles of the horses, one thousand and six hundred miles. But he wrongly puts miles for furlongs, which are eight times greater than furlongs; unless perhaps in Arabia, Syria, or elsewhere, miles are so short that they equal furlongs. Alcazar, who understands this of the blood of Martyrs, says that it came out to the bridles of the four horses of the chariot of Christ: These four horses are, he says, those of which in chapter VI, verses 2 and following; namely the first white, which signifies the gentleness of Christ and the Martyrs; the second red, which signifies their zeal; the third black, which signifies their modesty; the fourth pale, which represents their mortification. Moreover, in the 1600 furlongs there is an allusion to the length of the promised land, which was 160 miles, as St. Jerome says, epistle 129 (who also hints that these 160 miles of Palestine, or 1600 furlongs, make 200 Roman miles; which Alcazar also asserts), which precisely make 1600 furlongs. He calls them furlongs, because he alludes to the contests of the Martyrs, which were wont to be held in the stadium. But the promised land signifies the Church. The sense therefore is, as if to say, The whole Church, and the whole world as it were irrigated and adorned with the abundance and fertility of the blood which the newly converted poured out for Christ. Moreover, that 160 miles make 1600 furlongs is evident. For a mile contains eight furlongs; for the Romans give five feet to each pace, and to each furlong 125 paces, which make 625 Roman feet. But in the Greek measurement ten furlongs, or one thousand paces, will justly make one mile. For among the Greeks one pace contains six feet (which measure equals human stature), and one stadium consists of one hundred paces, or human statures, that is, six hundred feet, and therefore 160 miles are precisely 1600 furlongs. But that the Romans add 25 feet to the dimension of one furlong, this happens because from the more common Greek feet, 24 feet equaled the length of 25 Roman feet. Wherefore so that the Romans might agree with the Greeks in the measure of the furlong, they assigned to the furlong 625 Roman feet, or (which is the same thing) 125 Roman paces. But St. John here, because he wrote in Greek and in Greece, uses the Greek furlong, not the Roman, and takes the stadium for one hundred paces; whence it comes to pass that 160 miles contain 1600 furlongs, as I have already said. These things are true and learned, but not to the purpose. For these furlongs pertain to the dimensions, not of the promised land, nor of the Church, but of the place of the reprobate (for this is the lake of the wrath of God, unless you say that this lake is measured and made equal to the holy land) and of the damned, namely of Gehenna and Hell. The blood therefore here should be understood not of the Martyrs, but of the reprobate. The sense therefore is, as if to say, So great will be the slaughter of the impious and reprobate, who at the end of the world shall be slain and damned, that, if that place which they shall occupy in Hell were a winepress from which their blood were pressed out, this blood would run along the royal way to 1600 furlongs up to the height of the bridle of the horses. Understand by horses the horses of Christ and His saints. For they are here and in chapter XIX, introduced by prosopopoeia as victorious horsemen, who shall go forth on foot, not of the body, but of the mind, outside the heavenly city, to contemplate the victory of Christ over the impious and their slaughter. Thus Andrew, Ambrose, Bede and others. It is a catachresis and hyperbole. Scripture has similar catachreses and phrases elsewhere, as Psalm CIX, 7: "Of the torrent in the way he shall drink." Numbers XXIII, 24: "Until he devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain." Psalm LVII, 11: "He shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner." By which is signified only complete victory and vengeance over enemies. By a similar scheme L. Florus says in the Cimbric war: "So fiercely was the battle fought, and so great was the slaughter of the enemy, that the victorious Roman drank no more water from the bloody river than the blood of the barbarians." The same Florus, book II On the Punic War: "Evidences of the disaster, the bloody Aufidus at times." Secondly, this passage can be properly understood of the capacity of the whole of hell, as if to say: The blood and bodies of the impious at the end of the world will flow down and be scattered throughout the entire capacity and length of hell. For hell extends lengthwise (as also in breadth and in depth in every direction) to 1600 stadia, that is, 50 Spanish leagues. Thus Ribera, who holds that the space and quantity of hell is precisely described here, namely that it extends to 1600 stadia, both in length, breadth and depth: although this does not please Viegas and Alcazar, because nothing of the sort is expressed elsewhere in Scripture. But this reasoning does not conclude: for from it only follows that nothing certain about this quantity of hell can be brought forward, but it does not follow that nothing can be probably conjectured. It is therefore probable that this space of 1600 stadia is the measure of hell, both because it seems to be hinted at here, and because this place is sufficiently capacious to contain all the reprobate and damned of all times. For this space of 1600 stadia is approximately as much as from Rome to Bologna, or from Brussels to Paris: which could contain very many and almost innumerable millions of men, especially with the addition of just and proportionate breadth as well as depth, such as exists in hell. For, as Isaiah says in chapter XXX, verse 33: "Tophet hath been prepared from yesterday (that is, from eternity gehenna), prepared by the king, deep and enlarged." For 1600 stadia make two hundred Italian miles; for a mile contains a thousand paces, whence it was called a mile. A pace contains five feet, a foot four palms, a palm four transverse fingers. But a stadium is the eighth part of a mile, and contains 125 paces. Therefore 1600 stadia make two hundred miles: for these are the eighth part of sixteen hundred. This opinion is confirmed, first, because St. John here calls hell the lake of the great wrath of God; it is therefore very vast and great, so as to correspond to and be commensurate with God and the wrath of God in some way. Again, he expressly assigns to it sixteen hundred stadia, which since we can take properly, why do we twist them to another meaning? For although some learned men think these stadia to be the place which the damned will occupy on the day of judgment around the valley of Josaphat, this does not seem to be from the mind of St. John, who assigns these stadia to the lake of the wrath of God. For this lake in which the damned are trampled is without doubt hell. Secondly, because hell is therefore called an abyss in Scripture and by the Fathers, because it is most profound and greatest, so that it appears to be ἄβυσσος, that is, without bottom. Thirdly, because the fire of the conflagration of the world will occupy the whole orb, namely the whole earth, all water, all air up to heaven. But all this fire will go into hell, and will sweep the damned along with it: but such and so vast a fire, even if compressed, demands a most vast place. Fourthly, the burning of Sodom and the Pentapolis extended itself to seventy-two miles in length, and nineteen in breadth, as Josephus and others testify; for it embraced four cities very distant from one another: but this was a type of the burning of hell. Fifthly, Aetna at some time belched forth and ejected flames and ashes to thirty miles: Pliny writes similar things about Vesuvius. But Aetna and Vesuvius are only a shadow, and, as some call it, the mouth of hell. Sixthly, because from visions it is established that the flames of gehenna are most ample. For St. Furseus and St. Diethelmus saw such and so great flames, as recorded by the Venerable Bede in book V of the History of the English, chapter XIII. Seventhly, because it is very probable that in hell demons will have fiery bodies, both so that they themselves may be punished more, and so that by their horrible appearance, plagues and bodily torments, they may punish the damned more: concerning which matter I have said more on Isaiah XXXIV, at the end of the chapter. Hell therefore must be very great, as being about to contain so many thousands of millions, not only of damned men, but also of demons with bodies. However, Father Lessius holds a contrary opinion, in book XIII On the Divine Perfections, chapter XXIV. Where first, he teaches that hell is nothing other than a lake of fire and brimstone, Apocalypse XX, 15; secondly, that this lake is in the midst of the earth, so that the center of the lake, the center of hell, and the center of the earth are one and the same, that sulphurous lake collecting itself in a circle around the center: wherefore this lake has a wall of the greatest thickness and impermeability, which takes away from the damned all hope of escape; for it is surrounded by the thickness of the earth, which from the center to the surface contains more than a thousand leagues. Who could pierce or penetrate such a wall? Thirdly, that the cavity of hell is about one league, or four Italian miles. His reasoning is, because the damned in hell do not stand on their feet, nor do they run hither and thither, but are gathered together in a heap like burning coals or burning wood, as Scripture indicates. Now even if we grant to each body of the damned six square feet (which is abundantly sufficient), nevertheless one league (that is, a measure of twenty thousand feet) cubed, or multiplied cubically, will be able to contain more than eight hundred million millions of bodies, when nevertheless it seems certain, having made the calculation, that there will not be a hundred times a thousand millions. He then adds: But, he says, because there too will be a vast lake of fire and brimstone, and all demons will be enclosed in ignited bodies, perhaps it will be more capacious. Let therefore the diameter be two leagues, or eight Italian miles, then the concave surface of the earth surrounding hell will be six leagues. Whence the cavity of hell will easily be able to contain in its midst a lake, whose depth on all sides is one half league, which is scarcely the depth of the sea anywhere, and there will still remain half a league empty between the concave surface of the earth and the surface of the lake. These things he himself sets forth probably and learnedly. Others, however, calculate differently, and think there will be many more millions of the damned. Moreover, even if this place were sufficient for receiving the bodies of the damned crowded together, nevertheless they think it will be much larger. First, so that the magnitude of the fire, immense and as it were infinite, by its very appearance might strike the damned with horror; for the greater the fire, the greater is the horror with which we are moved in this life. Secondly, because in these fires the bodies of the damned crowded together will roll about, so that now they seem to ascend on high, now to be plunged into the abyss, now to be whirled and swept to the sides in every direction most widely, as St. Diethelm, already cited, saw souls ascending and descending there. This St. John insinuates, saying: "And the smoke of their torments ascendeth up for ever and ever." For thus the horror and torment of the reprobate will be not a little increased. Thirdly, because in hell there are various punishments for various crimes, various tortures, various kinds of torments, instruments and places, as is evident from the visions of the Venerable Bede already cited, and from many testimonies of the possessed, who when adjured confessed the same thing. Among other things our Spanish fathers, eyewitnesses, wrote these things to Rome, which were related in the Annual Letters of the year 1604 of the college of Huete, of the province of Toledo, namely that a demon through a possessed woman had a sermon commanded to him by God before the assembled multitude, in which he accused her of her sins, and among other things said: "Sin cast me down from the summit of heaven to the abyss, and will you think any place on earth is safe for you? You must go therefore, unless you take heed, with Satan into hell to the brimstone, to the fire, to the bridge, to the castle, to the river, to the round house," by which words he certainly signified various torments and places and kinds in Gehenna. Whence it is clear that the bodies of the damned are not so crowded together that all are bound together as it were in one bundle, but rather so that they form various bundles, disposed in various places, racks and instruments of torture, which are loosened according to the will of the demons and the vengeance of God, so that the reprobate are snatched from one rack to another, then gathered again, and plunged into the volcanic furnace. For there is the greatest variety and multitude of all kinds of punishments, and the damned are forced to go from one to another as it were in a circle, so that their torments are always renewed and other and new ones are established. Therefore, so that their bodies may be disposed separately and tortured, a vast space is necessary, as Father Lessius himself admits, in the place already cited, where for this he requires a hundred leagues and more. Symbolically, Peter Bongus, in his book On the Mysteries of Numbers, says: "The number 1600," he says, "is the square of forty. For forty times forty makes 1600. This number is also composed of four four-hundreds. In Holy Scripture it signifies the whole world, whose parts are known to be four. In the Apocalypse XIV it is written that blood flowed even to the bridles of horses for a distance of 1600 stadia, that is to say, through the four parts of the world, East, West, North and South. Whence also the Lamentations of Jeremiah are four, and distinguished by a fourfold alphabet; because in them Jeremiah bewails not only the crimes of the Jews, but also those of the whole world, and invites all to bewail them." Thus Bongus. Remember, as I have often warned before, that in these visions of John there are certain inversions and leaps from one thing to another and returns, as there are in other Prophets. For from the signs preceding judgment, of which he treated in verses 6 and following, he leaps in verses 16 and following to the rewards of the elect and the punishments of the reprobate: thence again he returns to the signs preceding judgment. For in the following chapters XV and XVI, he recounts the seven final plagues of the world; thence in chapters XVII and XVIII, he describes the destruction of Babylon: for all these things will precede the day of judgment. Morally, learn here how horrible hell is, and in it the punishment of the reprobate. First, because they are clusters of the wrath of God, which are trampled by Him as if in fury in the winepress of Gehenna. Second, because the smoke of their torments ascends for ever and ever, as I said in verse 11. Third, because they are cast into the lake of fire in all directions for a distance of 1600 stadia. Imagine a furnace of fire hurling flames in all directions (that is, both lengthwise, and widthwise and in depth) for two hundred miles, and in it the bodies of the damned rolling about, now ascending, now descending, now turning in every direction, and this continually night and day for all ages, for all eternity. Behold, this is hell. "The soul," says St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, XLV, "placed there (in hell) loses the ability to be well, and does not lose being: from which it is always forced to suffer death without death, and defect without defect, and an end without end: so that for it, death is immortal, and defect is unending, and the end is infinite." The same, book IX of the Morals, XXXIX: "In a horrible manner will there then be pain with fear for the reprobate, flame with darkness." And soon after: "Thus there comes to the wretched death without death, an end without end, defect without defect: because death always lives, and the end always begins, and defect knows not how to fail. Death destroys, and does not extinguish; pain torments, but in no way puts to flight fear; flame burns, but in no way dispels darkness." And further down: "Then the devouring flame burns those whom carnal pleasure now pollutes. Then the infinite gaping abyss of hell devours those whom vain pride now exalts." The same on that passage of Matthew: "They shall be cast into outer darkness: In hell there will be intolerable cold, inextinguishable fire, immortal worm, intolerable stench, palpable darkness, scourges of those striking, horrible vision of demons, confusion of sinners, despair of all good things." Hugh, book IV On the Soul: "Hell is a place without measure, deep without bottom, full of incomparable heat, full of intolerable stench, full of innumerable pain: there is darkness, there is no order, there is eternal horror, there is no hope of good, no despair of evil." Here demons assume horrible masks, by which they strike down the damned, of which Virgil, Aeneid VI: Centaurs stand guard at the gates, and two-formed Scyllas, and the hundred-handed Briareus, and the beast of Lerna Horribly hissing, and the Chimaera armed with flames, Gorgons, Harpies and the form of the three-bodied shade. Climacus relates in step 4 that he saw in a monastery a certain brother, a cook, who had obtained from God the gift of continual weeping; when asked how he had obtained it, he answered: "From the fire of the kitchen, which I perpetually behold, turning my mind to the vast fires of hell: which consideration draws abundant tears from my eyes." St. Gregory recounts horrifying examples and visions on this matter, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter XXX, where he recounts the casting of King Theodoric into a Vulcanian pot, and chapters XXXVI and XLIII, and Damasus, History, chapter XXX, where he narrates the vision of King Josaphat concerning hell. Well-known is the history of a deceased Doctor of Paris, who at his funeral rose from the bier and said: "By the just judgment of God I am accused, judged and condemned," at which voice St. Bruno and others were moved and instituted the Carthusian order, as Francis Puteus narrates in the Life of St. Bruno, and from him our Peter Thyraeus, book On Particular Judgment, chapter VI. Also well-known is the heavenly warning of Bishop Udo: "Udo, Udo, cease from play, you have played enough, Udo"; and when he did not cease, the judgment, beheading and damnation of the same, which Fulgentius narrates, book IX, chapter XII; Nauclerus, volume II, generation 37; St. Antoninus and others. Gregory of Tours relates, book VIII of the History of the Franks, chapter V, that the most wicked King Chilperic, tyrant of the Franks, after his death appeared to King Guntram with broken limbs cast into a bronze pot, and immediately was so dissolved and liquefied by the vapors of the waters that no trace of him remained at all. I have said more on this matter in Deuteronomy XXXII, 22.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
14:1
Massacre of the Holy Innocents
… The symbolic number of 144,000 given in Rev. 14:1, which alludes to the army of Christian ascetics, evidently has no value in this regard. …
… will come the reunion of those whom death had separated: "together" (ὅμα σόνο) they will shine in the procession of the divine King, with whom they will rejoice in his love and in that of the dear ones found again (I Thess. 3:13; 4:17; Apoc. 7:4-17; 14:1-5; cf. Dante, Paradiso, XXII, 97-110). The precursor sign of the parousia is the Antichrist (v.), working "the mystery of iniquity" that sweeps people into "apostasy": Jesus will destroy …
14:3
Certain categories of Saints have a special motive for glory, with reference to an extraordinary victory won over the world (the martyrs: Matt. 10, 32; Apoc. 7, 14), over error (the doctors, Dan. 12, 3), over the flesh (the virgins: Apoc. 14, 3-4): this particular perfection of accidental beatitude, called the "aureole" (Sum. …
14:4
In a figurative sense, Israel is called "first fruits of Jahweh" (Jer. 2:3). In the New Testament, the first converts are called first fruits (Rom. 16:5; I Cor. 16:15; Jas. 1:18); the virgins who follow the lamb (Rev. 14:4). Christ himself is "first fruits of those who sleep" (I Cor. 15:20, 23). Christians possess "the first fruits of the Spirit" (Rom. 8:23), inasmuch as the life of Grace is the very …
… They are already spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles, but they were numerous in the following times (Acts 21:8-9; 1 Cor. 7:8-9; Rev. 14:4; Eusebius, Hist. eccl., III, 31: PG 21, 279; Clement of Alexandria, Strom., II, 18: PG 8, 1040). Later they received the name of "ascetics," from the comparison that Clement of …
14:6
ETERNAL GOSPEL. - Expression from Rev. 14:6, by which Joachim of Fiore meant the spiritual interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was to mark the third age of the world,
14:10
… rejected the invitation of God (Mt. 24:13; 24:51; 25:30; Lk. 14:24) and of neighbor (Mt. 25:41-45); cf. II Thess. 1:9. Into the dark underworld (ὁ ἕδρος τοῦ ἀκόνους, II Pt. 2:17; Jude 13) the smoke of the torments of the wicked will rise (Rev. 14:10-11). The hades-death for all will be transformed, after the resurrection and the judgment of all according to their works, into a "second" (definitive) hades-death for the damned alone …
14:11
The eternity of hell is formally asserted by Scripture (Mt. 25:46; Mk. 9:42; Rev. 14:11; 20:10) and by Tradition (see above), of which St. Augustine gathers all the elements when he affirms « multum absurdum est » (De Civitate Dei, 21, 32: PL 41, 736) to wish to exclude …
14:13
… In the New Testament similar beatitudes occur: Mt. 11:6; 13:16; 16:17; 24:46; Lk. 11:28; 12:37 f., 43; 14:15; Jn. 20:29; Jas. 1:12; 1 Pet. 3:14; 4:14; Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14. To this day the Christians of the East call the beatitudes "macarisms." The Arabic Diatessaron interprets the initial adjective "blessed" in an adverbial …
… II. DESCENT OF CHRIST INTO L.); after the Redemption the soul, if it is worthy, enters into Paradise (v. Apoc. 14:13). In Sacred Scripture death is also called dormitio (entering into sleep): but it must be understood that only
… ἐνδημῶς πρὸς τὸν Κύριον [II Cor. 5:8]), as when he affirms that Christ died for us, so that whether in life or in death simul cum illo vivamus (I Thess. 5:9-10). The same idea underlies other texts: Mt. 26:24, II Cor. 5:10, Philip. 1:23, Hebr. 9:27, Apoc. 14:13.
… Jesus also comes to a single person (Apoc. 2:16; 2:5; 3:3). All those who will go to meet Jesus will have passed through death and resurrection (ibid. 14:13; 20:6, 12-13). The "end" is considered in the broadest sense, and the final universal p. is there conjoined with the present personal p. awaited and invoked (ibid. 1:7; 3:20; 22:7, …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Rheims 1582), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.