That Proofs of the Last Judgment Will Be Adduced, First from the New Testament, and Then from the Old.

Chapter 4.—That Proofs of the Last Judgment Will Be Adduced, First from the New Testament, and Then from the Old.

Caput IV. Quod ad disserendum de nouissimo iudicio Dei noui primum testamenti ac deinde ueteris testimonia prolaturus sit.

The proofs, then, of this last judgment of God which I propose to adduce shall be drawn first from the New Testament, and then from the Old. For although the Old Testament is prior in point of time, the New has the precedence in intrinsic value; for the Old acts the part of herald to the New. We shall therefore first cite passages from the New Testament, and confirm them by quotations from the Old Testament. The Old contains the law and the prophets, the New the gospel and the apostolic epistles. Now the apostle says “By the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; now the righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ upon all them that believe.” This righteousness of God belongs to the New Testament, and evidence for it exists in the old books, that is to say, in the law and the prophets. I shall first, then state the case, and then call the witnesses. This order Jesus Christ Himself directs us to observe, saying, “The scribe instructed in the kingdom of God is like a good householder, bringing out of his treasure things new and old.” He did not say “old and new,” which He certainly would have said had He not wished to follow the order of merit rather than that of time.

Huius itaque ultimi iudicii Dei testimonia de scripturis sanctis, quae ponere institui, prius eligenda sunt de libris instrumenti noui, postea de ueteris. Quamuis enim uetera priora sint tempore, noua tamen anteponenda sunt dignitate, quoniam illa uetera praeconia sunt nouorum. Noua igitur ponentur prius, quae ut firmius probemus, adsumentur et uetera. In ueteribus habentur lex et prophetae, in nouis euangelium et apostolicae litterae. Ait autem apostolus: Per legem enim cognitio peccati. Nunc autem sine lege iustitia Dei manifestata est, testificata per legem et prophetas; iustitia autem Dei per fidem Iesu Christi in omnes qui credunt. Haec iustitia Dei ad nouum pertinet testamentum et testimonium habet a ueteribus libris, hoc est lege ac prophetis. Prius igitur ipsa causa ponenda est, et postea testes introducendi. Hunc et ipse Christus Iesus ordinem seruandum esse demonstrans: Scriba, inquit, eruditus in regno Dei similis est uiro patri familias proferenti de thesauro suo noua et uetera. Non dixit: ‘Vetera et noua’, quod utique dixisset, nisi maluisset meritorum ordinem seruare quam temporum.

Chapter 5.—The Passages in Which the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the End of the World.

Caput V. Quibus sententiis Domini Saluatoris diuinum iudicium futurum in fine saeculi declaretur.

The Saviour Himself, while reproving the cities in which He had done great works, but which had not believed, and while setting them in unfavorable comparison with foreign cities, says, “But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.” And a little after He says, “Verily, I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.” Here He most plainly predicts that a day of judgment is to come. And in another place He says, “The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the utter most parts of the earth to hear the words of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” Two things we learn from this passage, that a judgment is to take place, and that it is to take place at the resurrection of the dead. For when He spoke of the Ninevites and the queen of the south, He certainly spoke of dead persons, and yet He said that they should rise up in the day of judgment. He did not say, “They shall condemn,” as if they themselves were to be the judges, but because, in comparison with them, the others shall be justly condemned.

Ergo ipse Saluator cum obiurgaret ciuitates, in quibus uirtutes magnas fecerat neque crediderant, et eis alienigenas anteponeret: Verum tamen, inquit, dico uobis, Tyro et Sidoni remissius erit in die iudicii quam uobis; et paulo post alteri ciuitati: Arnen, inquit, dico uobis, quia terrae Sodomorum remissius erit in die iudicii quam tibi (hic euidentissime praedicat diem iudicii esse uenturum) ; et alio loco: Viri Nineuitae, inquit, surgent in iudicio cum generatione ista et condemnabunt eam; quia paenitentiam egerunt in praedicatione Ionae, et ecce plus quam Iona hic. Regina Austri surget in iudicio cum generatione ista et condemnabit eam; quia uenit a finibus terrae audire sapientiam Salomonis, et ecce plus quam Salomon hic. Duas res hoc loco discimus, et uenturum esse iudicium et cum mortuorum resurrectione uenturum. De Nineuitis enim et regina Austri quando ista dicebat, de mortuis sine dubio loquebatur, quos tamen in die iudicii resurrecturos esse praedixit. Nec ideo dixit: […] quia ipsi iudicabunt; sed quia ex ipsorum conparatione isti merito damnabuntur. Rursus alio loco, cum de hominum bonorum et malorum nunc permixtione, postea separatione, quae utique die iudicii futura est, loqueretur, adhibuit similitudinem de tritico seminato et superseminatis zizaniis, eamque suis exponens discipulis: Qui seminat, inquit, bonum semen, est filius hominis; ager autem est mundus: bonum uero semen hi sunt filii regni; zizania autem filii sunt nequam; inimicus autem, qui seminauit ea, est diabolus; messis uero consummatio saeculi est, messores autem angeli sunt.

Again, in another passage, in which He was speaking of the present intermingling and future separation of the good and bad,—the separation which shall be made in the day of judgment,—He adduced a comparison drawn from the sown wheat and the tares sown among them, and gave this explanation of it to His disciples: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man,” etc. Here, indeed, He did not name the judgment or the day of judgment, but indicated it much more clearly by describing the circumstances, and foretold that it should take place in the end of the world.

Sicut ergo colliguntur zizania et igni comburuntur: sic erit in consummatione saeculi. Mittet filius hominis angesuos, et colligunt de regno eius omnia scandala et eos, qui faciunt iniquitatem, et mittunt eos in caminum ignis; ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. Tunc iusti fulgebunt sicut sol in regno patris eorum. Qui habet aures, audiat. Hic iudicium quidem uel diem iudicii non nominauit, sed eum multo clarius ipsis rebus expressit et in fine saeculi futurum esse praedixit.

In like manner He says to His disciples, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Here we learn that Jesus shall judge with His disciples. And therefore He said elsewhere to the Jews, “If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.” Neither ought we to suppose that only twelve men shall judge along with Him, though He says that they shall sit upon twelve thrones; for by the number twelve is signified the completeness of the multitude of those who shall judge. For the two parts of the number seven (which commonly symbolizes totality), that is to say four and three, multiplied into one another, give twelve. For four times three, or three times four, are twelve. There are other meanings, too, in this number twelve. Were not this the right interpretation of the twelve thrones, then since we read that Matthias was ordained an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor, the Apostle Paul, though he labored more than them all, should have no throne of judgment; but he unmistakeably considers himself to be included in the number of the judges when he says, “Know ye not that we shall judge angels?” The same rule is to be observed in applying the number twelve to those who are to be judged. For though it was said, “judging the twelve tribes of Israel,” the tribe of Levi, which is the thirteenth, shall not on this account be exempt from judgment, neither shall judgment be passed only on Israel and not on the other nations. And by the words “in the regeneration,” He certainly meant the resurrection of the dead to be understood; for our flesh shall be regenerated by incorruption, as our soul is regenerated by faith.

Item discipulis suis: Arnen, inquit, dicouobis, quod uos, qui secuti estis me, in regeneratione, cum sederit filius hominis in sede maiestatis suae, sedebitis et uos super sedes duodecim iudicantes duodecim tribus Israel. Hic discimus cum suis discipulis iudicaturum Iesum. Unde et alibi Iudaeis dixit: Si ego in Beelzebub eicio daemonia, filii uestri in quo eiciunt? Ideo ipsi iudices erunt uestri. Nec quoniam super duodecim sedes sessuros esse ait, duodecim solos homines cum illo iudicaturos putare debemus. Duodenario quippe. numero uniuersa quaedam significata est iudicantium multitudo propter duas partes numeri septenarii, quo significatur plerumque uniuersitas; quae duae partes, id est tria et quattuor, altera per alteram multiplicatae duodecim faciunt, nam et quattuor ter et tria quater duodecim sunt, et si qua alia huius duodenarii numeri, quae ad hoc ualeat, ratio reperitur. Alioquin, quoniam in locum Iudae traditoris apostolum Matthiam legimus ordinatum, apostolus Paulus, qui plus omnibus illis laborauit, ubi ad iudicandum sedeat non habebit; qui profecto cum aliis sanctis ad numerum iudicum se pertinere demonstrat. cum dicit: Nescitis quia angelos iudicabimus? De ipsis quoque iudicandis in hoc numero duodenario similis causa est. Non enim quia dictum est: Iudicantes duodecim tribus Israel, tribus Leui, quae tertia decima est, ab eis iudicanda non erit, aut solum illum populum, non etiam gentes cet.eras indicabunt. Quod autem ait: In regeneratione, procul dubio mortuorum resurrectionem nomine uoluit regenerationis intellegi. Sic enim caro nostra regenerabitur per incorruptionem, quem ad modum est anima nostra regenerata per fidem.- Multa praetereo, quae de ultimo iudicio ita dici uidentur, ut diligenter considerata reperiantur ambigua uel magis ad aliud pertinentia, siue scilicet ad eum Saluatoris aduentum, quo per totum hoc tempus in ecclesia sua uenit, hoc est in membris suis, particulatim adque paulatim, quoniam tota corpus est eius; siue ad excidium terrenae Hierusalem; quia et de illo cum loquitur, plerumque sic loquitur, tamquam de fine saeculi adque illo die iudicii nouissimo et magno loquatur; ita ut dignosci non possit omnino, nisi ea, quae aput tres euangelistas Matthaeum, Marcum et Lucam de hac re similiter dicta sunt, inter se omnia conferantur.

Many passages I omit, because, though they seem to refer to the last judgment, yet on a closer examination they are found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other event,—whether to that coming of the Saviour which continually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in which comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this, He often uses language which is applicable to the end of the world and that last and great day of judgment, so that these two events cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another,—for some things are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more plainly by another,—so that it becomes apparent what things are meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesychius of blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled, “Of the End of the World.”

Quaedam quippe alter obscurius, alter explicat planius, ut ea, quae ad unam rem pertinentia dicuntur, appareat unde dicantur. Quod facere utcumque curaui in quadam epistula, quam rescripsi ad beatae memoriae uirum Hesychium, Salonitanae urbis episcopum, cuius epistulae titulus est: De fine saeculi. Proinde iam illud hic dicam, quod in euangelio secundum Matthaeum de. separatione bonorum et malorum legitur per iudicium praesentissimum adque nouissimum Christi. Cum autem uenerit, inquit, filius hominis in maiestate sua, et omnes angeli cum eo, tunc sedebit super sedem maiestatis suae, et congregabuntur ante eum omnes gentes, et separabit eos ab inuicem. sicut pastor segregat oues ab haedis, et statuet oues quidem a dextris suis, haedos autem a sinistris. Tunc dicet rex his, qui a dextris eius erunt: Venite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum a constitutione mundi.

I shall now cite from the Gospel according to Matthew the passage which speaks of the separation of the good from the wicked by the most efficacious and final judgment of Christ: “When the Son of man,” he says, “shall come in His glory, . . . then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Then He in like manner recounts to the wicked the things they had not done, but which He had said those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when they had seen Him in need of these things, He replies that, inasmuch as they had not done it to the least of His brethren, they had not done it unto Him, and concludes His address in the words, “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.” Moreover, the evangelist John most distinctly states that He had predicted that the judgment should be at the resurrection of the dead. For after saying, “The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father: he that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent Him;” He immediately adds, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death to life.” Here He said that believers on Him should not come into judgment. How, then, shall they be separated from the wicked by judgment, and be set at His right hand, unless judgment be in this passage used for condemnation? For into judgment, in this sense, they shall not come who hear His word, and believe on Him that sent Him.

Esunuienim, et dedistis mihi manducare; sitiui, et dedistis mihi bibere; hospes eram, et collegistis me; nudus. et operuistis me; [infirmus, et uisitastis me] in carcere eram, et uenistis ad me. Tunc respondebunt ei iusti dicentes: Domine, quando te uidimus esurientem, et pauimus; sitientem, et dedimus potum? Quando autem te uidimus hospitem. et collegimus te; aut nudum, et cooperuimus te? Aut quando te uidimus infirmum aut in carcere, et uenimus ad te? Et respondens rex dicet illis: Arnen dico uobis, quamdiu fecistis uni de his fratribus meis minimis, mihi fecistis. Tunc dicet, inquit, et his qui a sinistris erunt: Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum, qui paratus est diabolo et an gelis eius. Deinde similiter etiam his enumerat, quod illa non fecerint, quae dextros fecisse memorauit. Similiterque interrogantibus, quando eum uiderint in horum indigentia constitutum: quod minimis suis non factum est, sibi factum non fuisse respondet; sermonemque concludens: Et ibunt, inquit, hi in supplicium aeternum, iusti autem in uitam aeternam. Iohannes uero euangelista apertissime narrat eum in resurrectione mortuorum futurum praedixisse iudicium. Cum enim dixisset: Neque enim Pater iudicat quemquam, sed iudicium omne dedit Filio, ut omnes honorificent Filium, sicut honorificant Patrem; qui non honorificat Filium, non honorificat Patrem, qui misit illum: protinus addidit: Amen, amen dico uobis, quia, qui uerbum meum audit et credit ei qui misit me, habet uitam aeternam, et in iudicium non uenit, sed transiit a morte in uitam. Ecce hic dixit fideles suos in iudicium non uenire. Quo modo ergo per iudicium separabuntur a malis et ad eius dexteram stabunt, nisi quia hoc loco iudicium pro damnatione posuit? In tale quippe iudicium non uenient, qui audiunt uerbum eius et credunt ei, qui misit illum.

Chapter 6.—What is the First Resurrection, and What the Second.

Caput VI. Quae sit prima resurrectio, quae secunda.

After that He adds the words, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” As yet He does not speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body, which shall be in the end, but of the first, which now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He says, “The hour is coming, and now is.” Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, “Suffer the dead to bury their dead,”—that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body. It is of these dead, then—the dead in ungodliness and wickedness—that He says, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” “They that hear,” that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness. Of this death the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore all are dead, and He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.” Thus all, without one exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge; and for all the dead there died the one only person who lived, that is, who had no sin whatever, in order that they who live by the remission of their sins should live, not to themselves, but to Him who died for all, for our sins, and rose again for our justification, that we, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and being justified from ungodliness or quickened from death, may be able to attain to the first resurrection which now is. For in this first resurrection none have a part save those who shall be eternally blessed; but in the second, of which He goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part, both the blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of mercy, the other of judgment. And therefore it is written in the psalm, “I will sing of mercy and of judgment: unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing.”

Deinde adiungit et dicit: Amen, amen dico uobis, quia uenithora etnunc est, quando mortui audient uocem filii Dei, et qui audierint uiuent. Sicut enim Pater habet uitam in semet ipso, sic dedit et Filio habere uitam in semet ipso. Nondum de secunda resurrectione, id est corporum, loquitur, quae in fine futura est, sed de prima, quae nunc est. Hanc quippe ut distingueret, ait: Venit hora, et nunc est. Non autem ista corporum, sed animarum est. Habent enim et animae mortem suam in inpietate adque peccatis, secundum quam mortem mortui sunt, de quibus idem Dominus ait: Sine mortuos sepelire mortuos suos; ut scilicet in anima mortui in corpore mortuos sepelirent. Propter istos ergo inpietate et iniquitate in anima mortuos: Venit, inquit, hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient uocem filii Dei; et qui audierint, uiuent. Qui audierint dixit qui oboedierint, qui crediderint et usque in finem perseuerauerint Nec fecit hic ullam differentiam bonorum et malorum. Omnibus enim bonum est audire uocem eius et uiuere ad uitam pietatis ex inpietatis morte transeundo. De qua morte ait apostolus Paulus: Ergo omnes mortui sunt, et pro omnibus mortuus est, ut qui uiuunt iam non sibi uiuant, sed ei, qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit. Omnes itaque mortui sunt in peccatis, nemine prorsus excepto, siue originalibus siue etiam uoluntate additis, uel ignorando uel sciendo nec faciendo quod iustum est; et pro omnibus mortuis uiuus mortuus est unus, id est nullum habens omnino peccatum; ut, qui per remissionem peccatorum uiuunt, iam non sibi uiuant, sed ei, qui pro omnibus mortuus est propter peccata nostra et resurrexit propter iustificationem nostram, ut credentes in eum, qui iustificat inpium, ex inpietate iustificati, tamquam ex morte uiuificati, ad primam resurrectionem, quae nunc est, pertinere possimus. Ad hanc enim primam non pertinent, nisi qui beati erunt in aeternum; ad secundam uero, de qua mox locuturus est, et beatos pertinere docebit et miseros. Ista est misericordiae, illa iudicii.

And of this judgment He went on to say, “And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man.” Here He shows that He will come to judge in that flesh in which He had come to be judged. For it is to show this He says, “because He is the Son of man.” And then follow the words for our purpose: “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.” This judgment He uses here in the same sense as a little before, when He says, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life;” i.e., by having a part in the first resurrection, by which a transition from death to life is made in this present time, he shall not come into damnation, which He mentions by the name of judgment, as also in the place where He says, “but they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment,” i.e., of damnation. He, therefore, who would not be damned in the second resurrection, let him rise in the first. For “the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live,” i.e., shall not come into damnation, which is called the second death; into which death, after the second or bodily resurrection, they shall be hurled who do not rise in the first or spiritual resurrection. For “the hour is coming” (but here He does not say, “and now is,” because it shall come in the end of the world in the last and greatest judgment of God) “when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.” He does not say, as in the first resurrection, “And they that Hear shall live.” For all shall not live, at least with such life as ought alone to be called life because it alone is blessed. For some kind of life they must have in order to hear, and come forth from the graves in their rising bodies. And why all shall not live He teaches in the words that follow: “They that have done good, to the resurrection of life,”—these are they who shall live; “but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment,”—these are they who shall not live, for they shall die in the second death. They have done evil because their life has been evil; and their life has been evil because it has not been renewed in the first or spiritual resurrection which now is, or because they have not persevered to the end in their renewed life. As, then, there are two regenerations, of which I have already made mention,—the one according to faith, and which takes place in the present life by means of baptism; the other according to the flesh, and which shall be accomplished in its incorruption and immortality by means of the great and final judgment,—so are there also two resurrections,—the one the first and spiritual resurrection, which has place in this life, and preserves us from coming into the second death; the other the second, which does not occur now, but in the end of the world, and which is of the body, not of the soul, and which by the last judgment shall dismiss some into the second death, others into that life which has no death.

Propter quod in psalmo scriptum est: Misericordiam et iudicium cantabo tibi, Domine. De quo iudicio consequenter adiunxit adque ait: Et potestatem dedit ei iudicium facere, quia filius hominis est. Hic ostendit, quod in ea carne ueniet iudicaturus, in qua uenerat iudicandus. Ad hoc enim ait: Quoniam filius hominis est. Ac deinde subiungens unde agimus: Nolite, inquit, mirari hoc, quia ueniet hora, in qua omnes, qui in monumentis sunt, audient uocem eius et procedent, qui bona fecerunt, in resurrectionem uitae; qui uero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii. Hoc est illud iudicium, quod paulo ante, sicut nunc, pro damnatione posuerat dicens: Qui uerbum meum audit et credit eiqui m is it me, h a bet u ita m aeternam et in iudicium non uenit, sed transiit a morte in uitam, id est, pertinendo ad primam resurrectionem, qua nunc transitur a morte ad uitam, in damnationem non ueniet, quam significauit appellatione iudicii, sicut etiam hoc loco, ubi ait: Qui [uero] mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii, id est damnationis. Resurgat ergo in prima, qui non uult in secunda resurrectione damnari. Venit enim hora, et nunc est, quando mortui audient uocem filii Dei, et qui audierint, uiuent, id est, in damnationem non uenient, quae secunda mors dicitur: in quam mortem post secundam, quae corporum futura est, resurrectionem praecipitabuntur, qui in prima, quae animarum est, non resurgunt. Veniet enim hora (ubi non ait: Et nunc est, quia in fine erit saeculi, hoc est in ultimo et maximo iudicio Dei), quando omnes, qui in monumentis sunt, audient uocem eius et procedent. Non dixit quem ad modum in prima: Et qui audierint, uiuent. Non enim omnes uiuent, ea uita scilicet, quae, quoniam beata est, sola uita dicenda est. Nam utique non sine qualicumque uita possent audire et de monumentis resurgente carne procedere. Quare autem non omnes uiuent, in eo quod sequitur docet; qui bona, inquit, fecerunt, in resurrectionem uitae, hi sunt qui uiuent; qui uero mala egerunt, in resurrectionem iudicii, hi sunt qui non uiuent, quia secunda morte morientur. Mala quippe egerunt, quoniam male uixerunt; male autem uixerunt, quia in prima, quae nunc est, animarum resurrectione non reuixerunt aut in eo, quod reuixerant, non in finem usque manserunt. Sicut ergo duae sunt regenerationes, de quibus iam supra locutus sum, una secundum fidem, quae nunc fit per baptismum; alia secundum carnem, quae fit in eius incorruptione adque inmortalitate per iudicium magnum adque nouissimum: ita sunt et resurrectiones duae, una prima, quae et nunc est et animarum est, quae uenire non permittit in mortem secundam; alia secunda, quae non nunc, sed in saeculi fine futura est, nec animarum, sed corporum est, quae per ultimum iudicium alios mittet in secundam mortem, alios in eam uitam, quae non habet mortem.

Chapter 7.—What is Written in the Revelation of John Regarding the Two Resurrections, and the Thousand Years, and What May Reasonably Be Held on These Points.

Caput VII. De duabus resurrectionibus et de mille annis quid in apocalypsi Iohannis scriptum sit et quid de eis rationabiliter sentiatur.

The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections in the book which is called the Apocalypse, but in such a way that some Christians do not understand the first of the two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies. For the Apostle John says in the foresaid book, “And I saw an angel come down from heaven. . . . Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Those who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as if it were a fit thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the labors of the six thousand years since man was created, and was on account of his great sin dismissed from the blessedness of paradise into the woes of this mortal life, so that thus, as it is written, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” there should follow on the completion of six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years; and that it is for this purpose the saints rise, viz., to celebrate this Sabbath. And this opinion would not be objectionable, if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God; for I myself, too, once held this opinion. But, as they assert that those who then rise again shall enjoy the leisure of immoderate carnal banquets, furnished with an amount of meat and drink such as not only to shock the feeling of the temperate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself, such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who do believe them are called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which we may literally reproduce by the name Millenarians. It were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point: we prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture should be understood.

De his duabus resurrectionibus idem Iohannes euangelista in libro, qui dicitur apocalypsis, eo modo locutus est, ut earum prima a quibusdam nostris non intellecta insuper etiam in quasdam ridiculas fabulas uerteretur. Ait quippe in libro memorato Iohannes apostolus: Et uidi angelum descendentem de caelo, habentem clauem abyssi et catenam in manu sua. Et tenuit draconem illum serpentem antiquum, qui cognominatus est diabolus et satanas; [et] adligauit illum mille annis et misit illum in abyssum; et elusit et signauit super eum, ut non seduceret iam gentes, donec finiantur mille anni; post haec oportet eum solui breui tempore. Et uidi sedes et sedentes super eas, et iudicium datum est. Et animae occisorum propter testimonium Iesu et propter uerbum Dei, et si qui non adorauerunt bestiam nec imaginem eius, neque acceperunt inscriptionem in fronte aut in manu sua, et regnauerunt cum Iesu mille annis; reliqui eorum non uixerunt, donec finiantur mille anni. Haec resurrectio prima est. Beatus et sanctus est, qui habet in hac prima resurrectione partem. In istis secunda mors non habet potestatem; sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi et regnabunt cum eo mille annis. Qui propter haec huius libri uerba primam resurrectionem futuram suspicati sunt corporalem, inter cetera maxime numero annorum mille permoti sunt, tamquam oporteret in sanctis eo modo uelut tanti temporis fieri sabbatismum, uacatione scilicet sancta post labores annorum sex milium, ex quo creatus est homo et magni illius peccati merito in huius mortalitatis aerumnas de paradisi felicitate dimissus est, ut, quoniam scriptum est: Unus dies aput Dominum sicut mille anni, et mille anni sicut dies unus, sex annorum milibus tamquam sex diebus inpletis, sequatur uelut septimus sabbati in annis mille postremis, ad hoc scilicet sabbatum celebrandum resurgentibus sanctis. Quae opinio esset utcumque tolerabilis, si aliquae deliciae spiritales in illo sabbato adfuturae sanctis per Domini praesentiam crederentur. Nam etiam nos hoc opinati fuimus aliquando.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, “No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man”—meaning by the strong man the devil, because he had power to take captive the human race; and meaning by his goods which he was to take, those who had been held by the devil in divers sins and iniquities, but were to become believers in Himself. It was then for the binding of this strong one that the apostle saw in the Apocalypse “an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a chain in his hand. And he laid hold,” he says, “on the dragon, that old serpent, which is called the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,”—that is, bridled and restrained his power so that he could not seduce and gain possession of those who were to be freed. Now the thousand years may be understood in two ways, so far as occurs to me: either because these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium (the latter part of which is now passing), as if during the sixth day, which is to be followed by a Sabbath which has no evening, the endless rest of the saints, so that, speaking of a part under the name of the whole, he calls the last part of the millennium—the part, that is, which had yet to expire before the end of the world—a thousand years; or he used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world, employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time. For a thousand is the cube of ten. For ten times ten makes a hundred, that is; the square on a plane superficies. But to give this superficies height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is sometimes used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of promise to him that left all and followed Him “He shall receive in this world an hundredfold;” of which the apostle gives, as it were, an explanation when he says, “As having nothing, yet possessing all things,”—for even of old it had been said, The whole world is the wealth of a believer,—with how much greater reason is a thousand put for totality since it is the cube, while the other is only the square? And for the same reason we cannot better interpret the words of the psalm, “He hath been mindful of His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations,” than by understanding it to mean “to all generations.”

Sed cum eos, qui tunc resurrexerint, dicant inmoderatissimis carnalibus epulis uacaturos, in quibus cibus sit tantus ac potus, ut non solum nullam modestiam teneant, sed modum quoque ipsius incredulitatis excedant: nullo modo ista possunt nisi a carnalibus credi. Hi autem qui spiritales sunt, istos ista credentes χιλιατὰς appellant Graeco uocabulo; quos uerbum e uerbo exprimentes nos possemus miliarios nuncupare. Eos autem longum est refellere ad singula; sed potius, quem ad modum scriptura haec accipienda sit, iam debemus ostendere. Ait ipse Dominus Iesus Christus: Nemo potest introire in domum fortis et uasa eius eripere, nisi prius adligauerit fortem, diabolum uolens intellegi fortem, quia ipse genus humanum potuit tenere captiuum; uasa uero eius, quae fuerat erepturus, fideles suos futuros, quos ille in diuersis peccatis adque inpietatibus possidebat. Ut ergo adligaretur hic fortis, propterea uidit iste apostolus in apocalypsi angelum descendentem de caelo, habentem clauem abyssi et catenam in manu sua. Et tenuit, inquit, draconem illum serpentem antiquum, qui cognominatus est diabolus et satanas, et adligauit illum mille annis, hoc est, eius potestatem ab eis seducendis ac possidendis. qui fuerant liberandi, cohibuit adque frenauit. Mille autem anni duobus modis possunt, quantum mihi occurrit. intellegi: aut quia in ultimis annis mille ista res agitur, id est sexto annorum miliario tamquam sexto die, cuius nunc spatia posteriora uoluuntur, secuturo deinde sabbato, quod non habet uesperam. requie scilicet sanctorum, quae non habet finem, ut huius miliarii tamquam diei nouissimam partem, quae remanebat usque ad terminum saeculi, mille annos appellauerit eo loquendi modo, quo pars significatur a toto; aut certe mille annos pro annis omnibus huius saeculi posuit. ut perfecto numero notaretur ipsa temporis plenitudo. Millenarius quippe numerus denarii numeri quadratum solidum reddit. Decem quippe deciens ducta fiunt centum, quae iam figura quadrata, sed plana est; ut autem in altitudinem surgat et solida fiat, rursus centum deciens multiplicantur, et mille sunt.

“And he cast him into the abyss,”—i.e., cast the devil into the abyss. By the abyss is meant the countless multitude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in malignity against the Church of God; not that the devil was not there before, but he is said to be cast in thither, because, when prevented from harming believers, he takes more complete possession of the ungodly. For that man is more abundantly possessed by the devil who is not only alienated from God, but also gratuitously hates those who serve God. “And shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled.” “Shut him up,”—i.e., prohibited him from going out, from doing what was forbidden. And the addition of “set a seal upon him” seems to me to mean that it was designed to keep it a secret who belonged to the devil’s party and who did not. For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether even the man who seems to stand shall fall, or whether he who seems to lie shall rise again. But by the chain and prison-house of this interdict the devil is prohibited and restrained from seducing those nations which belong to Christ, but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For before the foundation of the world God chose to rescue these from the power of darkness, and to translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love, as the apostle says. For what Christian is not aware that he seduces nations even now, and draws them with himself to eternal punishment, but not those predestined to eternal life? And let no one be dismayed by the circumstance that the devil often seduces even those who have been regenerated in Christ, and begun to walk in God’s way. For “the Lord knoweth them that are His,” and of these the devil seduces none to eternal damnation. For it is as God, from whom nothing is hid even of things future, that the Lord knows them; not as a man, who sees a man at the present time (if he can be said to see one whose heart he does not see), but does not see even himself so far as to be able to know what kind of person he is to be. The devil, then, is bound and shut up in the abyss that he may not seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and which he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For it is not said “that he should not seduce any man,” but “that he should not seduce the nations”—meaning, no doubt, those among which the Church exists—“till the thousand years should be fulfilled,”—i.e., either what remains of the sixth day which consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are to elapse till the end of the world.

Porro si centum ipsa pro uniuersitate aliquando ponantur, quale illud est, quod Dominus omnia sua dimittenti et eum sequenti promisit dicens: Accipiet in hoc saeculo centuplum, quod exponens quodam modo apostolus ait: Quasi nihil habentes, et omnia possidentes; quia et ante iam dictum erat: Fidelis hominis totus mundus diuitiarum est: quanto magis mille pro uniuersitate ponuntur, ubi est soliditas ipsius denariae quadraturae? Unde nec illud melius intellegitur, quod in psalmo legitur: Memor fuit in saeculum testamenti sui uerbi, quod mandauit in mille generationes, id est in omnes. Et misit illum, inquit, in abyssum; utique diabolum misit in abyssum, quo nomine significata est multitudo innumerabilis inpiorum, quorum in malignitate aduersus ecclesiam Dei multum profunda sunt corda; non quia ibi diabolus ante non erat; sed ideo illuc dicitur missus, quia exclusus a credentibus plus coepit inpios possidere. Plus namque possidetur a diabolo, qui non solum est alienatus a Deo, uenim etiam gratis odit seruientes Deo. Et clausit, inquit, et signauit super eum, ut non seduceret iam gentes. donec finiantur mille anni. Clausit super eum dictum est ‘interdixit ei, ne posset exire,’ id est uetitum transgredi. Signauit autem, quod addidit, significasse mihi uidetur, quia occultum esse uoluit, qui pertineant ad partem diaboli, et qui non pertineant. Hoc quippe in saeculo isto prorsus latet, quia et qui uidetur stare, utrum sit casurus, et qui uidetur iacere, utrum sit surrecturus, incertum est. Ab eis autem gentibus seducendis huius interdicti uinculo et claustro diabolus prohibetur adque cohibetur, quas pertinentes ad Christum seducebat antea uel tenebat. Has enim Deus elegit ante mundi constitutionem eruere de potestate tenebrarum et transferre in regnum filii caritatis suae, sicut apostolus dicit. Nam seducere illum gentes etiam nunc et secum trahere in aeternam poenam, sed non praedestinatas in aeternam uitam, quis fidelis ignorat? Nec moueat, quod saepe diabolus seducit etiam illos, qui regenerati iam in Christo uias ingrediuntur Dei. Nouit enim Dominus qui sunt eius; ex his in aeternam damnationem neminem ille seducit. Sic enim eos nouit Dominus, ut Deus, quem nil latet etiam futurorum, non ut homo, qui hominem ad praesens uidet (si tamen uidet, cuius cor non uidet). qualis autem postea sit futurus nec se ipsum uidet. Ad hoc ergo ligatus est diabolus et inclusus in abysso, ut iam non seducat gentes, ex quibus constat ecclesia. quas antea seductas tenebat, antequam essent ecclesia.

The words, “that he should not seduce the nations till the thousand years should be fulfilled,” are not to be understood as indicating that afterwards he is to seduce only those nations from which the predestined Church is composed, and from seducing whom he is restrained by that chain and imprisonment; but they are used in conformity with that usage frequently employed in Scripture and exemplified in the psalm, “So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us,”—not as if the eyes of His servants would no longer wait upon the Lord their God when He had mercy upon them. Or the order of the words is unquestionably this, “And he shut him up and set a seal upon him, till the thousand years should be fulfilled;” and the interposed clause, “that he should seduce the nations no more,” is not to be understood in the connection in which it stands, but separately, and as if added afterwards, so that the whole sentence might be read, “And He shut him up and set a seal upon him till the thousand years should be fulfilled, that he should seduce the nations no more,”—i.e., he is shut up till the thousand years be fulfilled, on this account, that he may no more deceive the nations.

Neque. enim dictum est ut non seduceret aliquem, sed ut non seduceret, inquit, iam gentes. in quibus ecclesiam procul dubio uoluit intellegi, donec finiantur, inquit, mille anni, id est, aut quod remanet de sexto die, qui constat ex mille annis, aut omnes anni, quibus deinceps hoc saeculum peragendum est. Nec sic accipiendum est quod ait: Ut non Reduceret gentes, donec finiantur mille anni, quasi postea sit seducturus eas dumtaxat gentes, ex quibus praedestinata constat ecclesia, a quibus seducendis illo est uinculo claustroque prohibitus. Sed aut illa locutione dictum est, quae in scripturis aliquotiens inuenitur, qualis est in psalmo: Sic oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri; neque enim, cum misertus fuerit, non erunt oculi seruorum eius ad Dominum Deum suum; aut certe iste est ordo uerborum: Et clausit et signauit super eum, donec finiantur mille anni; quod uero interposuit: Ut non seduceret iam gentes, ita se habet, ut ab huius ordinis conexione sit liberum et seorsus intellegendum, uelut si post adderetur, ut sic se haberet tota sententia: Et clausit et signauit super eum, donec finiantur mille anni, ut non seduceret iam gentes; id est, ideo clausit donec finiantur mille anni, ut non seduceret iam gentes.

Chapter 8.—Of the Binding and Loosing of the Devil.

Caput VIII. De adligatione et solutione diaboli.

“After that,” says John, “he must be loosed a little season.” If the binding and shutting up of the devil means his being made unable to seduce the Church, must his loosing be the recovery of this ability? By no means. For the Church predestined and elected before the foundation of the world, the Church of which it is said, “The Lord knoweth them that are His,” shall never be seduced by him. And yet there shall be a Church in this world even when the devil shall be loosed, as there has been since the beginning, and shall be always, the places of the dying being filled by new believers. For a little after John says that the devil, being loosed, shall draw the nations whom he has seduced in the whole world to make war against the Church, and that the number of these enemies shall be as the sand of the sea. “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” This relates to the last judgment, but I have thought fit to mention it now, lest any one might suppose that in that short time during which the devil shall be loose there shall be no Church upon earth, whether because the devil finds no Church, or destroys it by manifold persecutions. The devil, then, is not bound during the whole time which this book embraces,—that is, from the first coming of Christ to the end of the world, when He shall come the second time,—not bound in this sense, that during this interval, which goes by the name of a thousand years, he shall not seduce the Church, for not even when loosed shall he seduce it. For certainly if his being bound means that he is not able or not permitted to seduce the Church, what can the loosing of him mean but his being able or permitted to do so? But God forbid that such should be the case! But the binding of the devil is his being prevented from the exercise of his whole power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or fraudulently deceiving them into taking part with him. If he were during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of men, very many persons, such as God would not wish to expose to such temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or would be prevented from believing; and that this might not happen, he is bound.

Post haec, inquit, oportet eum solui breui tempore. Si hoc est diabolo ligari et includi, ecclesiam non posse seducere, haec ergo erit solutio eius, ut possit? Absit: numquam enim ab illo ecclesia seducetur praedestinata et electa ante mundi constitutionem, de qua dictum est: Nouit Dominus qui sunt eius. Et tamen hic erit etiam illo tempore. quo soluendus est diabolus, sicut, ex quo est instituta, hic fuit et erit omni tempore, in suis utique qui succedunt nascendo monentibus. Nam paulo post dicit. quod solutus diabolus seductas gentes toto orbe terrarum adtrahet in bellum aduersus eam, quorum hostium numerus erit ut harena maris. Et adscenderunt, inquit, supra terrae latitudinem, et cinxerunt castra sanctorum et dilectam ciuitatem, et descendit ignis de caelo a Deo et comedit eos; et diabolus, qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris, ubi et bestia et pseudopropheta; et cruciabuntur die et nocte in saecula saeculorum. Sed hoc iam ad iudicium nouissimum pertinet, quod nunc propterea commemorandum putaui, ne quis existimet eo ipso paruo tempore, quo soluetur diabolus, in hac terra ecclesiam non futuram, illo hic eam uel non inueniente, cum fuerit solutus, uel absumente, cum fuerit modis omnibus persecutus. Non itaque per totum hoc tempus, quod liber iste conplectitur, a primo scilicet aduentu Christi usque in saeculi finem, qui erit secundus eius aduentus, ita diabolus adligatur, ut eius haec ipsa sit adligatio, per hoc interuallum, quod mille annorum numero appellat, non seducere ecclesiam, quando quidem illam nec solutus utique seducturus est. Nam profecto ei si adligari est non posse seducere siue non permitti: quid erit solui nisi posse seducere siue permitti? Quod absit ut fiat; sed adligatio diaboli est non permitti exserere totam tentationem, quam potest uel ui uel dolo ad seducendos homines in partem suam cogendo uiolenter fraudulenterue fallendo. Quod si permitteretur in tam longo tempore et tanta infirmitate multorum, plurimos tales, quales Deus id perpeti non uult, et fideles deiceret et ne crederent inpediret; quod ne faceret, adligatus est.

But when the short time comes he shall be loosed. For he shall rage with the whole force of himself and his angels for three years and six months; and those with whom he makes war shall have power to withstand all his violence and stratagems. And if he were never loosed, his malicious power would be less patent, and less proof would be given of the steadfast fortitude of the holy city: it would, in short, be less manifest what good use the Almighty makes of his great evil. For the Almighty does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation, but shelters only their inner man, where faith resides, that by outward temptation they may grow in grace. And He binds him that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing or yet to believe, from whom the Church must be increased and completed; and he will in the end loose him, that the city of God may see how mighty an adversary it has conquered, to the great glory of its Redeemer, Helper, Deliverer. And what are we in comparison with those believers and saints who shall then exist, seeing that they shall be tested by the loosing of an enemy with whom we make war at the greatest peril even when he is bound? Although it is also certain that even in this intervening period there have been and are some soldiers of Christ so wise and strong, that if they were to be alive in this mortal condition at the time of his loosing, they would both most wisely guard against, and most patiently endure, all his snares and assaults.

Tunc autem soluetur, quando et breue tempus erit. (Nam tribus annis et sex mensibus legitur totis suis suorumque uiribus saeuiturus) et tales erunt, cum quibus ei belligerandum est, ut uinci tanto eius inpetu insidiisque non possint. Si autem numquam solueretur, minus appareret eius maligna potentia. minus sanctae ciuitatis fidelissima patientia probaretur, minus denique perspiceretur, quam magno eius malo tam bene fuerit usus Omnipotens, qui eum nec omnino abstulit a tentatione sanctorum, quamuis ab eorum interioribus hominibus, ubi in Deum creditur, foras missum, ut eius forinsecus obpugnatione proficerent; et in eis, qui sunt ex parte ipsius, adligauit, ne quantam posset effundendo et exercendo malitiam innumerabiles infirmos, ex quibus ecclesiam multiplicari et inpleri oportebat, alios credituros, alios iam credentes, a fide pietatis hos deterreret, hos frangeret: et soluet in fine, ut, quam fortem aduersarium Dei ciuitas superauerit, cum ingenti gloria sui redemtoris adiutoris liberatoris adspiciat. In eorum sane, qui tunc futuri sunt, sanctorum adque fidelium conparatione quid sumus? Quando quidem ad illos probandos tantus soluetur inimicus, cum quo nos ligato tantis periculis dimicamus. Quamuis et hoc temporis interuallo quosdam milites Christi tam prudentes et fortes fuisse adque esse non dubium est, ut, etiamsi tunc in ista mortalitate uiuerent, quando ille soluetur, omnes insidias eius adque inpetus et cauerent sapientissime et patientissime sustinerent.

Now the devil was thus bound not only when the Church began to be more and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of the world, when he is to be loosed. Because even now men are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall be, converted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them. And this strong one is bound in each instance in which he is spoiled of one of his goods; and the abyss in which he is shut up is not at an end when those die who were alive when first he was shut up in it, but these have been succeeded, and shall to the end of the world be succeeded, by others born after them with a like hate of the Christians, and in the depth of whose blind hearts he is continually shut up as in an abyss. But it is a question whether, during these three years and six months when he shall be loose, and raging with all his force, any one who has not previously believed shall attach himself to the faith. For how in that case would the words hold good, “Who entereth into the house of a strong one to spoil his goods, unless first he shall have bound the strong one?” Consequently this verse seems to compel us to believe that during that time, short as it is, no one will be added to the Christian community, but that the devil will make war with those who have previously become Christians, and that, though some of these may be conquered and desert to the devil, these do not belong to the predestinated number of the sons of God. For it is not without reason that John, the same apostle as wrote this Apocalypse, says in his epistle regarding certain persons, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us.” But what shall become of the little ones? For it is beyond all belief that in these days there shall not be found some Christian children born, but not yet baptized, and that there shall not also be some born during that very period; and if there be such, we cannot believe that their parents shall not find some way of bringing them to the laver of regeneration. But if this shall be the case, how shall these goods be snatched from the devil when he is loose, since into his house no man enters to spoil his goods unless he has first bound him? On the contrary, we are rather to believe that in these days there shall be no lack either of those who fall away from, or of those who attach themselves to the Church; but there shall be such resoluteness, both in parents to seek baptism for their little ones, and in those who shall then first believe, that they shall conquer that strong one, even though unbound,—that is, shall both vigilantly comprehend, and patiently bear up against him, though employing such wiles and putting forth such force as he never before used; and thus they shall be snatched from him even though unbound. And yet the verse of the Gospel will not be untrue, “Who entereth into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one?” For in accordance with this true saying that order is observed—the strong one first bound, and then his goods spoiled; for the Church is so increased by the weak and strong from all nations far and near, that by its most robust faith in things divinely predicted and accomplished, it shall be able to spoil the goods of even the unbound devil. For as we must own that, “when iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold,” and that those who have not been written in the book of life shall in large numbers yield to the severe and unprecedented persecutions and stratagems of the devil now loosed, so we cannot but think that not only those whom that time shall find sound in the faith, but also some who till then shall be without, shall become firm in the faith they have hitherto rejected and mighty to conquer the devil even though unbound, God’s grace aiding them to understand the Scriptures, in which, among other things, there is foretold that very end which they themselves see to be arriving. And if this shall be so, his binding is to be spoken of as preceding, that there might follow a spoiling of him both bound and loosed; for it is of this it is said, “Who shall enter into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one?”

Haec autem adligatio diaboli non solum facta est, ex quo coepit ecclesia praeter Iudaeam terram in nationes alias adque alias dilatari; sed etiam nunc fit et fiet usque ad terminum saeculi, quo soluendus est. quia et nunc homines ab infidelitate, in qua eos ipse possidebat, conuertuntur ad fidem et usque in illum finem sine dubio conuertentur; et utique unicuique iste fortis tunc adligatur, quando ab illo tamquam uas eius eripitur; et abyssus, ubi inclusus est, non in eis consumta est, quando sunt mortui, qui tunc erant quando esse coepit inclusus; sed successerunt eis alii nascendo adque succedunt, donec finiatur hoc saeculum, qui oderint Christianos, in quorum cottidie, uelut in abysso, caecis et profundis cordibus includatur. Utrum autem etiam illis ultimis tribus annis et mensibus sex, quando solutus totis uiribus saeuiturus est, aliquis, in qua non fuerat, sit accessurus ad fidem. nonnulla quaestio est. Quo modo enim stabit quod dictum est: Quis intrat in domum fortis, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius adligauerit fortem, si etiam soluto eripiuntur? Ac per hoc ad hoc cogere uidetur ista sententia, ut credamus illo licet exiguo tempore neminem accessurum esse populo Christiano, sed cum eis, qui iam Christiani, reperti fuerint, diabolum pugnaturum; ex quibus etiamsi aliqui uicti secuti eum fuerint, non eos ad praedestinatum filiorum Dei numerum pertinere. Neque enim frustra idem Iohannes apostolus, qui et hanc apocalypsin scripsit, in epistula sua de quibusdam dicit: Ex nobis exierunt, sed non erant ex nobis; nam si fuissent ex nobis, mansissent utique nobiscum. Sed quid fit de paruulis? Nimium quippe incredibile est nullos iam natos et nondum baptizatos praeoccupari Christianorum filios illo tempore infantes, nullos etiam ipsis nasci iam diebus; aut si erunt, non eos a parentibus suis ad lauacrum regenerationis modo quocumque perduci. Quod si fiet, quo pacto soluto iam diabolo uasa ista eripientur, in cuius domum nemo intrat, ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius adligauerit eum? Immo uero id potius est credendum. nec qui cadant de ecclesia nec qui accedant ecclesiae illo tempore defuturos; sed profecto tam fortes erunt et parentes pro baptizandis paruulis suis et hi, qui tunc primitus credituri sunt, ut illum fortem uincant etiam non ligatum, id est omnibus, qualibus antea numquam, uel artibus insidiantem uel urgentem uiribus et uigilanter intellegant et toleranter ferant, ac sic illi etiam non ligato eripiantur. Nec ideo falsa erit euangelica illa sententia: Quis intrat in domum fortis. ut uasa eius eripiat, nisi prius adligauerit fortem? Secundum eius enim sententiae ueritatem ordo iste seruatus est, ut prius adligaretur fortis ereptisque uasis eius longe lateque in omnibus gentibus er firmis et infirmis ita multiplicaretur ecclesia, ut ex ipsa rerum diuinitus praedictarum et inpletarum robustissima fide etiam soluto uasa posset auferre. Sicut enim fatendum est multorum refrigescere caritatem, cura abundat iniquitas, et inusitatis maximisque persecutionibus adque fallaciis diaboli iam soluti eos, qui in libro uitae scripti non sunt, multos esse cessuros: ita cogitandum est non solum quos bonos fideles illud tempus inueniet, sed nonnullos etiam, qui foris adhuc erunt, adiuuante Dei gratia per considerationem scripturarum, in quibus et alia et finis ipse praenuntiatus est, quem uenire iam sentiunt, ad credendum quod non credebant futuros esse firmiores et ad uincendum etiam non ligatum diabolum fortiores. Quod si ita erit. propterea praecessisse dicenda est eius adligatio, ut et ligati et soluti exspoliatio sequeretur; quoniam de hac re tu m est: Quis intrabit in domum fortis, ut uasa eius eripiat. nisi prius adligauerit fortem?