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THE
BINDING OF THE DEVIL
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abyss.
He recapitulates from the beginning, and more
fully, in what way he had said above," The beast which thou sawest
was, and is not; and is to ascend from the abyss, and will go into
perdition."
The Lord, therefore, endued with His Father's power, descends and
is incarnate, to wage war with the prince of the world, and when
he is bound to spoil his goods.
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devil.
"Diabolus," is interpreted, "flowing downward." But in Greek he
is called "the accuser." "Satan is " the adversary," or " prevaricator."
So he is called "the dragon," on account of his malice in hurting;
"the serpent," on account of cunning in deceiving; " the devil,"
on account of the fall of his estate; "Satan," on account of obstinacy
in opposition against the Lord.
bound
him. That is, he kept back and restrained
his power from seducing men who were to be set free. For if he
were permitted to exert the whole of this, either by force, or
deceit, he would beguile most of the weak in so long a time. By
the "thousand years," he intended a part, namely, the remainder
of the thousand years of the sixth day; in which the Lord was
born and suffered.
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cast.
He cast him, that is, into the hearts of the persecuting people.
Not that the devil was not there before; when he was sent forth
from believers, he began to possess the ungodly, who are not only
alienated from God, but who hate more grievously those who serve
God. And this the Lord openly shewed, when He sent him forth from
men into the swine.
seal.
He interdicted him, and as by a royal seal prevented him from
seducing the nations ; namely those which were appointed unto
life, which he seduced before, that they should not be reconciled
to God.
loosed.
"Then,"
as St. Augustine says,
"he will be loosed, when also the time will be short. For, as
we read, he will rage three years and a-half with all his own
powers, and the powers of his own, and they with whom he will
make war will be such, that his violence and wiles, great as they
are, will not be able to overcome them. But if he was never loosed,
his malignant power would the less appear, the most faithful patience
of the holy city the less be proved, the less finally would it
be discerned, how well the Almighty God made use of his great
evil."
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THE
REIGN OF A THOUSAND YEARS
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judgment.
He indicates that which is done in the thousand years in which
Satan is bound. For the Church, which in Christ will sit on twelve
thrones to judge, now sits and judges, seeing that she has obtained
to hear from her King, "whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven."
souls.
That which he is to say afterwards is understood, "they reigned
with Christ a thousand years." The Church therefore reigns with
Christ in the living and in the dead. For "to this end," as the
Apostle says, "Christ died, that He might be Lord both of the
living and the dead;"
and for this reason he has mentioned the souls of the martyrs
alone, that they chiefly reign after death, who even unto death
have contended for the truth.
worshipped.
We ought to understand this both of the living and of the dead.
For they who are still alive in this mortal flesh, as well as
they who are departed, even now reign with Christ, through all
the interval which is signified by the number of a thousand years,
in a certain manner which is congruous with this present time.
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THE
FIRST RESURRECTION
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the
rest. Whosoever have not heard the voice
of the Son of God, and passed to life from death, during all that
time in which the first resurrection takes place, that is, the
resurrection of souls, in the second resurrection, which is the
resurrection of the flesh, will assuredly pass with the flesh
itself into the second death, that is, into eternal torments.
first
resurrection.
That certainly is the first resurrection in which we rise again
through baptism, as the Apostle says, "If ye have risen with Christ,
seek the things which are above."
For as the first death in this life is through sins, since "the
soul that sinneth, it shall die,"
so also the first resurrection is in this life through remission
of sins.
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Blessed.
That is, he who has kept the state of being born again.
saints.
Another version
has "priests of God and of Christ," and it is not said of bishops
only and of presbyters, who properly are called "priests" in the
Church. But as we are all called Christs because of the mystical
chrism, so are we all called priests, because we are members of
the one Priest, of Whom the Apostle Peter says, "a holy people,
a royal priesthood."
reign.
The Spirit when He wrote this, declared that the Church would
reign a thousand years, that is, unto the end of the world; and
a doubt might arise from this. For that it is concerning a perpetual
kingdom is manifest.
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SATAN
LOOSED
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finished.
By "finished" he intended a part by the whole. For he will be loosed
in such a manner that there will remain the three years and six
months of the last conflict. But apart from this figure, the time
is rightly said to be ended. For so small a remnant is not to be
taken into account, when seven hundred years, and as many as God
wills, are called by the Apostle "an hour."
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seduce.
He will then seduce them, to the end that he may gather them together
to this battle. For even before he used to seduce them in whatever
manner he was able, through many different evils. And "he will go
out" means, he will burst forth into open persecution from the hiding-places
of his hatred. Moreover, Gog and Magog either denote the whole by
a part, or according to the interpretation of the names, which signify
"a roof" and "from a roof,"
they indicate secret and open enemies. For they themselves are both
"a roof," because the enemy is now shut up in them, and ruled, and
they will also be "from a roof," when they shall burst forth into
open hatred.
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breadth.
They certainly are not represented as having come, or as about
to come, to one place, as if the beloved city, that is, the Church,
were to be confined within some one place. For much rather wished
he to intimate by "the breadth of the earth," that it would be
persecuted in all nations; and by the term "camp",
that not even then would it forsake its warfare.
fire.
It must not be supposed that this is the final punishment. But
it is rather the fire of envy, with which the adversary will be
tormented through the firmness of the saints. For " heaven " is
the firmament.
This is the fire which went forth from the mouth of the witnesses
of God, and it will devour their enemies. For in the last day
He will not rain fire upon them, but when they have been gathered
together before Him and judged, He will send them into eternal
fire, concerning which it is here added, as follows.
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cast.
That is, at the last judgment the devil will
be cast into eternal fire, where also are all those whom he sent
before him, that is, the greatest part of the ungodly city, inasmuch
as the beast is to be taken according to the place, sometimes as
the devil, sometimes as Antichrist, sometimes as the ungodly city
itself. But under the name of "fire coming down from heaven," may
also be designated the sudden destruction of the ungodly, when the
Lord at His coming will slay Antichrist with the breath of His mouth.
He explains more fully how, when Christ is Judge, the devil with
his own is cast into the fire.
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THE
JUDGEMENT
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throne.
He said that he "saw Him sitting on the throne, from Whose sight
the heaven and the earth fled away." For after the judgment is ended,
the heaven and the earth cease to be, when there begin to be a new
heaven and a new earth; that is, by the change of the things that
are, and not by any means by their destruction. For "the fashion
of this world passeth away."
He said not also the substance, in that we believe that the same
is to be changed for the better.
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stand.
"When the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, then
will be gathered before Him all nations."
book
of life.
Another version has, "which is of the life of each one;" So then
by "the opened books," he means the Testaments of God, for the
world will be judged according to both Testaments. By "the book
of the life of each one," he means the memory of our actions,
and not that the discerner of hidden things has a memorial book.
written. That
is to say, they were judged out of the Testaments, namely, according
to that they did from them or did not. The books may also be understood
to be the deeds of the righteous. For while the reprobate are
condemned by comparison with these, in the spreading out of these
they read, as it were, the good which they themselves were unwilling
to do
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sea.
This, without doubt, took place before that the dead were judged.
Having, therefore, recapitulated that which he had passed over,
he pursues the order of things.
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death
and Hades. So he signifies that the bodies
are to be gathered from the earth, and the souls from their own
places. For by the name of "death" he designates good souls, which
have only suffered the dissolution of the flesh, and not punishment
too; and by the term Hades, bad. And it may also be taken literally,
that all the bodies, even those which the deep has swallowed, or
the wild beast has devoured, will rise again. And Tichonius expounds
it thus : "The people which he will here find alive are the dead
of the sea, 'And death and Hades gave up their dead.' These are
the people which are buried. But when he had said, that 'they were
judged, every one according to works,' he briefly subjoined, that
"both death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire." He means
the devil and his own, whom Hades followed above,
as he sat on the pale horse. So he repeats what he had already said
more plainly by anticipation, 'And the devil who seduced them, was
cast into the lake of fire and brimstone.' But that which he had
added above
more obscurely concerning the beast and the false prophet, he here
more openly sets forth.
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found
written. That is, who was not judged by God
to be alive. And so they appear to me to speak more correctly, who
interpret the opened books above to be the consciences and works
of each one; and the book of life the fore-knowledge of God, which
cannot be deceived, concerning those to whom eternal life will be
given, in which they are written, that is, foreknown. As the judgment
is ended in which he saw the bad to be condemned, it remains that
he also speak concerning the good.
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