the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear
shall live; and the rest of them shall not live. The words added,
"until the thousand years are finished," mean that they did not live
in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from death
to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection
arrives, they shall come out of their graves, not to life, but to
judgment, namely, to damnation, which is called the second death.
For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished,
_i.e._ during this whole time in which the first resurrection is
going on,--whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of God, and
passed from death to life,--that man shall certainly in the second
resurrection, the resurrection of the flesh, pass with his flesh
into the second death. For he goes on to say, "This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection," or who experiences it. Now he experiences it who not
only revives from the death of sin, but continues in this renewed
life. "In these the second death hath no power." Therefore it has
power in the rest, of whom he said above, "The rest of them did not
live until the thousand years were finished;" for in this whole
intervening time, called a thousand years, however lustily they
lived in the body, they were not quickened to life out of that death
in which their wickedness held them, so that by this revived life
they should become partakers of the first resurrection, and so the
second death should have no power over them.
10. _What is to be replied to those who think that resurrection
pertains only to bodies and not to souls._
There are some who suppose that resurrection can be predicated only
of the body, and therefore they contend that this first resurrection
(of the Apocalypse) is a bodily resurrection. For, say they, "to
rise again" can only be said of things that fall. Now, bodies fall
in death.[729] There cannot, therefore, be a resurrection of souls,
but of bodies. But what do they say to the apostle who speaks of a
resurrection of souls? For certainly it was in the inner and not the
outer man that those had risen again to whom he says, "If ye have
risen with Christ, mind the things that are above."[730] The same
sense he elsewhere conveyed in other words, saying, "That as Christ
has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may
walk in newness of life."[731] So, too, "Awake thou that sleepest,
and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."[732] As
to what they say about nothing being able to rise again but what
falls, whence they conclude that resurrection pertains to bodies
only, and not to souls, because bodies fall, why do they make nothing
of the words, "Ye that fear the Lord, wait for His mercy; and go
not aside lest ye fall;"[733] and "To his own Master he stands or
falls;"[734] and "He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed
lest he fall?"[735] For I fancy this fall that we are to take heed
against is a fall of the soul, not of the body. If, then, rising
again belongs to things that fall, and souls fall, it must be owned
that souls also rise again. To the words, "In them the second death
hath no power," are added the words, "but they shall be priests of
God and Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years;" and
this refers not to the bishops alone, and presbyters, who are now
specially called priests in the Church; but as we call all believers
Christians on account of the mystical chrism, so we call all priests
because they are members of the one Priest. Of them the Apostle Peter
says, "A holy people, a royal priesthood."[736] Certainly he implied,
though in a passing and incidental way, that Christ is God, saying
priests of God and Christ, that is, of the Father and the Son, though
it was in His servant-form and as Son of man that Christ was made
a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. But this we have
already explained more than once.
11. _Of Gog and Magog, who are to be roused by the devil to persecute
the Church, when he is loosed in the end of the world._
"And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed
from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the nations which are in
the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them
to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea." This, then, is
his purpose in seducing them, to draw them to this battle. For even
before this he was wont to use as many and various seductions as
he could continue. And the words "he shall go out" mean, he shall
burst forth from lurking hatred into open persecution. For this
persecution, occurring while the final judgment is imminent, shall
be the last which shall be endured by the holy Church throughout
the world, the whole city of Christ being assailed by the whole
city of the devil, as each exists on earth. For these nations which
he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous
nations in some part of the world, whether the Getæ and Massagetæ,
as some conclude from the initial letters, or some other foreign
nations not under the Roman government. For John marks that they are
spread over the whole earth, when he says, "The nations which are
in the four corners of the earth," and he added that these are Gog
and Magog. The meaning of these names we find to be, Gog, "a roof,"
Magog, "from a roof,"--a house, as it were, and he who comes out of
the house. They are therefore the nations in which we found that the
devil was shut up as in an abyss, and the devil himself coming out
from them and going forth, so that they are the roof, he from the
roof. Or if we refer both words to the nations, not one to them and
one to the devil, then they are both the roof, because in them the
old enemy is at present shut up, and as it were roofed in; and they
shall be from the roof when they break forth from concealed to open
hatred. The words, "And they went up on the breadth of the earth,
and encompassed the camp of the saints and the beloved city," do not
mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp
of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for
this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over
the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,--and
it shall be in all nations, as is signified by "the breadth of the
earth,"--there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved
city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution
of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all
nations,--that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut
up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military
duty, which is signified by the word "camp."
12. _Whether the fire that came down out of heaven and devoured
them refers to the last punishment of the wicked._
The words, "And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them," are
not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted
when it is said, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire;"[737] for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come
down out of heaven upon them. In this place "fire out of heaven" is
well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse
to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament
is "heaven," by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with
blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to
the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them,
and this is "from God;" for it is by God's grace the saints become
unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense
it is said, "The zeal of Thine house hath consumed me,"[738] so
in a bad sense it is said, "Zeal hath possessed the uninstructed
people, and now fire shall consume the enemies."[739] "And now,"
that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. Or if by this fire
coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John meant that blow
wherewith Christ in His coming is to strike those persecutors of the
Church whom He shall then find alive upon earth, when He shall kill
Antichrist with the breath of His mouth,[740] then even this is not
the last judgment of the wicked; but the last judgment is that which
they shall suffer when the bodily resurrection has taken place.
13. _Whether the time of the persecution of Antichrist should
be reckoned in the thousand years._
This last persecution by Antichrist shall last for three years and
six months, as we have already said, and as is affirmed both in
the book of Revelation and by Daniel the prophet. Though this time
is brief, yet not without reason is it questioned whether it is
comprehended in the thousand years in which the devil is bound and
the saints reign with Christ, or whether this little season should
be added over and above to these years. For if we say that they are
included in the thousand years, then the saints reign with Christ
during a more protracted period than the devil is bound. For they
shall reign with their King and Conqueror mightily even in that
crowning persecution when the devil shall now be unbound and shall
rage against them with all his might. How then does Scripture define
both the binding of the devil and the reign of the saints by the same
thousand years, if the binding of the devil ceases three years and
six months before this reign of the saints with Christ? On the other
hand, if we say that the brief space of this persecution is not to be
reckoned as a part of the thousand years, but rather as an additional
period, we shall indeed be able to interpret the words, "The priests
of God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years; and when
the thousand years shall be finished, Satan shall be loosed out of
his prison;" for thus they signify that the reign of the saints and
the bondage of the devil shall cease simultaneously, so that the time
of the persecution we speak of should be contemporaneous neither with
the reign of the saints nor with the imprisonment of Satan, but
should be reckoned over and above as a superadded portion of time.
But then in this case we are forced to admit that the saints shall
not reign with Christ during that persecution. But who can dare to
say that His members shall not reign with Him at that very juncture
when they shall most of all, and with the greatest fortitude, cleave
to Him, and when the glory of resistance and the crown of martyrdom
shall be more conspicuous in proportion to the hotness of the battle?
Or if it is suggested that they may be said not to reign, because of
the tribulations which they shall suffer, it will follow that all
the saints who have formerly, during the thousand years, suffered
tribulation, shall not be said to have reigned with Christ during the
period of their tribulation, and consequently even those whose souls
the author of this book says that he saw, and who were slain for the
testimony of Jesus and the word of God, did not reign with Christ
when they were suffering persecution, and they were not themselves
the kingdom of Christ, though Christ was then pre-eminently
possessing them. This is indeed perfectly absurd, and to be scouted.
But assuredly the victorious souls of the glorious martyrs, having
overcome and finished all griefs and toils, and having laid down
their mortal members, have reigned, and do reign, with Christ till
the thousand years are finished, that they may afterwards reign with
Him when they have received their immortal bodies. And therefore
during these three years and a half the souls of those who were slain
for His testimony, both those which formerly passed from the body and
those which shall pass in that last persecution, shall reign with
Him till the mortal world come to an end, and pass into that kingdom
in which there shall be no death. And thus the reign of the saints
with Christ shall last longer than the bonds and imprisonment of the
devil, because they shall reign with their King the Son of God for
these three years and a half during which the devil is no longer
bound. It remains, therefore, that when we read that "the priests of
God and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years; and when
the thousand years are finished, the devil shall be loosed from his
imprisonment," that we understand either that the thousand years of
the reign of the saints does not terminate, though the imprisonment
of the devil does,--so that both parties have their thousand years,
that is, their complete time, yet each with a different actual
duration appropriate to itself, the kingdom of the saints being
longer, the imprisonment of the devil shorter,--or at least that, as
three years and six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned
as either deducted from the whole time of Satan's imprisonment, or as
added to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we have
shown above in the sixteenth book[741] regarding the round number
of four hundred years, which were specified as four hundred, though
actually somewhat more; and similar expressions are often found in
the sacred writings, if one will mark them.
14. _Of the damnation of the devil and his adherents; and a sketch
of the bodily resurrection of all the dead, and of the final
retributive judgment._
After this mention of the closing persecution, he summarily indicates
all that the devil, and the city of which he is the prince, shall
suffer in the last judgment. For he says, "And the devil who seduced
them is cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, in which are the
beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and
night for ever and ever." We have already said that by the beast
is well understood the wicked city. His false prophet is either
Antichrist or that image or figment of which we have spoken in
the same place. After this he gives a brief narrative of the last
judgment itself, which shall take place at the second or bodily
resurrection of the dead, as it had been revealed to him: "I saw a
throne great and white, and One sitting on it from whose face the
heaven and the earth fled away, and their place was not found." He
does not say, "I saw a throne great and white, and One sitting on
it, and from His face the heaven and the earth fled away," for it
had not happened then, _i.e._ before the living and the dead were
judged; but he says that he saw Him sitting on the throne from
whose face heaven and earth fled away, but afterwards. For when the
judgment is finished, this heaven and earth shall cease to be, and
there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For this world shall pass
away by transmutation, not by absolute destruction. And therefore
the apostle says, "For the figure of this world passeth away. I
would have you be without anxiety."[742] The figure, therefore,
passes away, not the nature. After John had said that he had seen
One sitting on the throne from whose face heaven and earth fled,
though not till afterwards, he said, "And I saw the dead, great and
small: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which
is the book of the life of each man: and the dead were judged out
of those things which were written in the books, according to their
deeds." He said that the books were opened, and a book; but he left
us at a loss as to the nature of this book, "which is," he says, "the
book of the life of each man." By those books, then, which he first
mentioned, we are to understand the sacred books old and new, that
out of them it might be shown what commandments God had enjoined; and
that book of the life of each man is to show what commandments each
man has done or omitted to do. If this book be materially considered,
who can reckon its size or length, or the time it would take to
read a book in which the whole life of every man is recorded? Shall
there be present as many angels as men, and shall each man hear his
life recited by the angel assigned to him? In that case there will
be not one book containing all the lives, but a separate book for
every life. But our passage requires us to think of one only. "And
another book was opened," it says. We must therefore understand it
of a certain divine power, by which it shall be brought about that
every one shall recall to memory all his own works, whether good or
evil, and shall mentally survey them with a marvellous rapidity, so
that this knowledge will either accuse or excuse conscience, and
thus all and each shall be simultaneously judged. And this divine
power is called a book, because in it we shall as it were read all
that it causes us to remember. That he may show who the dead, small
and great, are who are to be judged, he recurs to this which he had
omitted or rather deferred, and says, "And the sea presented the dead
which were in it; and death and hell gave up the dead which were in
them." This of course took place before the dead were judged, yet it
is mentioned after. And so, I say, he returns again to what he had
omitted. But now he preserves the order of events, and for the sake
of exhibiting it repeats in its own proper place what he had already
said regarding the dead who were judged. For after he had said, "And
the sea presented the dead which were in it, and death and hell gave
up the dead which were in them," he immediately subjoined what he
had already said, "and they were judged every man according to their
works." For this is just what he had said before, "And the dead were
judged according to their works."
15. _Who the dead are who are given up to judgment by the sea,
and by death and hell._
But who are the dead which were in the sea, and which the sea
presented? For we cannot suppose that those who die in the sea are
not in hell, nor that their bodies are preserved in the sea; nor
yet, which is still more absurd, that the sea retained the good,
while hell received the bad. Who could believe this? But some very
sensibly suppose that in this place the sea is put for this world.
When John then wished to signify that those whom Christ should find
still alive in the body were to be judged along with those who should
rise again, he called them dead, both the good to whom it is said,
"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,"[743] and
the wicked of whom it is said, "Let the dead bury their dead."[744]
They may also be called dead, because they wear mortal bodies, as
the apostle says, "The body indeed is dead because of sin; but the
spirit is life because of righteousness;"[745] proving that in a
living man in the body there is both a body which is dead, and a
spirit which is life. Yet he did not say that the body was mortal,
but dead, although immediately after he speaks in the more usual
way of mortal bodies. These, then, are the dead which were in the
sea, and which the sea presented, to wit, the men who were in this
world, because they had not yet died, and whom the world presented
for judgment. "And death and hell," he says, "gave up the dead which
were in them." The sea _presented_ them because they had merely to
be found in the place where they were; but death and hell _gave them
up_ or _restored_ them, because they called them back to life, which
they had already quitted. And perhaps it was not without reason that
neither _death_ nor _hell_ were judged sufficient alone, and both
were mentioned,--death to indicate the good, who have suffered only
death and not hell; hell to indicate the wicked, who suffer also the
punishment of hell. For if it does not seem absurd to believe that
the ancient saints who believed in Christ and His then future coming,
were kept in places far removed indeed from the torments of the
wicked, but yet in hell,[746] until Christ's blood and His descent
into these places delivered them, certainly good Christians, redeemed
by that precious price already paid, are quite unacquainted with hell
while they wait for their restoration to the body, and the reception
of their reward. After saying, "They were judged every man according
to their works," he briefly added what the judgment was: "Death and
hell were cast into the lake of fire;" by these names designating
the devil and the whole company of his angels, for he is the author
of death and the pains of hell. For this is what he had already, by
anticipation, said in clearer language: "The devil who seduced them
was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone." The obscure addition he
had made in the words, "in which were also the beast and the false
prophet," he here explains, "They who were not found written in the
book of life were cast into the lake of fire." This book is not for
reminding God, as if things might escape Him by forgetfulness, but it
symbolizes His predestination of those to whom eternal life shall be
given. For it is not that God is ignorant, and reads in the book to
inform Himself, but rather His infallible prescience is the book of
life in which they are written, that is to say, known beforehand.
16. _Of the new heaven and the new earth._
Having finished the prophecy of judgment, so far as the wicked are
concerned, it remains that he speak also of the good. Having briefly
explained the Lord's words, "These will go away into everlasting
punishment," it remains that he explain the connected words, "but
the righteous into life eternal."[747] "And I saw," he says, "a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have
passed away; and there is no more sea."[748] This will take place in
the order which he has by anticipation declared in the words, "I saw
One sitting on the throne, from whose face heaven and earth fled."
For as soon as those who are not written in the book of life have
been judged and cast into eternal fire,--the nature of which fire,
or its position in the world or universe, I suppose is known to no
man, unless perhaps the divine Spirit reveal it to some one,--then
shall the figure of this world pass away in a conflagration of
universal fire, as once before the world was flooded with a deluge of
universal water. And by this universal conflagration the qualities of
the corruptible elements which suited our corruptible bodies shall
utterly perish, and our substance shall receive such qualities as
shall, by a wonderful transmutation, harmonize with our immortal
bodies, so that, as the world itself is renewed to some better thing,
it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in their flesh
to some better thing. As for the statement, "And there shall be no
more sea," I would not lightly say whether it is dried up with that
excessive heat, or is itself also turned into some better thing.
For we read that there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, but I
do not remember to have anywhere read anything of a new sea, unless
what I find in this same book, "As it were a sea of glass like
crystal."[749] But he was not then speaking of this end of the world,
neither does he seem to speak of a literal sea, but "as it were a
sea." It is possible that, as prophetic diction delights in mingling
figurative and real language, and thus in some sort veiling the
sense, so the words "And there is no more sea" may be taken in the
same sense as the previous phrase, "And the sea presented the dead
which were in it." For then there shall be no more of this world, no
more of the surgings and restlessness of human life, and it is this
which is symbolized by the _sea_.
17. _Of the endless glory of the Church._
"And I saw," he says, "a great city, new Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And
I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people, and God Himself shall be with them. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, but neither shall there be any more
pain: because the former things have passed away. And He that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."[750] This city
is said to come down out of heaven, because the grace with which
God formed it is of heaven. Wherefore He says to it by Isaiah, "I
am the Lord that formed thee."[751] It is indeed descended from
heaven from its commencement, since its citizens during the course
of this world grow by the grace of God, which cometh down from above
through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven. But by God's final judgment, which shall be administered by
His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by God's grace be manifested a
glory so pervading and so new, that no vestige of what is old shall
remain; for even our bodies shall pass from their old corruption and
mortality to new incorruption and immortality. For to refer this
promise to the present time, in which the saints are reigning with
their King a thousand years, seems to me excessively barefaced, when
it is most distinctly said, "God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, but there shall be no more pain." And who is so absurd, and
blinded by contentious opinionativeness, as to be audacious enough
to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state,
God's people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever
lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain,--the fact being
that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much
the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication? Are not
these the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem: "My
tears have been my meat day and night;"[752] and "Every night shall
I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water my couch;"[753]
and "My groaning is not hid from Thee;"[754] and "My sorrow was
renewed?"[755] Or are not those God's children who groan, being
burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that
mortality may be swallowed up of life?[756] Do not they even who have
the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for
the adoption, the redemption of their body?[757] Was not the Apostle
Paul himself a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and was he not so
all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow of heart for
his Israelitish brethren?[758] But when shall there be no more death
in that city, except when it shall be said, "O death, where is thy
contention?[759] O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death
is sin."[760] Obviously there shall be no sin when it can be said,
"Where is"--But as for the present it is not some poor weak citizen
of this city, but this same Apostle John himself who says, "If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us."[761] No doubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse,
there are in it many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the
reader, and there are few passages so plain as to assist us in the
interpretation of the others, even though we take pains; and this
difficulty is increased by the repetition of the same things, in
forms so different, that the things referred to seem to be different,
although in fact they are only differently stated. But in the words,
"God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more
pain," there is so manifest a reference to the future world and the
immortality and eternity of the saints,--for only then and only there
shall such a condition be realized,--that if we think this obscure,
we need not expect to find anything plain in any part of Scripture.
18. _What the Apostle Peter predicted regarding the last judgment._
Let us now see what the Apostle Peter predicted concerning this
judgment. "There shall come," he says, "in the last days scoffers....
Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."[762] There is nothing said
here about the resurrection of the dead, but enough certainly regarding
the destruction of this world. And by his reference to the deluge he
seems as it were to suggest to us how far we should believe the ruin
of the world will extend in the end of the world. For he says that
the world which then was perished, and not only the earth itself, but
also the heavens, by which we understand the air, the place and room
of which was occupied by the water. Therefore the whole, or almost the
whole, of the gusty atmosphere (which he calls heaven, or rather the
heavens, meaning the earth's atmosphere, and not the upper air in which
sun, moon, and stars are set) was turned into moisture, and in this
way perished together with the earth, whose former appearance had been
destroyed by the deluge. "But the heavens and the earth which are now,
by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day
of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Therefore the heavens and
the earth, or the world which was preserved from the water to stand in
place of that world which perished in the flood, is itself reserved to
fire at last in the day of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
He does not hesitate to affirm that in this great change men also shall
perish: their nature, however, shall notwithstanding continue, though
in eternal punishments. Some one will perhaps put the question, If
after judgment is pronounced the world itself is to burn, where shall
the saints be during the conflagration, and before it is replaced by
a new heavens and a new earth, since somewhere they must be, because
they have material bodies? We may reply that they shall be in the upper
regions into which the flame of that conflagration shall not ascend,
as neither did the water of the flood; for they shall have such bodies
that they shall be wherever they wish. Moreover, when they have become
immortal and incorruptible, they shall not greatly dread the blaze of
that conflagration, as the corruptible and mortal bodies of the three
men were able to live unhurt in the blazing furnace.
19. _What the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the
manifestation of Antichrist which shall precede the day of the
Lord._
I see that I must omit many of the statements of the gospels and
epistles about this last judgment, that this volume may not become
unduly long; but I can on no account omit what the Apostle Paul says,
in writing to the Thessalonians, "We beseech you, brethren, by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,"[763] etc.
No one can doubt that he wrote this of Antichrist and of the day
of judgment, which he here calls the day of the Lord, nor that he
declared that this day should not come unless he first came who is
called the apostate--apostate, to wit, from the Lord God. And if this
may justly be said of all the ungodly, how much more of him? But it
is uncertain in what temple he shall sit, whether in that ruin of the
temple which was built by Solomon, or in the Church; for the apostle
would not call the temple of any idol or demon the temple of God.
And on this account some think that in this passage Antichrist means
not the prince himself alone, but his whole body, that is, the mass
of men who adhere to him, along with him their prince; and they also
think that we should render the Greek more exactly were we to read,
not "in the temple of God," but "for" or "as the temple of God," as
if he himself were the temple of God, the Church.[764] Then as for
the words, "And now ye know what withholdeth," _i.e._ ye know what
hindrance or cause of delay there is, "that he might be revealed in
his own time;" they show that he was unwilling to make an explicit
statement, because he said that they knew. And thus we who have not
their knowledge wish and are not able even with pains to understand
what the apostle referred to, especially as his meaning is made still
more obscure by what he adds. For what does he mean by "For the
mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now holdeth, let
him hold until he be taken out of the way: and then shall the wicked
be revealed?" I frankly confess I do not know what he means. I will
nevertheless mention such conjectures as I have heard or read.
Some think that the Apostle Paul referred to the Roman empire, and that
he was unwilling to use language more explicit, lest he should incur
the calumnious charge of wishing ill to the empire which it was hoped
would be eternal; so that in saying, "For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work," he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be
as the deeds of Antichrist. And hence some suppose that he shall rise
again and be Antichrist. Others, again, suppose that he is not even
dead, but that he was concealed that he might be supposed to have been
killed, and that he now lives in concealment in the vigour of that
same age which he had reached when he was believed to have perished,
and will live until he is revealed in his own time and restored to
his kingdom.[765] But I wonder that men can be so audacious in their
conjectures. However, it is not absurd to believe that these words
of the apostle, "Only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he be
taken out of the way," refer to the Roman empire, as if it were said,
"Only he who now reigneth, let him reign until he be taken out of the
way." "And then shall the wicked be revealed:" no one doubts that
this means Antichrist. But others think that the words, "Ye know what
withholdeth," and "The mystery of iniquity worketh," refer only to the
wicked and the hypocrites who are in the Church, until they reach a
number so great as to furnish Antichrist with a great people, and that
this is the _mystery_ of iniquity, because it seems hidden; also that
the apostle is exhorting the faithful tenaciously to hold the faith
they hold when he says, "Only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he
be taken out of the way," that is, until the mystery of iniquity which
now is hidden departs from the Church. For they suppose that it is to
this same mystery John alludes when in his epistle he says, "Little
children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that Antichrist
shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that
it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us;
for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with
us."[766] As therefore there went out from the Church many heretics,
whom John calls "many antichrists," at that time prior to the end, and
which John calls "the last time," so in the end they shall go out who
do not belong to Christ, but to that last Antichrist, and then he shall
be revealed.
Thus various, then, are the conjectural explanations of the obscure
words of the apostle. That which there is no doubt he said is this,
that Christ will not come to judge quick and dead unless Antichrist,
His adversary, first come to seduce those who are dead in soul;
although their seduction is a result of God's secret judgment already
passed. For, as it is said, "his presence shall be after the working
of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with
all seduction of unrighteousness in them that perish." For then
shall Satan be loosed, and by means of that Antichrist shall work
with all power in a lying though a wonderful manner. It is commonly
questioned whether these works are called "signs and lying wonders"
because he is to deceive men's senses by false appearances, or
because the things he does, though they be true prodigies, shall be
a lie to those who shall believe that such things could be done only
by God, being ignorant of the devil's power, and especially of such
unexampled power as he shall then for the first time put forth. For
when he fell from heaven as fire, and at a stroke swept away from the
holy Job his numerous household and his vast flocks, and then as a
whirlwind rushed upon and smote the house and killed his children,
these were not deceitful appearances, and yet they were the works of
Satan to whom God had given this power. Why they are called signs
and lying wonders we shall then be more likely to know when the time
itself arrives. But whatever be the reason of the name, they shall
be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall deserve to
be seduced, "because they received not the love of the truth that
they might be saved." Neither did the apostle scruple to go on to
say, "For this cause God shall send upon them the working of error
that they should believe a lie." For God shall _send_, because God
shall permit the devil to do these things, the permission being by
His own just judgment, though the doing of them is in pursuance
of the devil's unrighteous and malignant purpose, "that they all
might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness." Therefore, being judged, they shall be seduced,
and, being seduced, they shall be judged. But, being judged, they
shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secret judgments
of God, with which He has never ceased to judge since the first sin
of the rational creatures; and, being seduced, they shall be judged
in that last and manifest judgment administered by Jesus Christ, who
was Himself most unjustly judged and shall most justly judge.
20. _What the same apostle taught in the first Epistle to the
Thessalonians regarding the resurrection of the dead._
But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resurrection of
the dead; but in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians he says, "We
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which
are asleep,"[767] etc. These words of the apostle most distinctly
proclaim the future resurrection of the dead, when the Lord Christ
shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
But it is commonly asked whether those whom our Lord shall find alive
upon earth, personated in this passage by the apostle and those who
were alive with him, shall never die at all, or shall pass with
incomprehensible swiftness through death to immortality in the very
moment during which they shall be caught up along with those who
rise again to meet the Lord in the air? For we cannot say that it is
impossible that they should both die and revive again while they are
carried aloft through the air. For the words, "And so shall we ever
be with the Lord," are not to be understood as if he meant that we
shall always remain in the air with the Lord; for He Himself shall
not remain there, but shall only pass through it as He comes. For
we shall go to meet Him as He comes, not where He remains; but "so
shall we be with the Lord," that is, we shall be with Him possessed
of immortal bodies wherever we shall be with Him. We seem compelled
to take the words in this sense, and to suppose that those whom the
Lord shall find alive upon earth shall in that brief space both
suffer death and receive immortality; for this same apostle says, "In
Christ shall all be made alive;"[768] while, speaking of the same
resurrection of the body, he elsewhere says, "That which thou sowest
is not quickened, except it die."[769] How, then, shall those whom
Christ shall find alive upon earth be made alive to immortality in
Him if they die not, since on this very account it is said, "That
which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die?" Or if we cannot
properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as by dying
they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the sentence
pronounced by God against the sinning father of the human race runs,
"Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,"[770] we must
acknowledge that those whom Christ at His coming shall find still in
the body are not included in these words of the apostle nor in those
of Genesis; for, being caught up into the clouds, they are certainly
not sown, neither going nor returning to the earth, whether they
experience no death at all or die for a moment in the air.
But, on the other hand, there meets us the saying of the same apostle
when he was speaking to the Corinthians about the resurrection of
the body, "We shall all rise," or, as other MSS. read, "We shall all
sleep."[771] Since, then, there can be no resurrection unless death
has preceded, and since we can in this passage understand by sleep
nothing else than death, how shall _all_ either sleep or rise again
if so many persons whom Christ shall find in the body shall neither
sleep nor rise again? If, then, we believe that the saints who shall
be found alive at Christ's coming, and shall be caught up to meet
Him, shall in that same ascent pass from mortal to immortal bodies,
we shall find no difficulty in the words of the apostle, either when
he says, "That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die," or
when he says, "We shall all rise," or "all sleep," for not even the
saints shall be quickened to immortality unless they first die, however
briefly; and consequently they shall not be exempt from resurrection
which is preceded by sleep, however brief. And why should it seem to
us incredible that that multitude of bodies should be, as it were,
sown in the air, and should in the air forthwith revive immortal and
incorruptible, when we believe, on the testimony of the same apostle,
that the resurrection shall take place in the twinkling of an eye, and
that the dust of bodies long dead shall return with incomprehensible
facility and swiftness to those members that are now to live endlessly?
Neither do we suppose that in the case of these saints the sentence,
"Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return," is null, though
their bodies do not, on dying, fall to earth, but both die and rise
again at once while caught up into the air. For "Thou shalt return to
earth" means, Thou shalt at death return to that which thou wert before
life began. Thou shalt, when exanimate, be that which thou wert before
thou wast animate. For it was into a face of earth that God breathed
the breath of life when man was made a living soul; as if it were
said, Thou art earth with a soul, which thou wast not; thou shalt be
earth without a soul, as thou wast. And this is what all bodies of the
dead are before they rot; and what the bodies of those saints shall be
if they die, no matter where they die, as soon as they shall give up
that life which they are immediately to receive back again. In this
way, then, they return or go to earth, inasmuch as from being living
men they shall be earth, as that which becomes cinder is said to go
to cinder; that which decays, to go to decay; and so of six hundred
other things. But the manner in which this shall take place we can now
only feebly conjecture, and shall understand it only when it comes to
pass. For that there shall be a bodily resurrection of the dead when
Christ comes to judge quick and dead, we must believe if we would be
Christians. But if we are unable perfectly to comprehend the manner
in which it shall take place, our faith is not on this account vain.
Now, however, we ought, as we formerly promised, to show, as far as
seems necessary, what the ancient prophetic books predicted concerning
this final judgment of God; and I fancy no great time need be spent in
discussing and explaining these predictions, if the reader has been
careful to avail himself of the help we have already furnished.
21. _Utterances of the prophet Isaiah regarding the resurrection
of the dead and the retributive judgment._
The prophet Isaiah says, "The dead shall rise again, and all who were
in the graves shall rise again; and all who are in the earth shall
rejoice: for the dew which is from Thee is their health, and the earth
of the wicked shall fall."[772] All the former part of this passage
relates to the resurrection of the blessed; but the words, "the earth
of the wicked shall fall," is rightly understood as meaning that the
bodies of the wicked shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we
would more exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which refer to
the resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first resurrection
the words, "the dead shall rise again," and to the second the following
words, "and all who were in the graves shall rise again." And if we
ask what relates to those saints whom the Lord at His coming shall
find alive upon earth, the following clause may suitably be referred
to them: "All who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew which
is from Thee is their health." By "health" in this place it is best
to understand immortality. For that is the most perfect health which
is not repaired by nourishment as by a daily remedy. In like manner
the same prophet, affording hope to the good and terrifying the wicked
regarding the day of judgment, says, "Thus saith the Lord, Behold,
I will flow down upon them as a river of peace, and upon the glory
of the Gentiles as a rushing torrent: their sons shall be carried on
the shoulders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As one whom his
mother comforteth, so shall I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted
in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your
bones shall rise up like a herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be
known by His worshippers, and He shall threaten the contumacious. For,
behold, the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots,
to execute vengeance with indignation, and wasting with a flame of
fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged, and all
flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord."[773] In His
promise to the good he says that He will flow down as a river of peace,
that is to say, in the greatest possible abundance of peace. With this
peace we shall in the end be refreshed; but of this we have spoken
abundantly in the preceding book. It is this river in which he says
He shall flow down upon those to whom He promises so great happiness,
that we may understand that in the region of that felicity, which is
in heaven, all things are satisfied from this river. But because there
shall thence flow, even upon earthly bodies, the peace of incorruption
and immortality, therefore he says that He shall flow down as this
river, that He may as it were pour Himself from things above to things
beneath, and make men the equals of the angels. By "Jerusalem," too,
we should understand not that which serves with her children, but that
which, according to the apostle, is our free mother, eternal in the
heavens.[774] In her we shall be comforted as we pass toilworn from
earth's cares and calamities, and be taken up as her children on her
knees and shoulders. Inexperienced and new to such blandishments, we
shall be received into unwonted bliss. There we shall see, and our
heart shall rejoice. He does not say what we shall see; but what but
God, that the promise in the Gospel may be fulfilled in us, "Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God?"[775] What shall we see
but all those things which now we see not, but believe in, and of which
the idea we form, according to our feeble capacity, is incomparably
less than the reality? "And ye shall see," he says, "and your heart
shall rejoice." Here ye believe, there ye shall see.
But because he said, "Your heart shall rejoice," lest we should suppose
that the blessings of that Jerusalem are only spiritual, he adds, "And
your bones shall rise up like a herb," alluding to the resurrection
of the body, and as it were supplying an omission he had made. For
it will not take place when we have seen; but we shall see when it
has taken place. For he had already spoken of the new heavens and the
new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures, of the things
promised to the saints, and saying, "There shall be new heavens, and a
new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind;
but they shall find in it gladness and exultation. Behold, I will
make Jerusalem an exultation, and my people a joy. And I will exult in
Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no
more heard in her;"[776] and other promises, which some endeavour to
refer to carnal enjoyment during the thousand years. For, in the manner
of prophecy, figurative and literal expressions are mingled, so that a
serious mind may, by useful and salutary effort, reach the spiritual
sense; but carnal sluggishness, or the slowness of an uneducated and
undisciplined mind, rests in the superficial letter, and thinks there
is nothing beneath to be looked for. But let this be enough regarding
the style of those prophetic expressions just quoted. And now, to
return to their interpretation. When he had said, "And your bones shall
rise up like a herb," in order to show that it was the resurrection of
the good, though a bodily resurrection, to which he alluded, he added,
"And the hand of the Lord shall be known by His worshippers." What
is this but the hand of Him who distinguishes those who worship from
those who despise Him? Regarding these the context immediately adds,
"And He shall threaten the contumacious," or, as another translator has
it, "the unbelieving." He shall not actually threaten then, but the
threats which are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in effect. "For
behold," he says, "the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind
His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and wasting with a
flame of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be judged,
and all flesh with His sword: many shall be wounded by the Lord." By
_fire_, _whirlwind_, _sword_, he means the judicial punishment of God.
For he says that the Lord Himself shall come as a fire, to those, that
is to say, to whom His coming shall be penal. By His _chariots_ (for
the word is plural) we suitably understand the ministration of angels.
And when he says that all flesh and all the earth shall be judged with
His fire and sword, we do not understand the spiritual and holy to be
included, but the earthly and carnal, of whom it is said that they
"mind earthly things,"[777] and "to be carnally minded is death,"[778]
and whom the Lord calls simply flesh when He says, "My Spirit shall
not always remain in these men, for they are flesh."[779] As to the
words, "Many shall be wounded by the Lord," this wounding shall produce
the second death. It is possible, indeed, to understand _fire_,
_sword_, and _wound_ in a good sense. For the Lord said that He wished
to send fire on the earth.[780] And the cloven tongues appeared to
them as fire when the Holy Spirit came.[781] And our Lord says, "I am
not come to send peace on earth, but a sword."[782] And Scripture says
that the word of God is a doubly sharp sword,[783] on account of the
two edges, the two Testaments. And in the Song of Songs the holy Church
says that she is wounded with love,[784]--pierced, as it were, with the
arrow of love. But here, where we read or hear that the Lord shall come
to execute vengeance, it is obvious in what sense we are to understand
these expressions.
After briefly mentioning those who shall be consumed in this
judgment, speaking of the wicked and sinners under the figure of the
meats forbidden by the old law, from which they had not abstained,
he summarily recounts the grace of the new testament, from the first
coming of the Saviour to the last judgment, of which we now speak;
and herewith he concludes his prophecy. For he relates that the Lord
declares that He is coming to gather all nations, that they may come
and witness His glory.[785] For, as the apostle says, "All have
sinned and are in want of the glory of God."[786] And he says that He
will do wonders among them, at which they shall marvel and believe in
Him; and that from them He will send forth those that are saved into
various nations, and distant islands which have not heard His name
nor seen His glory, and that they shall declare His glory among the
nations, and shall _bring_ the brethren of those to whom the prophet
was speaking, _i.e._ shall bring to the faith under God the Father
the brethren of the elect Israelites; and that they shall bring from
all nations an offering to the Lord on beasts of burden and waggons
(which are understood to mean the aids furnished by God in the shape
of angelic or human ministry), to the holy city Jerusalem, which at
present is scattered over the earth, in the faithful saints. For
where divine aid is given, men believe, and where they believe, they
come. And the Lord compared them, in a figure, to the children of
Israel offering sacrifice to Him in His house with psalms, which
is already everywhere done by the Church; and He promised that
from among them He would choose for Himself priests and Levites,
which also we see already accomplished. For we see that priests and
Levites are now chosen, not from a certain family and blood, as was
originally the rule in the priesthood according to the order of
Aaron, but as befits the new testament, under which Christ is the
High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, in consideration of the
merit which is bestowed upon each man by divine grace. And these
priests are not to be judged by their mere title, which is often
borne by unworthy men, but by that holiness which is not common to
good men and bad.
After having thus spoken of this mercy of God which is now
experienced by the Church, and is very evident and familiar to us,
he foretells also the ends to which men shall come when the last
judgment has separated the good and the bad, saying by the prophet,
or the prophet himself speaking for God, "For as the new heavens
and the new earth shall remain before me, said the Lord, so shall
your seed and your name remain, and there shall be to them month
after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to
worship before me in Jerusalem, said the Lord. And they shall go
out, and shall see the members of the men who have sinned against
me: their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;
and they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh."[787] At this point
the prophet closed his book, as at this point the world shall come
to an end. Some, indeed, have translated "carcases"[788] instead of
"members of the men," meaning by _carcases_ the manifest punishment
of the body, although _carcase_ is commonly used only of dead flesh,
while the bodies here spoken of shall be animated, else they could
not be sensible of any pain; but perhaps they may, without absurdity,
be called carcases, as being the bodies of those who are to fall into
the second death. And for the same reason it is said, as I have
already quoted, by this same prophet, "The earth of the wicked shall
fall."[789] It is obvious that those translators who use a different
word for _men_ do not mean to include only males, for no one will
say that the women who sinned shall not appear in that judgment; but
the male sex, being the more worthy, and that from which the woman
was derived, is intended to include both sexes. But that which is
especially pertinent to our subject is this, that since the words
"All flesh shall come" apply to the good, for the people of God shall
be composed of every race of men,--for all men shall not be present,
since the greater part shall be in punishment,--but, as I was saying,
since _flesh_ is used of the good, and _members_ or _carcases_ of the
bad, certainly it is thus put beyond a doubt that that judgment in
which the good and the bad shall be allotted to their destinies shall
take place after the resurrection of the body, our faith in which is
thoroughly established by the use of these words.
22. _What is meant by the good going out to see the punishment of
the wicked._
But in what way shall the good go out to see the punishment of the
wicked? Are they to leave their happy abodes by a bodily movement, and
proceed to the places of punishment, so as to witness the torments of
the wicked in their bodily presence? Certainly not; but they shall
go out by knowledge. For this expression, _go out_, signifies that
those who shall be punished shall be without. And thus the Lord also
calls these places "the outer darkness,"[790] to which is opposed that
entrance concerning which it is said to the good servant, "Enter into
the joy of thy Lord," that it may not be supposed that the wicked
can enter thither and be known, but rather that the good by their
knowledge go out to them, because the good are to know that which is
without. For those who shall be in torment shall not know what is
going on within in the joy of the Lord; but they who shall enter into
that joy shall know what is going on outside in the outer darkness.
Therefore it is said, "They shall go out," because they shall know
what is done by those who are without. For if the prophets were able
to know things that had not yet happened, by means of that indwelling
of God in their minds, limited though it was, shall not the immortal
saints know things that have already happened, when God shall be all
in all?[791] The seed, then, and the name of the saints shall remain
in that blessedness,--the seed, to wit, of which John says, "And his
seed remaineth in him;"[792] and the name, of which it was said through
Isaiah himself, "I will give them an everlasting name."[793] "And there
shall be to them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath," as if
it were said, Moon after moon, and rest upon rest, both of which they
shall themselves be when they shall pass from the old shadows of time
into the new lights of eternity. The worm that dieth not, and the fire
that is not quenched, which constitute the punishment of the wicked,
are differently interpreted by different people. For some refer both
to the body, others refer both to the soul; while others again refer
the fire literally to the body, and the worm figuratively to the soul,
which seems the more credible idea. But the present is not the time to
discuss this difference, for we have undertaken to occupy this book
with the last judgment, in which the good and the bad are separated:
their rewards and punishments we shall more carefully discuss elsewhere.
23. _What Daniel predicted regarding the persecution of Antichrist,
the judgment of God, and the kingdom of the saints._
Daniel prophesies of the last judgment in such a way as to indicate
that Antichrist shall first come, and to carry on his description to
the eternal reign of the saints. For when in prophetic vision he had
seen four beasts, signifying four kingdoms, and the fourth conquered
by a certain king, who is recognised as Antichrist, and after this
the eternal kingdom of the Son of man, that is to say, of Christ, he
says, "My spirit was terrified, I Daniel in the midst of my body, and
the visions of my head troubled me,"[794] etc. Some have interpreted
these four kingdoms as signifying those of the Assyrians, Persians,
Macedonians, and Romans. They who desire to understand the fitness
of this interpretation may read Jerome's book on Daniel, which is
written with a sufficiency of care and erudition. But he who reads
this passage, even half-asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of
Antichrist shall fiercely, though for a short time, assail the Church
before the last judgment of God shall introduce the eternal reign
of the saints. For it is patent from the context that the _time_,
_times_, _and half a time_, means a year, and two years, and half a
year, that is to say, three years and a half. Sometimes in Scripture
the same thing is indicated by months. For though the word _times_
seems to be used here in the Latin indefinitely, that is only because
the Latins have no dual, as the Greeks have, and as the Hebrews also
are said to have. Times, therefore, is used for two times. As for the
ten kings, whom, as it seems, Antichrist is to find in the person of
ten individuals when he comes, I own I am afraid we may be deceived in
this, and that he may come unexpectedly while there are not ten kings
living in the Roman world. For what if this number ten signifies the
whole number of kings who are to precede his coming, as totality is
frequently symbolized by a thousand, or a hundred, or seven, or other
numbers, which it is not necessary to recount?
In another place the same Daniel says, "And there shall be a time of
trouble, such as was not since there was born a nation upon earth
until that time: and in that time all Thy people which shall be
found written in the book shall be delivered. And many of them that
sleep in the mound of earth shall arise, some to everlasting life,
and some to shame and everlasting confusion. And they that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and many of the just
as the stars for ever."[795] This passage is very similar to the
one we have quoted from the Gospel,[796] at least so far as regards
the resurrection of dead bodies. For those who are there said to
be "in the graves" are here spoken of as "sleeping in the mound of
earth," or, as others translate, "in the dust of earth." There it is
said, "They shall come forth;" so here, "They shall arise." There,
"They that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they
that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment;" here, "Some
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting confusion."
Neither is it to be supposed a difference, though in place of the
expression in the Gospel, "All who are in their graves," the prophet
does not say "all," but "many of them that sleep in the mound of
earth." For _many_ is sometimes used in Scripture for _all_. Thus it
was said to Abraham, "I have set thee as the father of many nations,"
though in another place it was said to him, "In thy seed shall all
nations be blessed."[797] Of such a resurrection it is said a little
afterwards to the prophet himself, "And come thou and rest: for there
is yet a day till the completion of the consummation; and thou shalt
rest, and rise in thy lot in the end of the days."[798]
24. _Passages from the Psalms of David which predict the end of
the world and the last judgment._
There are many allusions to the last judgment in the Psalms, but
for the most part only casual and slight. I cannot, however, omit
to mention what is said there in express terms of the end of this
world: "In the beginning hast Thou laid the foundations of the
earth, O Lord; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They
shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old
like a garment; and as a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they
shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not
fail."[799] Why is it that Porphyry, while he lauds the piety of the
Hebrews in worshipping a God great and true, and terrible to the
gods themselves, follows the oracles of these gods in accusing the
Christians of extreme folly because they say that this world shall
perish? For here we find it said in the sacred books of the Hebrews,
to that God whom this great philosopher acknowledges to be terrible
even to the gods themselves, "The heavens are the work of Thy hands:
they shall perish." When the heavens, the higher and more secure
part of the world, perish, shall the world itself be preserved? If
this idea is not relished by Jupiter, whose oracle is quoted by this
philosopher as an unquestionable authority in rebuke of the credulity
of the Christians, why does he not similarly rebuke the wisdom of
the Hebrews as folly, seeing that the prediction is found in their
most holy books? But if this Hebrew wisdom, with which Porphyry is so
captivated that he extols it through the utterances of his own gods,
proclaims that the heavens are to perish, how is he so infatuated
as to detest the faith of the Christians partly, if not chiefly, on
this account, that they believe the world is to perish?--though how
the heavens are to perish if the world does not is not easy to see.
And, indeed, in the sacred writings which are peculiar to ourselves,
and not common to the Hebrews and us,--I mean the evangelic and
apostolic books,--the following expressions are used: "The figure
of this world passeth away;"[800] "The world passeth away;"[801]
"Heaven and earth shall pass away,"[802]--expressions which are, I
fancy, somewhat milder than "They shall _perish_." In the Epistle
of the Apostle Peter, too, where the world which then was is said
to have perished, being overflowed with water, it is sufficiently
obvious what part of the world is signified by the whole, and in
what sense the word _perished_ is to be taken, and what heavens were
kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men.[803] And when he says a little afterwards,
"The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens
shall pass away with a great rush, and the elements shall melt with
burning heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be
burned up;" and then adds, "Seeing, then, that all these things shall
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?"[804]--these
heavens which are to perish may be understood to be the same which
he said were kept in store reserved for fire; and the elements which
are to be burned are those which are full of storm and disturbance
in this lowest part of the world in which he said that these heavens
were kept in store; for the higher heavens in whose firmament
are set the stars are safe, and remain in their integrity. For
even the expression of Scripture, that "the stars shall fall from
heaven,"[805] not to mention that a different interpretation is much
preferable, rather shows that the heavens themselves shall remain,
if the stars are to fall from them. This expression, then, is either
figurative, as is more credible, or this phenomenon will take place
in this lowest heaven, like that mentioned by Virgil,--
"A meteor with a train of light
Athwart the sky gleamed dazzling bright,
Then in Idæan woods was lost."[806]
But the passage I have quoted from the psalm seems to except none
of the heavens from the destiny of destruction; for he says, "The
heavens are the works of Thy hands: they shall perish;" so that,
as none of them are excepted from the category of God's works,
none of them are excepted from destruction. For our opponents
will not condescend to defend the Hebrew piety, which has won the
approbation of their gods, by the words of the Apostle Peter, whom
they vehemently detest; nor will they argue that, as the apostle in
his epistle understands a part when he speaks of the whole world
perishing in the flood, though only the lowest part of it, and the
corresponding heavens were destroyed, so in the psalm the whole is
used for a part, and it is said "They shall perish," though only
the lowest heavens are to perish. But since, as I said, they will
not condescend to reason thus, lest they should seem to approve
of Peter's meaning, or ascribe as much importance to the final
conflagration as we ascribe to the deluge, whereas they contend that
no waters or flames could destroy the whole human race, it only
remains to them to maintain that their gods lauded the wisdom of the
Hebrews because they had not read this psalm.
It is the last judgment of God which is referred to also in the 50th
Psalm in the words, "God shall come manifestly, our God, and shall
not keep silence: fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very
tempestuous round about Him. He shall call the heaven above, and
the earth, to judge His people. Gather His saints together to Him;
they who make a covenant with Him over sacrifices."[807] This we
understand of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from heaven
to judge the quick and the dead. For He shall come manifestly to
judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came hiddenly to
be unjustly judged by the unjust. He, I say, shall come manifestly,
and shall not keep silence, that is, shall make Himself known by
His voice of judgment, who before, when He came hiddenly, was silent
before His judge when He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and,
as a lamb before the shearer, opened not His mouth, as we read that
it was prophesied of Him by Isaiah,[808] and as we see it fulfilled
in the Gospel.[809] As for the _fire_ and _tempest_, we have already
said how these are to be interpreted when we were explaining a
similar passage in Isaiah.[810] As to the expression, "He shall call
the heaven above," as the saints and the righteous are rightly called
_heaven_, no doubt this means what the apostle says, "We shall be
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the
air."[811] For if we take the bare literal sense, how is it possible
to call the heaven above, as if the heaven could be anywhere else
than above? And the following expression, "And the earth to judge
His people," if we supply only the words, "He shall call," that is
to say, "He shall call the earth also," and do not supply "above,"
seems to give us a meaning in accordance with sound doctrine, the
heaven symbolizing those who will judge along with Christ, and the
earth those who shall be judged; and thus the words, "He shall call
the heaven above," would not mean, "He shall catch up into the air,"
but "He shall lift up to seats of judgment." Possibly, too, "He shall
call the heaven," may mean, He shall call the angels in the high
and lofty places, that He may descend with them to do judgment; and
"He shall call the earth also" would then mean, He shall call the
men on the earth to judgment. But if with the words "and the earth"
we understand not only "He shall call," but also "above," so as to
make the full sense be, He shall call the heaven above, and He shall
call the earth above, then I think it is best understood of the men
who shall be caught up to meet Christ in the air, and that they are
called _the heaven_ with reference to their souls, and _the earth_
with reference to their bodies. Then what is "to judge His people,"
but to separate by judgment the good from the bad, as the sheep from
the goats? Then he turns to address the angels: "Gather His saints
together unto Him." For certainly a matter so important must be
accomplished by the ministry of angels. And if we ask who the saints
are who are gathered unto Him by the angels, we are told, "They who
make a covenant with Him over sacrifices." This is the whole life of
the saints, to make a covenant with God over sacrifices. For "over
sacrifices" either refers to works of mercy, which are preferable to
sacrifices in the judgment of God, who says, "I desire mercy more
than sacrifices;"[812] or if "over sacrifices" means in sacrifices,
then these very works of mercy are the sacrifices with which God
is pleased, as I remember to have stated in the tenth book of this
work;[813] and in these works the saints make a covenant with God,
because they do them for the sake of the promises which are contained
in His new testament or covenant. And hence, when His saints have
been gathered to Him and set at His right hand in the last judgment,
Christ shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I
was hungry, and ye gave me to eat,"[814] and so on, mentioning the
good works of the good, and their eternal rewards assigned by the
last sentence of the Judge.
25. _Of Malachi's prophecy, in which he speaks of the last
judgment, and of a cleansing which some are to undergo by
purifying punishments._
The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel, and
is by some (for Jerome[815] tells us that this is the opinion of
the Hebrews) identified with Ezra the priest,[816] others of whose
writings have been received into the canon, predicts the last
judgment, saying, "Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty; and
who shall abide the day of His entrance? ... for I am the Lord your
God, and I change not."[817] From these words it more evidently
appears that some shall in the last judgment suffer some kind of
purgatorial punishments; for what else can be understood by the word,
"Who shall abide the day of His entrance, or who shall be able to
look upon Him? for He enters as a moulder's fire, and as the herb
of fullers: and He shall sit fusing and purifying as if over gold
and silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out
like gold and silver?" Similarly Isaiah says, "The Lord shall wash
the filthiness of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse
away the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the
spirit of burning."[818] Unless perhaps we should say that they are
cleansed from filthiness and in a manner clarified, when the wicked
are separated from them by penal judgment, so that the elimination
and damnation of the one party is the purgation of the others,
because they shall henceforth live free from the contamination of
such men. But when he says, "And he shall purify the sons of Levi,
and pour them out like gold and silver, and they shall offer to the
Lord sacrifices in righteousness; and the sacrifices of Judah and
Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord," he declares that those
who shall be purified shall then please the Lord with sacrifices of
righteousness, and consequently they themselves shall be purified
from their own unrighteousness which made them displeasing to
God. Now they themselves, when they have been purified, shall be
sacrifices of complete and perfect righteousness; for what more
acceptable offering can such persons make to God than themselves? But
this question of purgatorial punishments we must defer to another
time, to give it a more adequate treatment. By the sons of Levi
and Judah and Jerusalem we ought to understand the Church herself,
gathered not from the Hebrews only, but from other nations as well;
nor such a Church as she now is, when "if we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,"[819] but as
she shall then be, purged by the last judgment as a threshing-floor
by a winnowing wind, and those of her members who need it being
cleansed by fire, so that there remains absolutely not one who offers
sacrifice for his sins. For all who make such offerings are assuredly
in their sins, for the remission of which they make offerings, that
having made to God an acceptable offering, they may then be absolved.
26. _Of the sacrifices offered to God by the saints, which are to
be pleasing to Him, as in the primitive days and former years._
And it was with the design of showing that His city shall not then
follow this custom, that God said that the sons of Levi should offer
sacrifices in righteousness,--not therefore in sin, and consequently
not for sin. And hence we see how vainly the Jews promise themselves
a return of the old times of sacrificing according to the law of
the old testament, grounding on the words which follow, "And the
sacrifice of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord, as
in the primitive days, and as in former years." For in the times
of the law they offered sacrifices not in righteousness but in
sins, offering especially and primarily for sins, so much so that
even the priest himself, whom we must suppose to have been their
most righteous man, was accustomed to offer, according to God's
commandments, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the
people. And therefore we must explain how we are to understand the
words, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years;" for
perhaps he alludes to the time in which our first parents were in
paradise. Then, indeed, intact and pure from all stain and blemish
of sin, they offered themselves to God as the purest sacrifices. But
since they were banished thence on account of their transgression,
and human nature was condemned in them, with the exception of the one
Mediator and those who have been baptized, and are as yet infants,
"there is none clean from stain, not even the babe whose life has
been but for a day upon the earth."[820] But if it be replied that
those who offer in faith may be said to offer in righteousness,
because the righteous lives by faith,[821]--he deceives himself,
however, if he says that he has no sin, and therefore he does not say
so, because he lives by faith,--will any man say this time of faith
can be placed on an equal footing with that consummation when they
who offer sacrifices in righteousness shall be purified by the fire
of the last judgment? And consequently, since it must be believed
that after such a cleansing the righteous shall retain no sin,
assuredly that time, so far as regards its freedom from sin, can be
compared to no other period, unless to that during which our first
parents lived in paradise in the most innocent happiness before their
transgression. It is this period, then, which is properly understood
when it is said, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years."
For in Isaiah, too, after the new heavens and the new earth have been
promised, among other elements in the blessedness of the saints which
are there depicted by allegories and figures, from giving an adequate
explanation of which I am prevented by a desire to avoid prolixity,
it is said, "According to the days of the tree of life shall be the
days of my people."[822] And who that has looked at Scripture does
not know where God planted the tree of life, from whose fruit He
excluded our first parents when their own iniquity ejected them from
paradise, and round which a terrible and fiery fence was set?
But if any one contends that those days of the tree of life mentioned
by the prophet Isaiah are the present times of the Church of Christ,
and that Christ Himself is prophetically called the Tree of Life,
because He is Wisdom, and of wisdom Solomon says, "It is a tree of
life to all who embrace it;"[823] and if they maintain that our
first parents did not pass _years_ in paradise, but were driven
from it so soon that none of their children were begotten there,
and that therefore that time cannot be alluded to in words which
run, "as in the primitive days, and as in former years," I forbear
entering on this question, lest by discussing everything I become
prolix, and leave the whole subject in uncertainty. For I see another
meaning, which should keep us from believing that a restoration of
the primitive days and former years of the legal sacrifices could
have been promised to us by the prophet as a great boon. For the
animals selected as victims under the old law were required to be
immaculate, and free from all blemish whatever, and symbolized holy
men free from all sin, the only instance of which character was found
in Christ. As, therefore, after the judgment those who are worthy
of such purification shall be purified even by fire, and shall be
rendered thoroughly sinless, and shall offer themselves to God in
righteousness, and be indeed victims immaculate and free from all
blemish whatever, they shall then certainly be "as in the primitive
days, and as in former years," when the purest victims were offered,
the shadow of this future reality. For there shall then be in the
body and soul of the saints the purity which was symbolized in the
bodies of these victims.
Then, with reference to those who are worthy not of cleansing but of
damnation, He says, "And I will draw near to you to judgment, and I
will be a swift witness against evil-doers and against adulterers;"
and after enumerating other damnable crimes, He adds, "For I am the
Lord your God, and I am not changed." It is as if He said, Though
your fault has changed you for the worse, and my grace has changed
you for the better, I am not changed. And he says that He Himself
will be a witness, because in His judgment He needs no witnesses;
and that He will be "swift," either because He is to come suddenly,
and the judgment which seemed to lag shall be very swift by His
unexpected arrival, or because He will convince the consciences
of men directly and without any prolix harangue. "For," as it is
written, "in the thoughts of the wicked His examination shall be
conducted."[824] And the apostle says, "The thoughts accusing or else
excusing, in the day in which God shall judge the hidden things of
men, according to my gospel in Jesus Christ."[825] Thus, then, shall
the Lord be a swift witness, when He shall suddenly bring back into
the memory that which shall convince and punish the conscience.
27. _Of the separation of the good and the bad, which proclaim the
discriminating influence of the last judgment._
The passage also which I formerly quoted for another purpose from
this prophet refers to the last judgment, in which he says, "They
shall be mine, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day in which I make
up my gains,"[826] etc. When this diversity between the rewards and
punishments which distinguish the righteous from the wicked shall
appear under that Sun of righteousness in the brightness of life
eternal,--a diversity which is not discerned under this sun which
shines on the vanity of this life,--there shall then be such a
judgment as has never before been.
28. _That the law of Moses must be spiritually understood to
preclude the damnable murmurs of a carnal interpretation._
In the succeeding words, "Remember the law of Moses my servant,
which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel,"[827] the prophet
opportunely mentions precepts and statutes, after declaring the
important distinction hereafter to be made between those who observe
and those who despise the law. He intends also that they learn to
interpret the law spiritually, and find Christ in it, by whose
judgment that separation between the good and the bad is to be made.
For it is not without reason that the Lord Himself says to the Jews,
"Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of
me."[828] For by receiving the law carnally, without perceiving that
its earthly promises were figures of things spiritual, they fell into
such murmurings as audaciously to say, "It is vain to serve God; and
what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have
walked suppliantly before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we
call aliens happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up."[829]
It was these words of theirs which in a manner compelled the prophet
to announce the last judgment, in which the wicked shall not even
in appearance be happy, but shall manifestly be most miserable; and
in which the good shall be oppressed with not even a transitory
wretchedness, but shall enjoy unsullied and eternal felicity. For
he had previously cited some similar expressions of those who said,
"Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and
such are pleasing to Him."[830] It was, I say, by understanding the
law of Moses carnally that they had come to murmur thus against God.
And hence, too, the writer of the 73d Psalm says that his feet were
almost gone, his steps had well-nigh slipped, because he was envious
of sinners while he considered their prosperity, so that he said
among other things, How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the
Most High? and again, Have I sanctified my heart in vain, and washed
my hands in innocency?[831] He goes on to say that his efforts to
solve this most difficult problem, which arises when the good seem
to be wretched and the wicked happy, were in vain until he went into
the sanctuary of God, and understood the last things.[832] For in the
last judgment things shall not be so; but in the manifest felicity of
the righteous and manifest misery of the wicked quite another state
of things shall appear.
29. _Of the coming of Elias before the judgment, that the Jews may
be converted to Christ by his preaching and explanation of
Scripture._
After admonishing them to give heed to the law of Moses, as he
foresaw that for a long time to come they would not understand it
spiritually and rightly, he went on to say, "And, behold, I will send
to you Elias the Tishbite before the great and signal day of the Lord
come: and he shall turn the heart of the father to the son, and the
heart of a man to his next of kin, lest I come and utterly smite the
earth."[833] It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart
of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews
shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of
this great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law to
them. For not without reason do we hope that before the coming of
our Judge and Saviour Elias shall come, because we have good reason
to believe that he is now alive; for, as Scripture most distinctly
informs us,[834] he was taken up from this life in a chariot of fire.
When, therefore, he is come, he shall give a spiritual explanation
of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall
thus "turn the heart of the father to the son," that is, the heart
of fathers to their children; for the Septuagint translators have
frequently put the singular for the plural number. And the meaning
is, that the sons, that is, the Jews, shall understand the law as
the fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself,
understood it. For the heart of the fathers shall be turned to their
children when the children understand the law as their fathers did;
and the heart of the children shall be turned to their fathers when
they have the same sentiments as the fathers. The Septuagint used
the expression, "and the heart of a man to his next of kin," because
fathers and children are eminently neighbours to one another. Another
and a preferable sense can be found in the words of the Septuagint
translators, who have translated Scripture with an eye to prophecy,
the sense, viz., that Elias shall turn the heart of God the Father
to the Son, not certainly as if he should bring about this love of
the Father for the Son, but meaning that he should make it known, and
that the Jews also, who had previously hated, should then love the
Son who is our Christ. For so far as regards the Jews, God has His
heart turned away from our Christ, this being their conception about
God and Christ. But in their case the heart of God shall be turned to
the Son when they themselves shall turn in heart, and learn the love
of the Father towards the Son. The words following, "and the heart of
a man to his next of kin,"--that is, Elias shall also turn the heart
of a man to his next of kin,--how can we understand this better than
as the heart of a man to the man Christ? For though in the form of
God He is our God, yet, taking the form of a servant, He condescended
to become also our next of kin. It is this, then, which Elias will
do, "lest," he says, "I come and smite the earth utterly." For they
who mind earthly things are the earth. Such are the carnal Jews until
this day; and hence these murmurs of theirs against God, "The wicked
are pleasing to Him," and "It is a vain thing to serve God."[835]
30. _That in the books of the Old Testament, where it is said
that God shall judge the world, the person of Christ is not
explicitly indicated, but it plainly appears from some passages
in which the Lord God speaks that Christ is meant._
There are many other passages of Scripture bearing on the last
judgment of God,--so many, indeed, that to cite them all would swell
this book to an unpardonable size. Suffice it to have proved that
both Old and New Testament enounce the judgment. But in the Old it
is not so definitely declared as in the New that the judgment shall
be administered by Christ, that is, that Christ shall descend from
heaven as the Judge; for when it is therein stated by the Lord God
or His prophet that the Lord God shall come, we do not necessarily
understand this of Christ. For both the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Ghost are the Lord God. We must not, however, leave this without
proof. And therefore we must first show how Jesus Christ speaks in
the prophetical books under the title of the Lord God, while yet
there can be no doubt that it is Jesus Christ who speaks; so that
in other passages where this is not at once apparent, and where
nevertheless it is said that the Lord God will come to that last
judgment, we may understand that Jesus Christ is meant. There is a
passage in the prophet Isaiah which illustrates what I mean. For God
says by the prophet, "Hear me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I am
the first, and I am for ever: and my hand has founded the earth, and
my right hand has established the heaven. I will call them, and they
shall stand together, and be gathered, and hear. Who has declared
to them these things? In love of thee I have done thy pleasure upon
Babylon, that I might take away the seed of the Chaldeans. I have
spoken, and I have called: I have brought him, and have made his way
prosperous. Come ye near unto me, and hear this. I have not spoken in
secret from the beginning; when they were made, there was I. And now
the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me."[836] It was Himself who
was speaking as the Lord God; and yet we should not have understood
that it was Jesus Christ had He not added, "And now the Lord God
and His Spirit hath sent me." For He said this with reference to
the form of a servant, speaking of a future event as if it were
past, as in the same prophet we read, "He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter,"[837] not "He shall be led;" but the past tense is used to
express the future. And prophecy constantly speaks in this way.
There is also another passage in Zechariah which plainly declares
that the Almighty sent the Almighty; and of what persons can this be
understood but of God the Father and God the Son? For it is written,
"Thus saith the Lord Almighty, After the glory hath He sent me unto
the nations which spoiled you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of His eye. Behold, I will bring mine hand upon them, and they
shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the Lord
Almighty hath sent me."[838] Observe, the Lord Almighty saith that
the Lord Almighty sent Him. Who can presume to understand these words
of any other than Christ, who is speaking to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel? For He says in the Gospel, "I am not sent save to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel,"[839] which He here compared
to the pupil of God's eye, to signify the profoundest love. And
to this class of sheep the apostles themselves belonged. But after
the glory, to wit, of His resurrection,--for before it happened the
evangelist said that "Jesus was not yet glorified,"[840]--He was
sent unto the nations in the persons of His apostles; and thus the
saying of the psalm was fulfilled, "Thou wilt deliver me from the
contradictions of the people; Thou wilt set me as the head of the
nations."[841] So that those who had spoiled the Israelites, and
whom the Israelites had served when they were subdued by them, were
not themselves to be spoiled in the same fashion, but were in their
own persons to become the spoil of the Israelites. For this had been
promised to the apostles when the Lord said, "I will make you fishers
of men."[842] And to one of them He says, "From henceforth thou shalt
catch men."[843] They were then to become a spoil, but in a good
sense, as those who are snatched from that strong one when he is
bound by a stronger.[844]
In like manner the Lord, speaking by the same prophet, says, "And it
shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the
nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house
of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and mercy; and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me,
and they shall mourn for Him as for one very dear, and shall be in
bitterness as for an only-begotten."[845] To whom but to God does it
belong to destroy all the nations that are hostile to the holy city
Jerusalem, which "come against it," that is, are opposed to it, or, as
some translate, "come upon it," as if putting it down under them; or
to pour out upon the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and mercy? This belongs doubtless to God, and it
is to God the prophet ascribes the words; and yet Christ shows that He
is the God who does these so great and divine things, when He goes on
to say, "And they shall look upon me because they have insulted me,
and they shall mourn for Him as if for one very dear (or beloved), and
shall be in bitterness for Him as for an only-begotten." For in that
day the Jews--those of them, at least, who shall receive the spirit of
grace and mercy--when they see Him coming in His majesty, and recognise
that it is He whom they, in the person of their parents, insulted when
He came before in His humiliation, shall repent of insulting Him in
His passion: and their parents themselves, who were the perpetrators
of this huge impiety, shall see Him when they rise; but this will be
only for their punishment, and not for their correction. It is not of
them we are to understand the words, "And I will pour upon the house
of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and mercy, and they shall look upon me because they have insulted me;"
but we are to understand the words of their descendants, who shall at
that time believe through Elias. But as we say to the Jews, You killed
Christ, although it was their parents who did so, so these persons
shall grieve that they in some sort did what their progenitors did.
Although, therefore, those that receive the spirit of mercy and grace,
and believe, shall not be condemned with their impious parents, yet
they shall mourn as if they themselves had done what their parents
did. Their grief shall arise not so much from guilt as from pious
affection. Certainly the words which the Septuagint have translated,
"They shall look upon me because they insulted me," stand in the
Hebrew, "They shall look upon me whom they pierced."[846] And by this
word the crucifixion of Christ is certainly more plainly indicated. But
the Septuagint translators preferred to allude to the insult which was
involved in His whole passion. For in point of fact they insulted Him
both when He was arrested and when He was bound, when He was judged,
when He was mocked by the robe they put on Him and the homage they did
on bended knee, when He was crowned with thorns and struck with a rod
on the head, when He bore His cross, and when at last He hung upon the
tree. And therefore we recognise more fully the Lord's passion when we
do not confine ourselves to one interpretation, but combine both, and
read both "insulted" and "pierced."
When, therefore, we read in the prophetical books that God is to come
to do judgment at the last, from the mere mention of the judgment,
and although there is nothing else to determine the meaning, we
must gather that Christ is meant; for though the Father will judge,
He will judge by the coming of the Son. For He Himself, by His own
manifested presence, "judges no man, but has committed all judgment
to the Son;"[847] for as the Son was judged as a man, He shall also
judge in human form. For it is none but He of whom God speaks by
Isaiah under the name of Jacob and Israel, of whose seed Christ
took a body, as it is written, "Jacob is my servant, I will uphold
Him; Israel is mine elect, my Spirit has assumed Him: I have put my
Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He
shall not cry, nor cease, neither shall His voice be heard without.
A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not
quench: but in truth shall He bring forth judgment. He shall shine
and shall not be broken, until He sets judgment in the earth: and
the nations shall hope in His name."[848] The Hebrew has not "Jacob"
and "Israel;" but the Septuagint translators, wishing to show the
significance of the expression "my servant," and that it refers
to the form of a servant in which the Most High humbled Himself,
inserted the name of that man from whose stock He took the form of a
servant. The Holy Spirit was given to Him, and was manifested, as the
evangelist testifies, in the form of a dove.[849] He brought forth
judgment to the Gentiles, because He predicted what was hidden from
them. In His meekness He did not cry, nor did He cease to proclaim
the truth. But His voice was not heard, nor is it heard, without,
because He is not obeyed by those who are outside of His body. And
the Jews themselves, who persecuted Him, He did not break, though
as a bruised reed they had lost their integrity, and as smoking
flax their light was quenched; for He spared them, having come to
be judged and not yet to judge. He brought forth judgment in truth,
declaring that they should be punished did they persist in their
wickedness. His face shone on the Mount,[850] His fame in the world.
He is not broken nor overcome, because neither in Himself nor in His
Church has persecution prevailed to annihilate Him. And therefore
that has not, and shall not, be brought about which His enemies said
or say, "When shall He die, and His name perish?"[851] "until He
set judgment in the earth." Behold, the hidden thing which we were
seeking is discovered. For this is the last judgment, which He will
set in the earth when He comes from heaven. And it is in Him, too,
we already see the concluding expression of the prophecy fulfilled:
"In His name shall the nations hope." And by this fulfilment, which
no one can deny, men are encouraged to believe in that which is most
impudently denied. For who could have hoped for that which even those
who do not yet believe in Christ now see fulfilled among us, and
which is so undeniable that they can but gnash their teeth and pine
away? Who, I say, could have hoped that the nations would hope in
the name of Christ, when He was arrested, bound, scourged, mocked,
crucified, when even the disciples themselves had lost the hope which
they had begun to have in Him? The hope which was then entertained
scarcely by the one thief on the cross, is now cherished by nations
everywhere on the earth, who are marked with the sign of the cross on
which He died that they may not die eternally.
That the last judgment, then, shall be administered by Jesus Christ
in the manner predicted in the sacred writings is denied or doubted
by no one, unless by those who, through some incredible animosity or
blindness, decline to believe these writings, though already their
truth is demonstrated to all the world. And at or in connection with
that judgment the following events shall come to pass, as we have
learned: Elias the Tishbite shall come; the Jews shall believe;
Antichrist shall persecute; Christ shall judge; the dead shall rise;
the good and the wicked shall be separated; the world shall be burned
and renewed. All these things, we believe, shall come to pass; but how,
or in what order, human understanding cannot perfectly teach us, but
only the experience of the events themselves. My opinion, however, is,
that they will happen in the order in which I have related them.
Two books yet remain to be written by me, in order to complete, by
God's help, what I promised. One of these will explain the punishment
of the wicked, the other the happiness of the righteous; and in them
I shall be at special pains to refute, by God's grace, the arguments
by which some unhappy creatures seem to themselves to undermine the
divine promises and threatenings, and to ridicule as empty words
statements which are the most salutary nutriment of faith. But they
who are instructed in divine things hold the truth and omnipotence
of God to be the strongest arguments in favour of those things
which, however incredible they seem to men, are yet contained in the
Scriptures, whose truth has already in many ways been proved; for
they are sure that God can in no wise lie, and that He can do what is
impossible to the unbelieving.
FOOTNOTES:
[673] Matt. viii. 29.
[674] Rom. ix. 14.
[675] Rom. xi. 33.
[676] Ps. cxliv. 4.
[677] Eccles. i. 2, 3.
[678] Eccles. ii. 13, 14.
[679] Eccles. viii. 14.
[680] Eccles. xii. 13, 14.
[681] Rom. iii. 20-22.
[682] Matt. xiii. 52.
[683] Matt. xi. 22.
[684] Matt. xi. 24.
[685] Matt. xii. 41, 42.
[686] Augustine quotes the whole passage, Matt. xiii. 37-43.
[687] Matt. xix. 28.
[688] Matt. xii. 27.
[689] 1 Cor. xv. 10.
[690] 1 Cor. vi. 3.
[691] _Ep._ 199.
[692] Matt. xxv. 34-41, given in full.
[693] John v. 22-24.
[694] John v. 25, 26.
[695] Matt. viii. 22.
[696] Cor. v. 14, 15.
[697] Ps. ci. 1.
[698] John v. 28, 29.
[699] Rev. xx. 1-6. The whole passage is quoted.
[700] Pet. iii. 8.
[701] _Serm._ 259.
[702] Milliarii.
[703] Mark iii. 27; "Vasa" for "goods."
[704] Matt. xix. 29.
[705] 2 Cor. vi. 10.
[706] Ps. cv. 8.
[707] Col. i. 13.
[708] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[709] Ps. cxxiii. 2.
[710] Rev. xx. 9, 10.
[711] 1 John ii. 19.
[712] Matt. xxiv. 12.
[713] Between His first and second coming.
[714] Matt. xxv. 34.
[715] Matt. xxviii. 20.
[716] Matt. xiii. 39-41.
[717] Matt. v. 19.
[718] Matt. xxiii. 3.
[719] Matt. v. 20.
[720] Col. iii. 1, 2.
[721] Phil. iii. 20.
[722] Phil. ii. 21.
[723] Matt. xviii. 18.
[724] 1 Cor. v. 12.
[725] Rev. xx. 4.
[726] Rev. xiv. 13.
[727] Rom. xiv. 9.
[728] 2 Cor. vi. 14.
[729] And, as Augustine remarks, are therefore called _cadavera_,
from _cadere_, "to fall."
[730] Col. iii. 1.
[731] Rom. vi. 4.
[732] Eph. v. 14.
[733] Ecclus. ii. 7.
[734] Rom. xiv. 4.
[735] 1 Cor. x. 12.
[736] 1 Peter ii. 9.
[737] Matt. xxv. 41.
[738] Ps. lxix. 9.
[739] Isa. xxvi. 11.
[740] 2 Thess. ii. 8.
[741] Ch. 24.
[742] 1 Cor. vii. 31, 32.
[743] Col. iii. 3.
[744] Matt. viii. 22.
[745] Rom. viii. 10.
[746] "Apud inferos," _i.e._ in hell, in the sense in which the word
is used in the Psalms and in the Creed.
[747] Matt. xxv. 46.
[748] Rev. xxi. 1.
[749] Rev. xv. 2.
[750] Rev. xxi. 2-5.
[751] Isa. xlv. 8.
[752] Ps. xlii. 3.
[753] Ps. vi. 6.
[754] Ps. xxxviii. 9.
[755] Ps. xxxix. 2.
[756] 2 Cor. v. 4.
[757] Rom. viii. 23.
[758] Rom. ix. 2.
[759] Augustine therefore read νεικος, and not with the Vulgate, νίκη.
[760] 1 Cor. xv. 55.
[761] 1 John i. 8.
[762] 2 Pet. iii. 3-13. The whole passage is quoted by Augustine.
[763] 2 Thess. ii. 1-11. Whole passage given in the Latin. In ver. 3
_refuga_ is used instead of the Vulgate's _discessio_.
[764] Augustine adds the words, "Sicut dicimus, Sedet in amicum, id
est, velut amicus; vel si quid aliud isto locutionis genere dici
solet."
[765] Suetonius' _Nero_, c. 57.
[766] 1 John ii. 18, 19.
[767] 1 Thess. iv. 13-16.
[768] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[769] 1 Cor. xv. 36.
[770] Gen. iii. 19.
[771] 1 Cor. xv. 51.
[772] Isa. xxvi. 19.
[773] Isa. lxvi. 12-16.
[774] Gal. iv. 26.
[775] Matt. v. 8.
[776] Isa. lxv. 17-19.
[777] Phil. iii. 19.
[778] Rom. viii. 6.
[779] Gen. vi. 3.
[780] Luke xii. 49.
[781] Acts ii. 3.
[782] Matt. x. 34.
[783] Heb. iv. 12.
[784] Song of Sol. ii. 5.
[785] Isa. lxvi. 18.
[786] Rom. iii. 23.
[787] Isa. lxvi. 22-24.
[788] As the Vulgate: _cadavera virorum_.
[789] Here Augustine inserts the remark, "Who does not see that
_cadavera_ (carcases) are so called from _cadendo_ (falling)?"
[790] Matt. xxv. 30.
[791] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[792] 1 John iii. 9.
[793] Isa. lvi. 5.
[794] Dan. vii. 15-28. Passage cited at length.
[795] Dan. xii. 1-3.
[796] John v. 28.
[797] Gen. xvii. 5, and xxii. 18.
[798] Dan. xii. 13.
[799] Ps. cii. 25-27.
[800] 1 Cor. vii. 31.
[801] 1 John ii. 17.
[802] Matt. xxiv. 35.
[803] 2 Pet. iii. 6.
[804] 2 Pet. iii. 10, 11.
[805] Matt. xxiv. 29.
[806] _Æneid_, ii. 694.
[807] Ps. l. 3-5.
[808] Isa. liii. 7.
[809] Matt. xxvi. 63.
[810] Ch. 21.
[811] 1 Thess. iv. 17.
[812] Hos. vi. 6.
[813] Ch. 6.
[814] Matt. xxv. 34.
[815] In his _Proem. ad Mal._
[816] See Smith's _Bible Dict._
[817] Mal. iii. 1-6. Whole passage quoted.
[818] Isa. iv. 4.
[819] 1 John i. 8.
[820] Job xiv. 4.
[821] Rom. i. 17.
[822] Isa. lxv. 22.
[823] Prov. iii. 18.
[824] Wisd. i. 9.
[825] Rom. ii. 15, 16.
[826] Mal. iii. 17-iv. 3.
[827] Mal. iv. 4.
[828] John v. 46.
[829] Mal. iii. 14, 15.
[830] Mal. ii. 17.
[831] In innocentibus.
[832] Ps. lxxiii.
[833] Mal. iv. 5, 6.
[834] 2 Kings ii. 11.
[835] Mal. ii. 17, iii. 14.
[836] Isa. xlviii. 12-16.
[837] Isa. liii. 7.
[838] Zech. ii. 8, 9.
[839] Matt. xv. 24.
[840] John vii. 39.
[841] Ps. xviii. 43.
[842] Matt. iv. 19.
[843] Luke v. 10.
[844] Matt. xii. 29.
[845] Zech. xii. 9, 10.
[846] So the Vulgate.
[847] John v. 22.
[848] Isa. xlii. 1-4.
[849] John i. 32.
[850] Matt. xvii. 1, 2.
[851] Ps. xli. 5.
BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.
ARGUMENT.
OF THE END RESERVED FOR THE CITY OF THE DEVIL, NAMELY, THE ETERNAL
PUNISHMENT OF THE DAMNED; AND OF THE ARGUMENTS WHICH UNBELIEF
BRINGS AGAINST IT.
1. _Of the order of the discussion, which requires that we first
speak of the eternal punishment of the lost in company with the
devil, and then of the eternal happiness of the saints._
I propose, with such ability as God may grant me, to discuss in this
book more thoroughly the nature of the punishment which shall be
assigned to the devil and all his retainers, when the two cities, the
one of God, the other of the devil, shall have reached their proper
ends through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Judge of quick and dead.
And I have adopted this order, and preferred to speak, first of the
punishment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the
saints, because the _body_ partakes of either destiny; and it seems
to be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting torments than
that they continue to exist without any pain in everlasting felicity.
Consequently, when I shall have demonstrated that that punishment
ought not to be incredible, this will materially aid me in proving
that which is much more credible, viz. the immortality of the bodies
of the saints which are delivered from all pain. Neither is this
order out of harmony with the divine writings, in which sometimes,
indeed, the blessedness of the good is placed first, as in the words,
"They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they
that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation;"[852] but
sometimes also last, as, "The Son of man shall send forth His angels,
and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things which offend,
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as
the sun in the kingdom of His Father;"[853] and that, "These shall
go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal."[854] And though we have not room to cite instances, any
one who examines the prophets will find that they adopt now the one
arrangement and now the other. My own reason for following the latter
order I have given.
2. _Whether it is possible for bodies to last for ever in
burning fire._
What, then, can I adduce to convince those who refuse to believe that
human bodies, animated and living, can not only survive death, but
also last in the torments of everlasting fires? They will not allow
us to refer this simply to the power of the Almighty, but demand
that we persuade them by some example. If, then, we reply to them,
that there are animals which certainly are corruptible, because they
are mortal, and which yet live in the midst of flames; and likewise,
that in springs of water so hot that no one can put his hand in it
with impunity a species of worm is found, which not only lives there,
but cannot live elsewhere; they either refuse to believe these facts
unless we can show them, or, if we are in circumstances to prove them
by ocular demonstration or by adequate testimony, they contend, with
the same scepticism, that these facts are not examples of what we
seek to prove, inasmuch as these animals do not live for ever, and
besides, they live in that blaze of heat without pain, the element
of fire being congenial to their nature, and causing it to thrive
and not to suffer,--just as if it were not more incredible that it
should thrive than that it should suffer in such circumstances. It
is strange that anything should suffer in fire and yet live, but
stranger that it should live in fire and not suffer. If, then, the
latter be believed, why not also the former?
3. _Whether bodily suffering necessarily terminates in the
destruction of the flesh._
But, say they, there is no body which can suffer and cannot also
die. How do we know this? For who can say with certainty that the
devils do not suffer in their bodies, when they own that they are
grievously tormented? And if it is replied that there is no earthly
body--that is to say, no solid and perceptible body, or, in one word,
no flesh--which can suffer and cannot die, is not this to tell us
only what men have gathered from experience and their bodily senses?
For they indeed have no acquaintance with any flesh but that which
is mortal; and this is their whole argument, that what they have had
no experience of they judge quite impossible. For we cannot call it
reasoning to make pain a presumption of death, while, in fact, it
is rather a sign of life. For though it be a question whether that
which suffers can continue to live for ever, yet it is certain that
everything which suffers pain does live, and that pain can exist
only in a living subject. It is necessary, therefore, that he who is
pained be living, not necessary that pain kill him; for every pain
does not kill even those mortal bodies of ours which are destined to
die. And that any pain kills them is caused by the circumstance that
the soul is so connected with the body that it succumbs to great pain
and withdraws; for the structure of our members and vital parts is
so infirm that it cannot bear up against that violence which causes
great or extreme agony. But in the life to come this connection of
soul and body is of such a kind, that as it is dissolved by no lapse
of time, so neither is it burst asunder by any pain. And so, although
it be true that in this world there is no flesh which can suffer pain
and yet cannot die, yet in the world to come there shall be flesh
such as now there is not, as there will also be death such as now
there is not. For death will not be abolished, but will be eternal,
since the soul will neither be able to enjoy God and live, nor to die
and escape the pains of the body. The first death drives the soul
from the body against her will: the second death holds the soul in
the body against her will. The two have this in common, that the soul
suffers against her will what her own body inflicts.
Our opponents, too, make much of this, that in this world there is no
flesh which can suffer pain and cannot die; while they make nothing
of the fact that there is something which is greater than the body.
For the spirit, whose presence animates and rules the body, can both
suffer pain and cannot die. Here then is something which, though it
can feel pain, is immortal. And this capacity, which we now see in
the spirit of all, shall be hereafter in the bodies of the damned.
Moreover, if we attend to the matter a little more closely, we see
that what is called bodily pain is rather to be referred to the soul.
For it is the soul, not the body, which is pained, even when the pain
originates with the body,--the soul feeling pain at the point where
the body is hurt. As then we speak of bodies feeling and living,
though the feeling and life of the body are from the soul, so also we
speak of bodies being pained, though no pain can be suffered by the
body apart from the soul. The soul, then, is pained with the body in
that part where something occurs to hurt it; and it is pained alone,
though it be in the body, when some invisible cause distresses it,
while the body is safe and sound. Even when not associated with the
body it is pained; for certainly that rich man was suffering in hell
when he cried, "I am tormented in this flame."[855] But as for the
body, it suffers no pain when it is soulless; and even when animate
it can suffer only by the soul's suffering. If, therefore, we might
draw a just presumption from the existence of pain to that of death,
and conclude that where pain can be felt death can occur, death would
rather be the property of the soul, for to it pain more peculiarly
belongs. But, seeing that that which suffers most cannot die, what
ground is there for supposing that those bodies, because destined
to suffer, are therefore destined to die? The Platonists indeed
maintained that these earthly bodies and dying members gave rise
to the fears, desires, griefs, and joys of the soul. "Hence," says
Virgil (_i.e._ from these earthly bodies and dying members),
"Hence wild desires and grovelling fears,
And human laughter, human tears."[856]
But in the fourteenth book of this work[857] we have proved that,
according to the Platonists' own theory, souls, even when purged
from all pollution of the body, are yet possessed by a monstrous
desire to return again into their bodies. But where desire can exist,
certainly pain also can exist; for desire frustrated, either by
missing what it aims at or losing what it had attained, is turned
into pain. And therefore, if the soul, which is either the only or
the chief sufferer, has yet a kind of immortality of its own, it
is inconsequent to say that because the bodies of the damned shall
suffer pain, therefore they shall die. In fine, if the body causes
the soul to suffer, why can the body not cause death as well as
suffering, unless because it does not follow that what causes pain
causes death as well? And why then is it incredible that these fires
can cause pain but not death to those bodies we speak of, just as the
bodies themselves cause pain, but not therefore death, to the souls?
Pain is therefore no necessary presumption of death.
4. _Examples from nature proving that bodies may remain
unconsumed and alive in fire._
If, therefore, the salamander lives in fire, as naturalists[858]
have recorded, and if certain famous mountains of Sicily have been
continually on fire from the remotest antiquity until now, and yet
remain entire, these are sufficiently convincing examples that
everything which burns is not consumed. As the soul, too, is a proof
that not everything which can suffer pain can also die, why then do
they yet demand that we produce real examples to prove that it is not
incredible that the bodies of men condemned to everlasting punishment
may retain their soul in the fire, may burn without being consumed,
and may suffer without perishing? For suitable properties will be
communicated to the substance of the flesh by Him who has endowed the
things we see with so marvellous and diverse properties, that their
very multitude prevents our wonder. For who but God the Creator of all
things has given to the flesh of the peacock its antiseptic property?
This property, when I first heard of it, seemed to me incredible;
but it happened at Carthage that a bird of this kind was cooked and
served up to me, and, taking a suitable slice of flesh from its breast,
I ordered it to be kept, and when it had been kept as many days as
make any other flesh stinking, it was produced and set before me, and
emitted no offensive smell. And after it had been laid by for thirty
days and more, it was still in the same state; and a year after, the
same still, except that it was a little more shrivelled, and drier. Who
gave to chaff such power to freeze that it preserves snow buried under
it, and such power to warm that it ripens green fruit?
But who can explain the strange properties of fire itself, which
blackens everything it burns, though itself bright; and which, though
of the most beautiful colours, discolours almost all it touches and
feeds upon, and turns blazing fuel into grimy cinders? Still this is
not laid down as an absolutely uniform law; for, on the contrary,
stones baked in glowing fire themselves also glow, and though the
fire be rather of a red hue, and they white, yet white is congruous
with light, and black with darkness. Thus, though the fire burns
the wood in calcining the stones, these contrary effects do not
result from the contrariety of the materials. For though wood and
stone differ, they are not contraries, like black and white, the
one of which colours is produced in the stones, while the other is
produced in the wood by the same action of fire, which imparts its
own brightness to the former, while it begrimes the latter, and which
could have no effect on the one were it not fed by the other. Then
what wonderful properties do we find in charcoal, which is so brittle
that a light tap breaks it and a slight pressure pulverizes it, and
yet is so strong that no moisture rots it, nor any time causes it
to decay. So enduring is it, that it is customary in laying down
landmarks to put charcoal underneath them, so that if, after the
longest interval, any one raises an action, and pleads that there is
no boundary stone, he may be convicted by the charcoal below. What
then has enabled it to last so long without rotting, though buried in
the damp earth in which [its original] wood rots, except this same
fire which consumes all things?
Again, let us consider the wonders of lime; for besides growing
white in fire, which makes other things black, and of which I have
already said enough, it has also a mysterious property of conceiving
fire within it. Itself cold to the touch, it yet has a hidden store
of fire, which is not at once apparent to our senses, but which
experience teaches us, lies as it were slumbering within it even
while unseen. And it is for this reason called "quick lime," as if
the fire were the invisible soul quickening the visible substance or
body. But the marvellous thing is, that this fire is kindled when
it is extinguished. For to disengage the hidden fire the lime is
moistened or drenched with water, and then, though it be cold before,
it becomes hot by that very application which cools what is hot. As
if the fire were departing from the lime and breathing its last,
it no longer lies hid, but appears; and then the lime lying in the
coldness of death cannot be requickened, and what we before called
"quick," we now call "slaked." What can be stranger than this? Yet
there is a greater marvel still. For if you treat the lime, not with
water, but with oil, which is as fuel to fire, no amount of oil will
heat it. Now if this marvel had been told us of some Indian mineral
which we had no opportunity of experimenting upon, we should either
have forthwith pronounced it a falsehood, or certainly should have
been greatly astonished. But things that daily present themselves
to our own observation we despise, not because they are really less
marvellous, but because they are common; so that even some products
of India itself, remote as it is from ourselves, cease to excite our
admiration as soon as we can admire them at our leisure.[859]
The diamond is a stone possessed by many among ourselves, especially
by jewellers and lapidaries, and the stone is so hard that it can
be wrought neither by iron nor fire, nor, they say, by anything at
all except goat's blood. But do you suppose it is as much admired by
those who own it and are familiar with its properties as by those to
whom it is shown for the first time? Persons who have not seen it
perhaps do not believe what is said of it, or if they do, they wonder
as at a thing beyond their experience; and if they happen to see
it, still they marvel because they are unused to it, but gradually
familiar experience [of it] dulls their admiration. We know that
the loadstone has a wonderful power of attracting iron. When I first
saw it I was thunderstruck, for I saw an iron ring attracted and
suspended by the stone; and then, as if it had communicated its own
property to the iron it attracted, and had made it a substance like
itself, this ring was put near another, and lifted it up; and as the
first ring clung to the magnet, so did the second ring to the first.
A third and a fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from
the stone a kind of chain of rings, with their hoops connected, not
interlinking, but attached together by their outer surface. Who would
not be amazed at this virtue of the stone, subsisting as it does not
only in itself, but transmitted through so many suspended rings, and
binding them together by invisible links? Yet far more astonishing
is what I heard about this stone from my brother in the episcopate,
Severus bishop of Milevis. He told me that Bathanarius, once count of
Africa, when the bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet, and
held it under a silver plate on which he placed a bit of iron; then
as he moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the iron
upon the plate moved about accordingly. The intervening silver was
not affected at all, but precisely as the magnet was moved backwards
and forwards below it, no matter how quickly, so was the iron
attracted above. I have related what I myself have witnessed; I have
related what I was told by one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes.
Let me further say what I have read about this magnet. When a diamond
is laid near it, it does not lift iron; or if it has already lifted
it, as soon as the diamond approaches, it drops it. These stones
come from India. But if we cease to admire them because they are now
familiar, how much less must they admire them who procure them very
easily and send them to us? Perhaps they are held as cheap as we hold
lime, which, because it is common, we think nothing of, though it has
the strange property of burning when water, which is wont to quench
fire, is poured on it, and of remaining cool when mixed with oil,
which ordinarily feeds fire.
5. _That there are many things which reason cannot account for,
and which are nevertheless true._
Nevertheless, when we declare the miracles which God has wrought,
or will yet work, and which we cannot bring under the very eyes of
men, sceptics keep demanding that we shall explain these marvels
to reason. And because we cannot do so, inasmuch as they are above
human comprehension, they suppose we are speaking falsely. These
persons themselves, therefore, ought to account for all these marvels
which we either can or do see. And if they perceive that this is
impossible for man to do, they should acknowledge that it cannot be
concluded that a thing has not been or shall not be because it cannot
be reconciled to reason, since there are things now in existence of
which the same is true. I will not, then, detail the multitude of
marvels which are related in books, and which refer not to things
that happened once and passed away, but that are permanent in certain
places, where, if any one has the desire and opportunity, he may
ascertain their truth; but a few only I recount. The following are
some of the marvels men tell us:--The salt of Agrigentum in Sicily,
when thrown into the fire, becomes fluid as if it were in water, but
in the water it crackles as if it were in the fire. The Garamantæ
have a fountain so cold by day that no one can drink it, so hot by
night no one can touch it.[860] In Epirus, too, there is a fountain
which, like all others, quenches lighted torches, but, unlike all
others, lights quenched torches. There is a stone found in Arcadia,
and called asbestos, because once lit it cannot be put out. The wood
of a certain kind of Egyptian fig-tree sinks in water, and does not
float like other wood; and, stranger still, when it has been sunk
to the bottom for some time, it rises again to the surface, though
nature requires that when soaked in water it should be heavier than
ever. Then there are the apples of Sodom, which grow indeed to an
appearance of ripeness, but, when you touch them with hand or tooth,
the peel cracks, and they crumble into dust and ashes. The Persian
stone pyrites burns the hand when it is tightly held in it, and so
gets its name from fire. In Persia, too, there is found another
stone called selenite, because its interior brilliancy waxes and
wanes with the moon. Then in Cappadocia the mares are impregnated by
the wind, and their foals live only three years. Tilon, an Indian
island, has this advantage over all other lands, that no tree which
grows in it ever loses its foliage.
These and numberless other marvels recorded in the history, not of
past events, but of permanent localities, I have no time to enlarge
upon and diverge from my main object; but let those sceptics who
refuse to credit the divine writings give me, if they can, a rational
account of them. For their only ground of unbelief in the Scriptures
is, that they contain incredible things, just such as I have been
recounting. For, say they, reason cannot admit that flesh burn and
remain unconsumed, suffer without dying. Mighty reasoners, indeed,
who are competent to give the reason of all the marvels that exist!
Let them then give us the reason of the few things we have cited,
and which, if they did not know they existed, and were only assured
by us they would at some future time occur, they would believe still
less than that which they now refuse to credit on our word. For
which of them would believe us if, instead of saying that the living
bodies of men hereafter will be such as to endure everlasting pain
and fire without ever dying, we were to say that in the world to
come there will be salt which becomes liquid in fire as if it were
in water, and crackles in water as if it were in fire; or that there
will be a fountain whose water in the chill air of night is so hot
that it cannot be touched, while in the heat of day it is so cold
that it cannot be drunk; or that there will be a stone which by its
own heat burns the hand when tightly held, or a stone which cannot
be extinguished if it has been lit in any part; or any of those
wonders I have cited, while omitting numberless others? If we were
to say that these things would be found in the world to come, and
our sceptics were to reply, "If you wish us to believe these things,
satisfy our reason about each of them," we should confess that we
could not, because the frail comprehension of man cannot master these
and such-like wonders of God's working; and that yet our reason was
thoroughly convinced that the Almighty does nothing without reason,
though the frail mind of man cannot explain the reason; and that
while we are in many instances uncertain what He intends, yet that it
is always most certain that nothing which He intends is impossible
to Him; and that when He declares His mind, we believe Him whom we
cannot believe to be either powerless or false. Nevertheless these
cavillers at faith and exactors of reason, how do they dispose of
those things of which a reason cannot be given, and which yet exist,
though in apparent contrariety to the nature of things? If we had
announced that these things were to be, these sceptics would have
demanded from us the reason of them, as they do in the case of those
things which we are announcing as destined to be. And consequently,
as these present marvels are not non-existent, though human reason
and discourse are lost in such works of God, so those things we speak
of are not impossible because inexplicable; for in this particular
they are in the same predicament as the marvels of earth.
6. _That all marvels are not of nature's production, but that some
are due to human ingenuity and others to diabolic contrivance._
At this point they will perhaps reply, "These things have no
existence; we don't believe one of them; they are travellers' tales
and fictitious romances;" and they may add what has the appearance
of argument, and say, "If you believe such things as these, believe
what is recorded in the same books, that there was or is a temple of
Venus in which a candelabrum set in the open air holds a lamp, which
burns so strongly that no storm or rain extinguishes it, and which
is therefore called, like the stone mentioned above, the asbestos
or inextinguishable lamp." They may say this with the intention of
putting us into a dilemma: for if we say this is incredible, then
we shall impugn the truth of the other recorded marvels; if, on the
other hand, we admit that this is credible, we shall avouch the pagan
deities. But, as I have already said in the eighteenth book of this
work, we do not hold it necessary to believe all that profane history
contains, since, as Varro says, even historians themselves disagree
on so many points, that one would think they intended and were at
pains to do so; but we believe, if we are disposed, those things
which are not contradicted by these books, which we do not hesitate
to say we _are_ bound to believe. But as to those permanent miracles
of nature, whereby we wish to persuade the sceptical of the miracles
of the world to come, those are quite sufficient for our purpose
which we ourselves can observe, or of which it is not difficult to
find trustworthy witnesses. Moreover, that temple of Venus, with its
inextinguishable lamp, so far from hemming us into a corner, opens
an advantageous field to our argument. For to this inextinguishable
lamp we add a host of marvels wrought by men, or by magic,--that is,
by men under the influence of devils, or by the devils directly,--for
such marvels we cannot deny without impugning the truth of the sacred
Scriptures we believe. That lamp, therefore, was either by some
mechanical and human device fitted with asbestos, or it was arranged
by magical art in order that the worshippers might be astonished, or
some devil under the name of Venus so signally manifested himself
that this prodigy both began and became permanent. Now devils are
attracted to dwell in certain temples by means of the creatures
(God's creatures, not theirs), who present to them what suits their
various tastes. They are attracted not by food like animals, but,
like spirits, by such symbols as suit their taste, various kinds
of stones, woods, plants, animals, songs, rites. And that men may
provide these attractions, the devils first of all cunningly seduce
them, either by imbuing their hearts with a secret poison, or by
revealing themselves under a friendly guise, and thus make a few of
them their disciples, who become the instructors of the multitude.
For unless they first instructed men, it were impossible to know what
each of them desires, what they shrink from, by what name they should
be invoked or constrained to be present. Hence the origin of magic
and magicians. But, above all, they possess the hearts of men, and
are chiefly proud of this possession when they transform themselves
into angels of light. Very many things that occur, therefore,
are their doing; and these deeds of theirs we ought all the more
carefully to shun as we acknowledge them to be very surprising.
And yet these very deeds forward my present arguments. For if such
marvels are wrought by unclean devils, how much mightier are the holy
angels! and what cannot that God do who made the angels themselves
capable of working miracles!
If, then, very many effects can be contrived by human art, of so
surprising a kind that the uninitiated think them divine, as when,
_e.g._, in a certain temple two magnets have been adjusted, one in
the roof, another in the floor, so that an iron image is suspended in
mid-air between them, one would suppose by the power of the divinity,
were he ignorant of the magnets above and beneath; or, as in the case
of that lamp of Venus which we already mentioned as being a skilful
adaptation of asbestos; if, again, by the help of magicians, whom
Scripture calls sorcerers and enchanters, the devils could gain such
power that the noble poet Virgil should consider himself justified in
describing a very powerful magician in these lines:
"Her charms can cure what souls she please,
Rob other hearts of healthful ease,
Turn rivers backward to their source,
And make the stars forget their course,
And call up ghosts from night:
The ground shall bellow 'neath your feet:
The mountain-ash shall quit its seat,
And travel down the height;"[861]--
if this be so, how much more able is God to do those things which to
sceptics are incredible, but to His power easy, since it is He who
has given to stones and all other things their virtue, and to men
their skill to use them in wonderful ways; He who has given to the
angels a nature more mighty than that of all that lives on earth;
He whose power surpasses all marvels, and whose wisdom in working,
ordaining, and permitting is no less marvellous in its governance of
all things than in its creation of all!
7. _That the ultimate reason for believing miracles is the
omnipotence of the Creator._