--- title: "City of God · De civitate Dei" author: "Augustine" translator: "Marcus Dods" languages: [la, en] shelf: "Church Fathers" section: 100 of 116 url: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-city-of-god/100/ cite: "Augustine, tr. Marcus Dods, City of God · De civitate Dei, section 100. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-city-of-god/100/" --- # City of God · De civitate Dei *Augustine, tr. Marcus Dods* “Two loves have made two cities.” Augustine’s Latin, in Hoffmann’s critical text, beside Dods’s English, chapter by chapter. > Latin: Augustine, De civitate Dei, ed. Emanuel Hoffmann, CSEL 40 (Vienna: Tempsky, 1899–1900), as encoded by the Open Greek and Latin project, University of Leipzig (stoa0040.stoa003.opp-lat3, CC BY-SA 4.0); apparatus omitted. > English: Marcus Dods, The City of God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 2, 1887). > Chapters are matched one to one except where the two editions divide them differently; within a chapter the Latin sentences are shared out over the English paragraphs by position. ## 100. What the Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thousand Years Is, and How It Differs from the Eternal Kingdom. Source: https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-city-of-god/100/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/augustine-city-of-god/100/#p-N [¶0] Chapter 9.—What the Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thousand Years Is, and How It Differs from the Eternal Kingdom. > Latin: Caput IX. Quod sit regnum sanctorum cum Christo per mille annos, et in quo discernatur a regno aeterno. [¶1] But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming. For, leaving out of account that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the end, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you,” the Church could not now be called His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven unless His saints were even now reigning with Him, though in another and far different way; for to His saints He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Certainly it is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure things new and old. And from the Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains in the words “The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offenses.” Can He mean out of that kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered. So He says, “He that breaketh one of the least of these commandments, and teacheth men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth and teacheth thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does not perform the commandments which He teaches,—for “to break” means not to keep, not to perform,—and the man who does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least, the other great. And He immediately adds, “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,”—that is, the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, “For they say and do not;”—unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is, so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, “ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, “If ye be risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth.” Of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven. In fine, they reign with Him who are so in His kingdom that they themselves are His kingdom. But in what sense are those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more, though they are in it until all offenses are gathered out of it at the end of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the things that are Christ’s? > Latin: Interea dum mille annis ligatus est diabolus, sancti regnant cum Christo etiam ipsis mille annis, eisdem sine dubio et eodem modo intellegendis, id est isto iam tempore prioris eius aduentus. Excepto quippe illo regno, de quo in fine dicturus est: Venite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum, nisi alio aliquo modo, longe quidem inpari, iam nunc regnarent cum illo sancti eius. quibus ait: Ecce ego uobiscum sum usque in consummationem saeculi: profecto non etiam nunc diceretur ecclesia regnum eius regnumue caelorum. Nam utique isto tempore in regno Dei eruditur scriba ille, qui profert de thensauro suo noua et uetera, de quo supra locuti sumus; et de ecclesia collecturi sunt zizania messores illi, quae permisit cum tritico simul crescere usque ad messem; quod exponens ait: Messis est finis saeculi, messores autem angeli sunt. Sicut ergo colliguntur zizania et igni comburuntur, sic erit in consummatione’ saeculi; mittet filius hominis angelos suos, et colligent de regno eius omnia scandala. Numquid de regno illo, ubi nulla sunt scandala? De isto ergo regno eius, quod est hic ecclesia, colligentur. Item dicit: Qui soluerit unum de mandatis istis minimis et docuerit sic homines, minimus uocabitur in regno caelorum; qui autem fecerit et sic docuerit, magnus uocabitur in regno caelorum. Utrumque dicit in regno caelorum, et qui non facit mandata quae docet (hoc est enim soluere: non seruare, non facere), et illum qui facit et sic docet; sed istum minimum, illum magnum. Et continuo secutus adiungit: Dico enim uobis quia, nisi abundauerit iustitia uestra super scribarum et Pharisaeorum, id est super eos, qui soluunt quod docent (de scribis enim et Pharisaeis dicit alio loco: Quoniam dicunt, et non faciunt), — nisi ergo super hos abundauerit iustitia uestra, id est, ut uos non soluatis, sed faciatis potius quod docetis, non intrabitis, inquit, in regnum caelorum. Alio modo igitur intellegendum est regnum caelorum, ubi ambo sunt, et ille scilicet qui soluit quod docet, et ille qui facit; sed ille minimus, ille magnus: alio modo autem regnum caelorum dicitur, quo non intrat nisi ille qui facit. Ac per hoc ubi utrumque genus est, ecclesia est, qualis nunc est: ubi autem illud solum erit, ecclesia est, qualis tunc erit, quando malus in ea non erit. Ergo et nunc ecclesia regnum Christi est regnumque caelorum. Regnant itaque cum illo etiam nunc sancti eius, aliter quidem, quam tunc regnabunt; nec tamen cum illo regnant zizania, quamuis in ecclesia cum tritico crescant. Regnant enim cum illo, qui faciunt quod ait apostolus: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt sapite, ubiChristus estin dexteraDeisedens; quae sursum sunt quaerite, non quae super terram; de qualibus item dicit, quod eorum conuersatio sit in caelis. Postremo regnant cum illo, qui eo modo sunt in regno eius, ut sint’ etiam ipsi regnum eius. Quo modo autem sunt regnum Christi, qui, ut alia taceam, quamuis ibi sint donec colligantur in fine saeculi de regno eius omnia scandala, tamen illic sua quaerunt, non quae Iesu Christi? [¶2] It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict with the enemy is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in the present life, that the Apocalypse speaks in the words just quoted. For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in the Church in those days, in the words, “And I saw seats and them that sat upon them, and judgment was given.” It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, “What ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Whence the apostle says, “What have I to do with judging them that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?” “And the souls,” says John, “of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,”—understanding what he afterwards says, “reigned with Christ a thousand years,”—that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from His body. For why are these things practised, if not because the faithful, even though dead, are His members? Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. And therefore in another part of this same book we read, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth and now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works do follow them.” The Church, then, begins its reign with Christ now in the living and in the dead. For, as the apostle says, “Christ died that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead.” But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only, because they who have contended even to death for the truth, themselves principally reign after death; but, taking the part for the whole, we understand the words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ. > Latin: De hoc ergo regno militiae, in quo adhuc cum hoste confligitur et aliquando repugnatur pugnantibus uitiis, aliquando cedentibus imperatur, donec ueniatur ad illud pacatissimum regnum, ubi sine hoste regnabitur, et de hac prima resurrectione, quae nunc est, liber iste sic loquitur. Cum enim dixisset adligari diabolum mille annis, et postea solui breui tempore, tum recapitulando quid in istis mille annis agat ecclesia uel agatur in ea: Et uidi, inquit, sedes et sedentes super eas, et iudicium datum est Non hoc putandum est de ultimo iudicio dici; sed sedes praepositorum et ipsi praepositi intellegendi sunt, per quos nunc ecclesia gubernatur. Iudicium autem datum nullum melius accipiendum uidetur, quam id quod dictum est: Quae ligaueritis in terra, ligata erunt et in caelo; et quae solueritis in terra, soluta erunt et in caelo. Unde apostolus: Quid enim mihi est, inquit, de his, qui foris sunt, iudicare? Nonne de his qui intus sunt uos iudicatis? Et animae, inquit, occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter uerbum Dei; subauditur quod postea dicturus est: Regnauerunt cum Iesu mille anuis; animae scilicet martyi-um nondum sibi corporibus suis redditis. Neque enim piorum animae mortuorum separantur ab ecclesia, quae nunc etiam est regnum Christi. Alioquin nec ad altare Dei fieret eorum memoria in communicatione corporis Christi; nec aliquid prodesset ad eius baptismum in periculis currere, ne sine illo finiatur haec uita; nec ad reconciliationem, si forte per paenitentiam malamue conscientiam quisque ab eodem corpore separatus est. Quur enim fiunt ista, nisi quia fideles etiam defuncti membra sunt eius? Quamuis ergo cum suis corporibus nondum, iam tamen eorum animae regnant cum illo, dum isti anni mille decurrunt. Unde in hoc eodem libro et alibi legitur: Beati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur. Amodo etiam dicit Spiritus, ut requiescant a laboribus suis; nam opera eorum sequuntur eos. Regnat itaque cum Christo nunc primum ecclesia in uiuis et mortuis. Propterea enim, sicut dicit apostolus, mortuus est Christus, ut et uiuorum et mortuorum dominetur. Sed ideo tantummodo martyrum animas commemorauit, quia ipsi praecipue regnant mortui, qui usque ad mortem pro ueritate certarunt. Sed a parte totum etiam ceteros mortuos intellegimus pertinentes ad ecclesiam, quod est regnum Christi. [¶3] As to the words following, “And if any have not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his inscription on their forehead, or on their hand,” we must take them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the ungodly city itself, and the community of unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of God. “His image” seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from a true likeness but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, “Be not yoked with unbelievers?” For such do not worship, i.e., do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice. They, then, who are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ even now, through this whole interval which is indicated by the thousand years, in a fashion suited to this time. > Latin: Quod uero sequitur: Et si qui non adorauerunt bestiamnecimaginemeius, nequeacceperunt inscriptionem in fronte aut in manu sua, simul de uiuis et mortuis debemus accipere. Quae sit porro ista bestia, quamuis sit diligentius requirendum, non tamen abhorret a fide recta. ut ipsa inpia ciuitas intellegatur et populus infidelium contrarius populo fideli et ciuitati Dei. Imago uero eius simulatio eius mihi uidetur, in eis uidelicet hominibus, qui uelut fidem profitentur et infideliter uiuunt. Fingunt enim se esse quod non sunt, uocanturque non ueraci effigie, sed fallaci imagine Christiani. Ad eandem namque bestiam pertinent non solum aperte inimici nominis Christi et eius gloriosissimae ciuitatis, sed etiam zizania, quae de regno eius, quod est ecclesia, in fine saeculi colligenda sunt. Et qui sunt qui non adorant bestiam nec imaginem eius, nisi qui faciunt quod ait apostolus: Ne sitis iugum ducentes cum infidelibus? Non adorant’ enim est non consentiunt, non subiciuntur; neque accipiunt inscriptionem>, notam scilicet criminis, in fronte’ propter professionem, (in manu’ propter operationem. Ab his igitur malis alieni, siue adhuc in ista mortali carne uiuentes siue defuncti, regnant cum Christo iam nunc modo quodam huic tempori congruo per totum hoc interuallum, quod numero mille significatur annorum. Reliqui eorum, inquit, non uixerunt. [¶4] “The rest of them,” he says, “did not live.” For now is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live; and the rest of them shall not live. The words added, “until the thousand years are finished,” mean that they did not live in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from death to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection arrives, they shall come out of their graves, not to life, but to judgment, namely, to damnation, which is called the second death. For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished, 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 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. > Latin: Hora enim nunc est, cum mortui audiunt uocem filii Dei, et qui audierint uiuent; reliqui ergo eorum non uiuent. Quod uero subdidit: Donec finiantur mille anni, intellegendum est, quod eo tempore non uixerunt, quo uiuere debuerunt, ad uitam scilicet de morte transeundo. Et ideo cum dies uenerit, quo fiat et corporum resurrectio, non ad uitam de monumentis procedent, sed ad iudicium; ad damnationem scilicet, quae secunda mors dicitur. Donec finiantur enim mille anni, quicumque non uixerit, id est, toto isto tempore, quo agitur prima resurrectio, non audierit uocem filii Dei et ad uitam de morte transierit, profecto in secunda resurrectione, quae carnis est, in mortem secundam cum ipsa carne transibit. Sequitur enim et dicit: Haec resurrectio prima est. Beatus et sanctus qui habet in hac prima resurrectione partem, id est particeps eius est. Ipse est autem particeps eius, qui non solum a morte, quae in peccatis est, reuiuescit, uerum etiam in eo, quod l’euixerit, permanebit. Iu istis, inquit, secunda mors non habet potestatem. Habet ergo in reliquis, de quibus superius ait: Reliqui eorum non uixerunt, donec finiantur mille anni; quoniam toto isto temporis interuallo, quod mille annos uocat, quantumcumque in eo quisque eorum uixit in corpore, non reuixit a morte, in qua eum tenebat inpietas, ut sic reuiuescendo primae resurrectionis particeps fieret adque in eo potestatem secunda mors non haberet. ### What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls. [¶6] Chapter 10.—What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls. > Latin: Caput X. Quid respondendum sit eis, qui putant resurrectionem ad sola corpora, non etiam ad animas pertinere. [¶7] There are some who suppose that resurrection can be predicated only of the body, and therefore they contend that this first resurrection (of the Apocalypse) is a bodily resurrection. For, say they, “to rise again” can only be said of things that fall. Now, bodies fall in death. There cannot, therefore, be a resurrection of souls, but of bodies. But what do they say to the apostle who speaks of a resurrection of souls? For certainly it was in the inner and not the outer man that those had risen again to whom he says, “If ye have risen with Christ, mind the things that are above.” The same sense he elsewhere conveyed in other words, saying, “That as Christ has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.” So, too, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” As to what they say about nothing being able to rise again but what falls, 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;” and “To his own Master he stands or falls;” and “He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall?” For I fancy this fall that we are to take heed against is a fall of the soul, not of the body. If, then, rising again belongs to things that fall, and souls fall, it must be owned that souls also rise again. To the words, “In them the second death hath no power,” are added the words, “but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years;” and this refers not to the bishops alone, and presbyters, who are now specially called priests in the Church; but as we call all believers Christians on account of the mystical chrism, so we call all priests because they are members of the one Priest. Of them the Apostle Peter says, “A holy people, a royal priesthood.” Certainly he implied, though in a passing and incidental way, that Christ is God, saying priests of God and Christ, that is, of the Father and the Son, though it was in His servant-form and as Son of man that Christ was made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. But this we have already explained more than once. > Latin: Sunt qui putant resurrectionem dici non posse nisi corporum ideoque istam quoque primam in corporibus futuram esse contendunt. Quorum enim est, inquiunt, cadere, eorum est resurgere. Cadunt autem corpora moriendo; nam et a cadendo cadauera nuncupantur. Non ergo animarum, inquiunt, resurrectio potest esse, sed corporum. Sed quid contra apostolum dicunt, qui eam resurrectionem appellat? Nam secundum interiorem, non secundum exteriorem hominem utique rosurrexerant, quibus ait: Si resurrexistis cum Christo. quae sursum sunt sapite. Quem sensum uerbis aliis alibi posuit dicens: Ut, quem ad modum Christus resurrexit a mortuis per gloriam Patris, sic et nos in nouitate uitae ambulemus. Hinc est et illud: Surge qui dormis et exsurge a mortuis, et inluminabit te Christus. Quod autem dicunt non posse resurgere, nisi qui cadunt, et ideo putant resurrectionem ad corpora, non ad animas pertinere, quia corporum est cadere: quur non audiunt: Non recedatis ab illo, ne cadatis, et: Suo Domino stat aut cadit; et: Qui se putat stare, caueat ne cadat? Puto enim quod in anima, non in corpore casus iste cauendus est. Si igitur cadentium est resurrectio, cadunt autem et animae: profecto et animas resurgere confitendum est. Quod autem, cum dixisset: In istis secunda mors non habet potestatem, adiunxit adque ait: Sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi et regnabunt cum eo mille annis: non utique de solis episcopis et presbyteris dictum est, qui proprie iam uocantur in ecclesia sacerdotes; sed sicut omnes christos dicimus propter mysticum chrisma, sic omnes sacerdotes, quoniam membra sunt unius sacerdotis; de quibus apostolus Petrus: Plebs, inquit, sancta, regale sacerdotium. Sane, licet breuiter adque transeunter, insinuauit esse Deum Christum dicendo: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi, hoc est Patris et Filii; quamuis propter formam serui sicut hominis filius, ita etiam sacerdos Christus effectus sit in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech. De qua re in hoc opere non semel diximus. ### 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. [¶9] Chapter 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. > Latin: Caput XI. [¶10] “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.” > Latin: Et cum finiti fuerint, inquit, mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua, et exibit ad seducendas nationes, quae sunt in quattuor angulis terrae, Gog et Magog, et trahet eos in bellum, quorum numerus est ut harena maris. Ad hoc ergo tunc seducet, ut in hoc bellum trahat. Nam et antea modis quibus poterat per mala multa et uaria seducebat. Exibit autem dictum est Latin: Caput XII. An ad ultimum supplicium pertineat inpiorum, quod descendisse ignis de caelo et eosdem comedisse memoratur. [¶13] The words, “And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them,” are not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. In this place “fire out of heaven” is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is “heaven,” by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire which shall devour them, and this is “from God;” for it is by God’s grace the saints become unconquerable, and so torment their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said, “The zeal of Thine house hath consumed me,” so in a bad sense it is said, “Zeal hath possessed the uninstructed people, and now fire shall consume the enemies.” “And now,” that is to say, not the fire of the last judgment. Or if by this fire coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John meant that blow wherewith Christ in His coming is to strike those persecutors of the Church whom He shall then find alive upon earth, when He shall kill Antichrist with the breath of His mouth, then even this is not the last judgment of the wicked; but the last judgment is that which they shall suffer when the bodily resurrection has taken place. > Latin: Quod uero ait: Et descendit ignis de caelo et comedit eos: non extremum putandum est id esse supplicium, quod erit, cum dicetur: Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum. Tunc quippe in ignem mittentur ipsi, non ignis de caelo ueniet in ipsos. Hic autem bene intellegitur ignis de caelo de ipsa firmitate sanctorum, qua non cessuri sunt saeuientibus, ut eorum faciant uoluntatem. Firmamentum est enim caelum, cuius firmitate illi cruciabuntur ardentissimo zelo, quoniam non poterunt adtrahere in partes Antichristi sanctos Christi. Et ipse erit ignis, qui comedet eos, et hoc a Deo, quia Dei munere insuperabiles fiunt sancti, unde excruciantur inimici. Sicut enim in bono positum est: Zelus domus tuae comedit me: ita e contrario: Zelus occupauit plebem ineruditam, et nunc ignis contrarios comedet. Et nunc utique, excepto scilicet ultimi illius igne iudicii. Aut si eam plagam, qua percutiendi sunt ecclesiae persecutores ueniente iam Christo, quos uiuentes inueniet super terram, quando interficiet Antichnstum spiritu oris sui, ignem appellauit descendentem de caelo eosque comedentem: neque hoc ultimum supplicium erit inpiorum, sed illud quod facta corporum resurrectione passuri sunt. ### Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years. [¶15] Chapter 13.—Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years. > Latin: Caput XIII. An tempus persecutionis Antichristi mille annis adnumerandum sit. [¶16] 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 approriate to itself, the kingdom of the saints being longer, the imprisonment of the devil shorter, —or at least that, as three years and six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned as either deducted from the whole time of Satan’s imprisonment, or as added to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we have shown above in the sixteenth book regarding the round number of four hundred years, which were specified as four hundred, though actually somewhat more; and similar expressions are often found in the sacred writings, if one will mark them. > Latin: Haec persecutio nouissima, quae futura est ab Antichristo (sicut iam diximus, quia et in hoc libro superius et aput Danielem prophetam positum est), tribus annis et sex mensibus erit. Quod tempus, quamuis exiguum, utrum ad mille annos pertineat, quibus et diabolum ligatum dicit et sanctos regnare cum Christo, an eisdem annis hoc paruum spatium superaddatur adque extra sit, merito ambigitur; quia, si dixerimus ad eosdem annos hoc pertinere, non tanto tempore, sed prolixiore cum Christo regnum sanctorum reperietur extendi quam diabolus adligari. Profecto enim sancti cum suo rege etiam in ipsa praecipue persecutione regnabunt mala tanta uincentes, quando iam diabolus non erit adligatus, ut eos persequi omnibus uiribus possit. Quo modo ergo ista scriptura eisdem mille annis utrumque determinat, diaboli scilicet adligationem regnumque sanctorum, cum trium annorum et sex mensum interuallo prius desinat adligatio diaboli quam regnum sanctorum in his annis mille cum Christo? Si autem dixerimus paruum persecutionis huius hoc spatium non conputandum in mille annis, sed eis inpletis potius adiciendum, ut proprie possit intellegi, quod, cum dixisset: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi regnabunt cum eo mille annis, adiecit: Et cum finiti fuerint mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua; isto enim modo et regnum sanctorum et uinculum diaboli simul cessatura esse significat, ut deinde persecutionis illius tempus nec ad sanctorum regnum nec ad custodiam satanae, quorum utrumque in mille annis est, pertinere, sed superadditum et extra conputandum esse credatur: cogemur fateri sanctos in illa persecutione regnaturos non esse cum Christo; sed quis audeat tunc cum illo non regnatura sua membra, quando ei maxime adque fortissime cohaerebunt, et quo tempore, quanto erit acrior inpetus belli, tanto maior gloria non cedendi, tanto densior corona martyrii? Aut si propter tribulationes, quas passuri sunt, non dicendi sunt regnaturi: consequens erit, ut etiam superioribus diebus in eisdem mille annis, quicumque tribulabantur sanctorum, eo ipso tempore tribulationis suae cum Christo non regnasse dicantur; ac per hoc et illi, quorum animas auctor libri huius uidisse se scribit occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter uerbum Dei, non regnabant cum Christo, quando patiebantur persecutionem, et ipsi regnum Christi non erant, quos Christus excellentius possidebat. Absurdissimum id quidem et omni modo auersandum. Sed certe animae uictrices gloriosissimorum martyrum omnibus doloribus ac laboribus superatis adque finitis, postea quam mortalia membra posuerunt, cum Christo utique regnauerunt et regnant, donec finiantur mille anni, ut postea receptis etiam corporibus iam inmortalibus regnent. Proinde tribus illis annis adque dimidio animae occisorum pro eius martyrio, et quae antea de corporibus exierunt, et quae ipsa nouissima persecutione sunt exiturae, regnabunt cum illo, donec finiatur mortale saeculum et ad illud regnum, ubi mors non erit, transeatur. Quocirca cum Christo regnantium sanctorum plures anni erunt quam uinculi diaboli adque custodiae, quia illi cum suo rege Dei filio iam diabolo non ligato etiam per tres illos annos ac semissem regnabunt. Remanet igitur, ut, cum audimus: Sacerdotes Dei et Christi regnabunt cum eo mille annis. et cum finiti fuerint mille anni, soluetur satanas de custodia sua, aut non regni huius sanctorum intellegamus annos mille finiri, sed uinculi diaboli adque custodiae, ut annos mille, id est annos omnes suos, quaeque pars habeat diuersis ac propriis prolixitatibus finiendos, ampliore sanctorum regno, breuiore diaboli uinculo; aut certe, quoniam trium annorum et sex mensum breuissimum spatium est, conputari noluisse credatur, siue quod minus satanae uinculum, siue quod amplius uidetur regnum habere sanctorum, sicut de quadringentis annis in sexto decimo huius operis uolumine disputaui; quoniam plus aliquid erant, et tamen quadringenti sunt nuncupati; et talia saepe reperiuntur in litteris sacris. si quis aduertat. ### 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. [¶18] Chapter 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. > Latin: Caput XIV. De damnatione diaboli cum suis et per recapitulationem de resurrectione corporea omnium mortuorum et de iudicio ultimae retributionis. [¶19] 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.” 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.” > Latin: Post hanc autem commemorationem nouissimae persecutionis breuiter conplectitur totum, quod ultimo iam iudicio diabolus et cum suo principe ciuitas inimica passura est. Dicit enim: Et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris, quo et bestia et pseudopropheta; et cruciabuntur die ac nocte in saecula saeculorum. Bestiam bene intellegi ipsam inpiam ciuitatem supra diximus. Pseudopropheta uero eius aut Antichristus est aut imago illa, id est figmentum, de quo ibi locati sumus. Post haec ipsum nouissimum iudicium, quod erit in secunda resurrectione mortuorum, quae corporum est, recapitulando narrans quo modo sibi fuerit reuelatum: Et uidi. inquit, thronum magnum et candidum et sedentem super eum, cuius a facie fugit caelum et terra, et locus eorum inuentus non est. Non ait: lVidi thronum magnum et candidum et sedentem super eum, et ab eius facie fugit caelum et terra’, quoniam non tunc factum est, id est, antequam esset de uiuis et mortuis iudicatum; sed eum se uidisse dixit in throno sedentem, a cuius facie fugit caelum et terra, sed postea. Peracto quippe iudicio, tunc esse desinet hoc caelum et haec terra, quando incipiet esse caelum nouum et terra noua. Mutatione namque rerum, non omni modo interitu transibit hic mundus. Unde et apostolus dicit: Praeterit enim figura huius mundi, uolo uos sine sollicitudine esse. Figura ergo praeterit, non natura. Cum ergo se Iohannes uidisse dixisset sedentem super thronum, cuius a facie, quod postea futurum est, fugit caelum et terra: Et uidi, inquit, mortuos magnos et pusillos, et aperti sunt libri; et alius liber apertus est, qui est uitae uniuscuiusque; et iudicati sunt mortui ex ipsis scripturis librorum secundum facta sua. Libros dixit esse apertos et librum; sed librum cuius modi non tacuit: Qui est, inquit, uitae uniuscuiusque. Ergo illi libri, quos priore loco posuit, intellegendi sunt sancti, et ueteres et noui, ut in illis ostenderetur, quae Deus fieri sua mandata iussisset; in illo autem, qui est uitae uniuscuiusque, quid horum quisque non fecisset sine fecisset. Qui liber si carnaliter cogitetur, quis eius magnitudinem aut longitudinem ualeat aestimare? Aut quanto tempore legi poterit liber, in quo scriptae sunt uniuersae uitae uniuersorum ? An tantus angelorum numerus aderit, quantus hominum erit, et uitam suam quisque ab angelo sibi adhibito audiet recitari? Non ergo unus liber erit omnium, sed singuli singulorum. Scriptura uero ista unum uolens intellegi: Et alius, inquit, liber apertus est. Quaedam igitur uis est intellegenda diuina, qua fiet, ut cuique opera sua, uel bona uel mala, cuncta in memoriam reuocentur et mentis intuitu mira celeritate cernantur, ut accuset uel excuset scientia conscientiam adque ita simul et omnes et singuli iudicentur. Quae nimirum uis diuina libri nomen accepit. In ea quippe quodam modo legitur, quidquid ea faciente recolitur. Ut autem ostendat, qui mortui iudicandi sint, pusilli et magni, recapitulando dicit tamquam ad id rediens, quod praeterierat potiusue distulerat: Et exhibuit mortuos mare, qui in eo erant, et mors et infernus reddiderunt mortuos, quos in se habebant. Hoc procul dubio prius factum est, quam essent mortui iudicati; et tamen illud prius dictum est. Hoc est ergo quod dixi, recapitulando eum ad id redisse quod intermiserat. Nunc autem ordinem tenuit, adque ut explicaretur ipse ordo, commodius etiam de iudicatis mortuis, quod iam dixerat, suo repetiuit loco. Cum enim dixisset: Et ex hibuit mortuos mare, qui in eo erant, et mors et infernus reddiderunt mortuos, quos in se habebant: mox addidit quod paulo ante posuerat: Et iudicati sunt singuli secundum facta sua. Hoc est enim quod supra dixerat: Et iudicati sunt mortui secundum facta sua. ### Who the Dead are Who are Given Up to Judgment by the Sea, and by Death and Hell. [¶21] Chapter 15.—Who the Dead are Who are Given Up to Judgment by the Sea, and by Death and Hell. > Latin: Caput XV. Qui sint mortui, quos ad iudicium exhibuit mare, uel quos mors et inferi reddiderunt. [¶22] 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,” and the wicked of whom it is said, “Let the dead bury their dead.” They may also be called dead, because they wear mortal bodies, as the apostle says, “The body indeed is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness;” proving that in 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, 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. > Latin: Sed qui sunt mortui, quos exhibuit mare, qui in eo erant? Neque enim qui in mari moriuntur, non sunt in inferno, aut corpora eorum seruantur in mari, aut, quod est absurdius, mare habebat bonos mortuos et infernus malos. Quis hoc putauerit? Sed profecto conuenienter quidam hoc loco mare pro isto saeculo positum accipiunt. Cum ergo et quos hic inueniet Christus in corpore constitutos simul significaret cum eis, qui resurrecturi sunt, iudicandos, etiam ipsos mortuos appellauit, et bonos, quibus dicitur: Mortui enim estis, et uita uestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo, et malos, de quibus dicitur: Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos. Possunt mortui etiam propter hoc dici, quod mortalia gerunt corpora; unde apostolus: Corpus quidem, inquit, mortuum est propter peccatum; spiritus autem uita est propter iustitiam, utrumque in homine uiuente adque in hoc corpore constituto esse demonstrans, et corpus mortuum et spiritum uitam. Nec tamen dixit corpus mortale, sed mortuum, quamuis eadem paulo post etiam mortalia corpora, sicut usitatius uocantur, appellet. Hos ergo mortuos exhibuit mare, qui in eo erant, id est, exhibuit homines hoc saeculum, quicumque in eo erant, quia nondum obierant. Et mors et infernus, inquit, reddiderunt mortuos, quos in se habebant. Mare exhibuit, quia, sicut inuenti sunt, adfuerunt; mors uero et infernus reddiderunt, quoniam uitae, de qua iam exierant, reuocarunt. Nec frustra fortasse non satis fuit ut diceret mors aut infernus, sed utrumque dictum est: mors propter bonos, qui tantummodo mortem perpeti potuerunt, non et infernum; infernus autem propter malos, qui etiam poenas aput inferos pendunt. Si enim non absurde credi uidetur antiquos etiam sanctos, qui uenturi Christi tenuerunt fidem, locis quidem a tormentis inpiorum remotissimis, sed aput inferos fuisse, donec eos inde Christi sanguis et ad ea loca descensus erueret, profecto deinceps boni fideles effuso illo pretio iam redemti prorsus inferos nesciunt, donec etiam receptis corporibus bona recipiant, quae merentur. Cum autem dixisset: Et iudicati sunt singuli secundum facta sua, breuiter subiecit, quem ad modum fuerint iudicati: Et mors et infernus, inquit, missi sunt in stagnum ignis, his nominibus significans diabolum, quoniam mortis est auctor infemarumqute poenarum, uniuersamque simul daemonum societatem. Hoc est enim quod supra euidentius praeoccupando iam dixerat: Et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris. Quod uero ibi obscurius adiunxerat dicens: Quo et bestia etpseudopropheta, hic apertius: Et qui non sunt, inquit, inuenti in libro uitae scripti, missi sunt in stagnum ignis. Non Deum liber iste commemorat, ne obliuione fallatur; sed praedestinationem significat eorum, quibus aeterna dabitur uita. Neque enim nescit eos Deus et in hoc libro legit, ut sciat; sed potius ipsa eius praescientia de illis, quae falli non potest, liber est uitae, in quo sunt scripti, id est ante praecogniti.