TALK SEVEN - LAST JUDGEMENT (120m)
---- AV - Stephen Hawking's Universe 2: In the beginning (50m)
---- Audio - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Dies Irae (3m)
---- Picture - Dante: Divine Comedy, Michelangelo - last judgement
---- City of God - Bk 20-22
---- Summa Contra Gentiles B4, A96;
---- Catechism - 675-679
BOOK XX CHAPTER 1: LAST JUDGMENT
INTENDING to speak, in dependence on God's grace, of the day of
His final judgment, and to affirm it against the ungodly and incredulous, we
must first of all lay, as it were, in the foundation of the edifice the divine
declarations. Those persons who do not believe such declarations do their best
to oppose to them false and illusive sophisms of their own, either contending
that what is adduced from Scripture has another meaning, or altogether denying that
it is an utterance of God's. For I suppose no man who understands what is
written, and believes it to be communicated by the supreme and true God through
holy men, refuses to yield and consent to these declarations, whether he orally
confesses his consent, or is from some evil influence ashamed or afraid to do
so; or even, with an opinionativeness closely resembling madness, makes
strenuous efforts to defend what he knows and believes to be false against what
he knows and believes to be true.
That, therefore, which the whole Church of the true God holds and
professes as its creed, that Christ shall come from heaven to judge quick and
dead, this we call the last day, or last time, of the divine judgment. For we
do not know how many days this judgment may occupy; but no one who reads the
Scriptures, however negligently, need be told that in them "day" is
customarily used for "time." And when we speak of the day of God's
judgment, we add the word last or final for this reason, because even now God
judges, and has judged from the beginning of human history, banishing from
paradise, and excluding from the tree of life, those first men who perpetrated
so great a sin. Yea, He was certainly exercising judgment also when He did not
spare the angels who sinned, whose prince, overcome by envy, seduced men after
being himself seduced. Neither is it without God's profound and just judgment
that the life of demons and men, the one in the air, the other on earth, is
filled with misery, calamities, and mistakes. And even though no one had
sinned, it could only have been by the good and right judgment of God that the
whole rational creation could have been maintained in eternal blessedness by a
persevering adherence to its Lord. He judges, too, not only in the mass, condemning
the race of devils and the race of men to be miserable on account of the
original sin of these races, but He also judges the voluntary and personal acts
of individuals. For even the devils pray that they may not be tormented, which
proves that without injustice they might either be spared or tormented
according to their deserts. And men are punished by God for their sins often
visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after death, although no man
acts rightly save by the assistance of divine aid; and no man or devil acts
unrighteously save by the permission of the divine and most just judgment. For,
as the apostle says, "There is no unrighteousness with God;" and as
he elsewhere says, "His judgments are inscrutable, and His ways past
finding out" In this book, then, I shall speak, as God permits, not of
those first judgments, nor of these intervening judgments of God, but of the
last judgment, when Christ is to come from heaven to judge the quick and the
dead. For that day is properly called the day of judgment, because in it there
shall be no room left for the ignorant questioning why this wicked person is
happy and that righteous man unhappy. In that day true and full happiness shall
be the lot of none but the good, while deserved and supreme misery shall be the
portion of the wicked, and of them only.
BOOK XX CHAPTER 4: THAT PROOFS OF THE LAST JUDGMENT WILL BE
ADDUCED FROM THE NEW AND OLD TESTAMENT
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.
BOOK XX CHAPTER 6: WHAT IS THE FIRST RESURRECTION, AND WHAT THE
SECOND
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."
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 m 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.
BOOK XX CHAPTER 10: WHAT IS TO BE REPLIED TO THOSE WHO THINK THAT
RESURRECTION PERTAINS ONLY TO BODIES AND NOT TO SOULS
There are some who suppose that resurrection can be predicated
only of the body, and therefore they contend that this first resurrection (of
the Apocalypse) is a bodily resurrection. For, say they, "to rise
again" can only be said of things that fall. Now, bodies fall in death.
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.
BOOK XX CHAPTER 16: OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH
Having finished the prophecy of judgment, so far as the wicked are
concerned, it remains that he speak also of the good. Having briefly explained
the Lord's words, "These will go away into everlasting punishment,"
it remains that he explain the connected words, "but the righteous into
life eternal." "And I saw," he says, "a new heaven and a
new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away; and there
is no more sea." This will take place in the order which he has by
anticipation declared in the words, "I saw One sitting on the throne, from
whose face heaven and earth fled." For as soon as those who are not
written in the book of life have been judged and cast into eternal fire, ‹ the nature of which
fire, or its position in the world or universe, I suppose is known to no man,
unless perhaps the divine Spirit reveal it to some one, ‹ then shall the
figure of this world pass away in a conflagration of universal fire, as once
before the world was flooded with a deluge of universal water. And by this
universal conflagration the qualities of the corruptible elements which suited
our corruptible bodies shall utterly perish, and our substance shall receive
such qualities as shall, by a wonderful transmutation, harmonize with our
immortal bodies, so that, as the world itself is renewed to some better thing,
it is fitly accommodated to men, themselves renewed in their flesh to some
better thing. As for the statement, "And there shall be no more sea,"
I would not lightly say whether it is dried up with that excessive heat, or is
itself also turned into some better thing. For we read that there shall be a
new heaven and a new earth, but I do not remember to have anywhere read
anything of a new sea, unless what I find in this same book, "As it were a
sea of glass like crystal " But he was not then speaking of this end of
the world, neither does he seem to speak of a literal sea, but "as it were
a sea." It is possible that, as prophetic diction delights in mingling
figurative and real language, and thus in some sort veiling the sense, so the
words "And there is no more sea" may be taken in the same sense as
the previous phrase, "And the sea presented the dead which were in
it." For then there shall be no more of this world, no more of the
surgings and restlessness of human life, and it is this which is symbolized by
the sea.
BOOK XX CHAPTER 27: OF THE SEPARATION OF THE GOOD AND THE BAD,
WHICH PROCLAIM THE DISCRIMINATING INFLUENCE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT
The passage also which I formerly quoted for another purpose from
this prophet refers to the last judgment, in which he says, "They shall be
mine, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day in which I make up my gains,"
etc. When this diversity between the rewards and punishments which distinguish
the righteous from the wicked shall appear under that Sun of righteousness in
the brightness of life eternal, ‹ a diversity which
is not discerned under this sun which shines on the vanity of this life, ‹ there shall then be
such a judgment as has never before been.
BOOK XXI CHAPTER 2:
WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE FOR BODIES TO LAST FOR EVER IN BURNING FIRE
What, then, can I adduce to convince those who refuse to believe
that human bodies, animated and living, can not only survive death, but also
last in the torments of everlasting fires? They will not allow us to refer this
simply to the power of the Almighty, but demand that we persuade them by some
example. If, then, we reply to them, that there are animals which certainly are
corruptible, because they are mortal, and which yet live in the midst of
flames; and likewise, that in springs of water so hot that no one can put his
hand in it with impunity a species of worm is found, which not only lives
there, but cannot live elsewhere; they either refuse to believe these facts
unless we can show them, or, if we are in circumstances to prove them by ocular
demonstration or by adequate testimony, they contend, with the same scepticism,
that these facts are not examples of what we seek to prove, inasmuch as these
animals do not live for ever, and besides, they live in that blaze of heat
without pain, the element of fire being congenial to their nature, and causing
it to thrive and not to suffer, ‹ just as if it were
not more incredible that it should thrive than that it should suffer in such
circumstances. It is strange that anything should suffer in fire and yet live,
but stranger that it should live in fire and not suffer. If, then, the latter
be believed, why not also the former?
BOOK XXI CHAPTER 9 OF
HELL, AND THE NATURE OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS
So then what God by His prophet has said of the everlasting
punishment of the damned shall come to pass ‹ shall without fail
come to pass, ‹ "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be
quenched." In order to impress this upon us most forcibly, the Lord Jesus
Himself, when ordering us to cut off our members, meaning thereby those persons
whom a man loves as the most useful members of his body, says, "It is
better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into
hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not,
and their fire is not quenched." Similarly of the foot: "It is better
for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell,
into the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched." So, too, of the eye: "It is better for thee to
enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast
into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched."
He did not shrink from using the same words three times over in one passage.
And who is not terrified by this repetition, and by the threat of that
punishment uttered so vehemently by the lips of the Lord Himself?
Now they who would refer both the fire and the worm to the spirit,
and not to the body, affirm that the wicked, who are separated from the
kindgdom of God, shall be burned, as it were, by the anguish of a spirit
repenting too late and fruitlessly; and they contend that fire is therefore not
inappropriately used to express this burning torment, as when the apostle
exclaims "Who is offended, and I burn not?" The worm, too, they
think, is to be similarly understood. For it is written they say, "As the
moth consumes the garment, and the worm the wood, so does grief consume the heart
of a man." But they who make no doubt that in that future punishment both
body and soul shall suffer, affirm that the body shall be burned with fire,
while the soul shall be, as it were, gnawed by a worm of anguish. Though this
view is more reasonable, ‹ for it is absurd to suppose that either body or soul will escape
pain in the future punishment, ‹ yet, for my own part, I find it easier to
understand both as referring to the body than to suppose that neither does; and
I think that Scripture is silent regarding the spiritual pain of the damned,
because, though not expressed, it is necessarily understood that in a body thus
tormented the soul also is tortured with a fruitless repentance. For we read in
the ancient Scriptures, "The vengeance of the flesh of the ungodly is fire
and worms." It might have been more briefly said, "The vengeance of
the ungodly." Why, then, was it said, "The flesh of the
ungodly," unless because both the fire and the worm are to be the
punishment of the flesh? Or if the object of the writer in saying, "The
vengeance of the flesh," was to indicate that this shall be the punishment
of those who live after the flesh (for this leads to the second death, as the
apostle intimated when he said, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die",
let each one make his own choice, either assigning the fire to the body and the
worm to the soul, ‹ the one figuratively, the other really, ‹ or assigning both
really to the body. For I have already sufficiently made out that animals can
live in the fire, in burning without being consumed, in without dying, by a
miracle of the most omnipotent Creator, to whom no one can deny that this is
possible, if he be not ignorant by whom has been made all that is wonderful in
all nature. For it is God Himself who has wrought all these miracles, great and
small, in this world which I have mentioned, and incomparably more which I have
omitted, and who has enclosed these marvels in this world, itself the greatest
miracle of all. Let each man, then, choose which he will, whether he thinks
that the worm is real and pertains to the body, or that spiritual things are
meant by bodily representations, and that it belongs to the soul. But which of
these is true will be more readily discovered by the facts themselves, when
there shall be in the saints such knowledge as shall not require that their own
experience teach them the nature of these punishments, but as shall, by its own
fullness and perfection, suffice to instruct them in this matter. For "now
we know in part, until that which is perfect is come;" only, this we
believe about those future bodies, that they shall be such as shall certainly
be pained by the fire.
BOOK XXI CHAPTER 10: WHETHER THE FIRE OF HELL, IF IT BE MATERIAL
FIRE, CAN BURN THE WICKED SPIRITS, THAT IS TO SAY, DEVILS, WHO ARE IMMATERIAL
Here arises the question: If the fire is not to be immaterial,
analogous to the pain of the soul, but material, burning by contact, so that
bodies may be tormented in it, how can evil spirits be punished in it? For it
is undoubtedly the same fire which is to serve for the punishment of men and of
devils, according to the words of Christ: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;" unless, perhaps,
as learned men have thought, the devils have a kind of body made of that dense
and humid air which we feel strikes us when the wind is blowing. And if this
kind of substance could not be affected by fire, it could not burn when heated
in the baths. For in order to burn, it is first burned, and affects other
things as itself is affected. But if any one maintains that the devils have no
bodies, this is not a matter either to be laboriously investigated, or to be
debated with keenness. For why may we not assert that even immaterial spirits
may, in some extraordinary way, yet really be pained by the punishment of
material fire, if the spirits of men, which also are certainly immaterial, are
both now contained in material members of the body, and in the world to come
shall be indissolubly united to their own bodies? Therefore, though the devils
have no bodies, yet their spirits, that is, the devils themselves, shall be
brought into thorough contact with the material fires, to be tormented by them;
not that the fires themselves with which they are brought into contact shall be
animated by their connection with these spirits, and become animals composed of
body and spirit, but, as I said, this junction will be effected in a wonderful
and ineffable way, so that they shall receive pain from the fires, but give no
life to them. And, in truth, this other mode of union, by which bodies and
spirits are bound together and become animals, is thoroughly marvelous, and
beyond the comprehension of man, though this it is which is man. I would indeed
say that these spirits will burn without any body of their own, as that rich
man was burning in hell when he exclaimed, "I am tormented in this
flame," were I not aware that it is aptly said in reply, that that flame
was of the same nature as the eyes he raised and fixed on Lazarus, as the
tongue on which he entreated that a little cooling water might be dropped, or
as the finger of Lazarus, with which he asked that this might be done, ‹ all of which took
place where souls exist without bodies. Thus, therefore, both that flame in
which he burned and that drop he begged were immaterial, and resembled the
visions of sleepers or persons in an ecstasy, to whom immaterial objects appear
in a bodily form. For the man himself who is in such a state, though it be in
spirit only, not in body, yet sees himself so like to his own body that he
cannot discern any difference whatever. But that hell, which also is called a
lake of fire and brimstone, will be material fire, and will torment the bodies
of the damned, whether men or devils, ‹ the solid bodies of
the one, aerial bodies of the others; or if only men have bodies as well as
souls, yet the evil spirits, though without bodies, shall be so connected with
the bodily fires as to receive pain without imparting life. One fire certainly
shall be the lot of both, for thus the truth has declared.
BOOK XXI CHAPTER 16: THE LAWS OF GRACE, WHICH EXTEND TO ALL THE
EPOCHS OF THE LIFE OF THE REGENERATE
But such is God's mercy towards the vessels of mercy which He has
prepared for glory, that even the first age of man, that is, infancy, which
submits without any resistance to the flesh, and the second age, which is
called boyhood, and which has not yet understanding enough to undertake this
warfare, and therefore yields to almost every vicious pleasure (because though
this age has the power of speech, and may therefore seem to have passed
infancy, the mind is still too weak to comprehend the commandment), yet if
either of these ages has received the sacraments of the Mediator, then,
although the present life be immediately brought to an end, the child, having
been translated from the power of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, shall not
only be saved from eternal punishments, but shall not even suffer purgatorial
torments after death. For spiritual regeneration of itself suffices to prevent
any evil consequences resulting after death from the connection with death
which carnal generation forms. But when we reach that age which can now
comprehend the commandment, and submit to the dominion of law, we must declare
war upon vices, and wage this war keenly, lest we be landed in damnable sins.
And if vices have not gathered strength, by habitual victory they are more
easily overcome and subdued; but if they have been used to conquer and rule, it
is only with difficulty and labor they are mastered. And indeed this victory
cannot be sincerely and truly gained but by delighting in true righteousness,
and it is faith in Christ that gives this. For if the law be present with its
command, and the Spirit be absent with His help, the presence of the
prohibition serves only to increase the desire to sin, and adds the guilt of
transgression. Sometimes, indeed, patent vices are overcome by other and hidden
vices, which are reckoned virtues, though pride and a kind of ruinous
self-sufficiency are their informing principles. Accordingly vices are then
only to be considered overcome when they are conquered by the love of God,
which God Himself alone gives, and which He gives only through the Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who became a partaker of our
mortality that He might make us partakers of His divinity. But few indeed are
they who are so happy as to have passed their youth without committing any
damnable sins, either by dissolute or violent conduct, or by following some godless
and unlawful opinions, but have subdued by their greatness of soul everything
in them which could make them the slaves of carnal pleasures. The greater
number having first become transgressors of the law that they have received,
and having allowed vice to have the ascendancy in them, then flee to grace for
help, and so, by a penitence more bitter, and a struggle more violent than it
would otherwise have been, they subdue the soul to God, and thus give it its
lawful authority over the flesh, and become victors. Whoever, therefore,
desires to escape eternal punishment, let him not only be baptized, but also
justified in Christ, and so let him in truth pass from the devil to Christ. And
let him not fancy that there are any purgatorial pains except before that final
and dreadful judgment. We must not, however deny that even the eternal fire
will be proportioned to the deserts of the wicked, so that to some it will be
more, and to others less painful, whether this result be accomplished by a
variation in the temperature of the fire itself, graduated according to every
one's merit, or whether it be that the heat remains the same, but that all do
not feel it with equal intensity of torment.
BOOK XXI CHAPTER 21: OF THOSE WHO ASSERT THAT ALL CATHOLICS WHO
CONTINUE IN THE FAITH EVEN THOUGH BY THE DEPRAVITY OF THEIR LIVES THEY HAVE
MERITED HELL FIRE, SHALL BE SAVED ON ACCOUNT OF THE "FOUNDATION" OF
THEIR FAITH
There are some, too, who found upon the expression of Scripture,
"He that endureth to the end shall be saved," and who promise
salvation only to those who continue in the Church catholic; and though such
persons have lived badly, yet, say they, they shall be saved as by fire through
virtue of the foundation of which the apostle says, "For other foundation
hath no man laid than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man
build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day of the Lord shall declare
it, for it shall be revealed by fire; and each man's work shall be proved of
what sort it is. If any man's work shall endure which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. But if any man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." They
say, accordingly, that the catholic Christian, no matter what his life be, has
Christ as his foundation, while this foundation is not possessed by any heresy
which is separated from the unity of His body. And therefore, through virtue of
this foundation, even though the catholic Christian by the inconsistency of his
life has been as one building up wood, hay, stubble, upon it, they believe that
he shall be saved by fire, in other words, that he shall be delivered after
tasting the pain of that fire to which the wicked shall be condemned at the
last judgment.
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 3: OF THE PROMISE OF ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS TO THE
SAINTS, AND EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT TO THE WICKED
Wherefore, not to mention many other instances besides, as we now
see in Christ the fulfillment of that which God promised to Abraham when He
said, "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed," so this also shall
be fulfilled which He promised to the same race, when He said by the prophet,
"They that are in their sepulchers shall rise again," and also,
"There shall be a new heaven and a new earth: and the former shall not be
mentioned, nor come into mind; but they shall find joy and rejoicing in it: for
I will make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and my people a joy. And I will rejoice in
Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more
heard in her." And by another prophet He uttered the same prediction:
"At that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found
written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust" (or, as some
interpret it, "in the mound") "of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And in
another place by the same prophet: "The saints of the Most High shall take
the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and
ever." And a little after he says, "His kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom." Other prophecies referring to the same subject I have advanced
in the twentieth book, and others still which I have not advanced are found
written in the same Scriptures; and these predictions shall be fulfilled, as
those also have been which unbelieving men supposed would be frustrate. For it
is the same God who promised both, and predicted that both would come to pass, ‹ the God whom the
pagan deities tremble before, as even Porphyry, the noblest of pagan
philosophers, testifies.
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 11: AGAINST THE PLATONISTS, WHO ARGUE FROM THE
PHYSICAL WEIGHT OF THE ELEMENTS THAT AN EARTHLY BODY CANNOT INHABIT HEAVEN
But against this great gift of God, these reasoners, "whose
thoughts the Lord knows that they are vain" bring arguments from the
weights of the elements; for they have been taught by their master Plato that the
two greatest elements of the world, and the furthest removed from one another,
are coupled and united by the two intermediate, air and water. And consequently
they say, since the earth is the first of the elements, beginning from the base
of the series, the second the water above the earth, the third the air above
the water, the fourth the heaven above the air, it follows that a body of earth
cannot live in the heaven; for each element is poised by its own weight so as
to preserve its own place and rank. Behold with what arguments human infirmity,
possessed with vanity, contradicts the omnipotence of God! What, then, do so
many earthly bodies do in the air, since the air is the third element from the
earth? Unless perhaps He who has granted to the earthly bodies of birds that
they be carried through the air by the lightness of feathers and wings, has not
been able to confer upon the bodies of men made immortal the power to abide in
the highest heaven. The earthly animals, too, which cannot fly, among which are
men, ought on these terms to live under the earth, as fishes, which are the
animals of the water, live under the water. Why, then, can an animal of earth
not live in the second element, that is, in water, while it can in the third?
Why, though it belongs to the earth, is it forthwith suffocated if it is forced
to live in the second element next above earth, while it lives in the third,
and cannot live out of it? Is there a mistake here in the order of the
elements, or is not the mistake rather in their reasonings, and not in the
nature of things? I will not repeat what I said in the thirteenth book, that
many earthly bodies, though heavy like lead, receive from the workman's hand a
form which enables them to swim in water; and yet it is denied that the omnipotent
Worker can confer on the human body a property which shall enable it to pass
into heaven and dwell there.
But against what I have formerly said they can find nothing to
say, even though they introduce and make the most of this order of the elements
in which they confide. For if the order be that the earth is first, the water
second, the air third, the heaven fourth, then the soul is above all. For
Aristotle said that the soul was a fifth body, while Plato denied that it was a
body at all. If it were a fifth body, then certainly it would be above the
rest; and if it is not a body at all, so much the more does it rise above all.
What, then, does it do in an earthly body? What does this soul, which is finer
than all else, do in such a mass of matter as this? What does the lightest of
substances do in this ponderosity? this swiftest substance in such
sluggishness? Will not the body be raised to heaven by virtue of so excellent a
nature as this? and if now earthly bodies can retain the souls below, shall not
the souls be one day able to raise the earthly bodies above?
If we pass now to their miracles which they oppose to our martyrs
as wrought by their gods, shall not even these be found to make for us, and
help out our argument? For if any of the miracles of their gods are great,
certainly that is a great one which Varro mentions of a vestal virgin, who,
when she was endangered by a false accusation of unchastity, filled a sieve
with water from the Tiber, and carried it to her judges without any part of it
leaking. Who kept the weight of water in the sieve? Who prevented any drop from
falling from it through so many open holes? They will answer, Some god or some
demon. If a god, is he greater than the God who made the world? If a demon, is
he mightier than an angel who serves the God by whom the world was made? If,
then, a lesser god, angel, or demon could so sustain the weight of this liquid
element that the water might seem to have changed its nature, shall not
Almighty God, who Himself created all the elements, be able to eliminate from
the earthly body its heaviness, so that the quickened body shall dwell in
whatever element the quickening spirit pleases?
Then, again, since they give the air a middle place between the
fire above and the water beneath, how is it that we often find it between water
and water, and between the water and the earth? For what do they make of those
watery clouds, between which and the seas air is constantly found intervening?
I should like to know by what weight and order of the elements it comes to pass
that very violent and stormy torrents are suspended in the clouds above the
earth before they rush along upon the earth under the air. In fine, why is it
that throughout the whole globe the air is between the highest heaven and the
earth, if its place is between the sky and the water, as the place of the water
is between the sky and the earth?
Finally, if the order of the elements is so disposed that, as
Plato thinks, the two extremes, fire and earth, are united by the two means, air
and water, and that the fire occupies the highest part of the sky, and the
earth the lowest part, or as it were the foundation of the world, and that
therefore earth cannot be in the heavens, how is fire in the earth? For,
according to this reasoning, these two elements, earth and fire, ought to be so
restricted to their own places, the highest and the lowest, that neither the
lowest can rise to the place of the highest, nor the highest sink to that of
the lowest. Thus, as they think that no particle of earth is or shall ever be
in the sky so we ought to see no particle of fire on the earth. But the fact is
that it exists to such an extent, not only on but even under the earth, that
the tops of mountains vomit it forth; besides that we see it to exist on earth
for human uses, and even to be produced from the earth, since it is kindled
from wood and stones, which are without doubt earthly bodies. But that [upper]
fire, they say, is tranquil, pure, harmless, eternal; but this [earthly] fire
is turbid, smoky, corruptible, and corrupting. But it does not corrupt the
mountains and caverns of the earth in which it rages continually. But grant
that the earthly fire is so unlike the other as to suit its earthly position,
why then do they object to our believing that the nature of earthly bodies
shall some day be made incorruptible and fit for the sky, even as now fire is
corruptible and suited to the earth? They therefore adduce from their weights
and order of the elements nothing from which they can prove that it is
impossible for Almighty God to make our bodies such that they can dwell in the
skies.
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 14: WHETHER INFANTS SHALL RISE IN THAT BODY
WHICH THEY WOULD HAVE HAD HAD THEY GROWN UP
What, then, are we to say of infants, if not that they will not
rise in that diminutive body in which they died, but shall receive by the
marvelous and rapid operation of God that body which time by a slower process
would have given them? For in the Lord's words, where He says, "Not a hair
of your head shall perish," it is asserted that nothing which was
possessed shall be wanting; but it is not said that nothing which was not
possessed shall be given. To the dead infant there was wanting the perfect
stature of its body; for even the perfect infant lacks the perfection of bodily
size, being capable of further growth. This perfect stature is, in a sense, so
possessed by all that they are conceived and born with it, ‹ that is, they have
it potentially, though not yet in actual bulk; just as all the members of the
body are potentially in the seed, though, even after the child is born, some of
them, the teeth for example, may be wanting. In this seminal principle of every
substance, there seems to be, as it were, the beginning of everything which
does not yet exist, or rather does not appear, but which in process of time
will come into being, or rather into sight. In this, therefore, the child who
is to be tall or short is already tall or short. And in the resurrection of the
body, we need, for the same reason, fear no bodily loss; for though all should
be of equal size, and reach gigantic proportions, lest the men who were largest
here should lose anything of their bulk and it should perish, in contradiction
to the words of Christ, who said that not a hair of their head should perish,
yet why should there lack the means by which that wonderful Worker should make
such additions, seeing that He is the Creator, who Himself created all things
out of nothing?
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 17: WHETHER THE BODIES OF WOMEN SHALL RETAIN THEIR
OWN SEX IN THE RESURRECTION
From the words, "Till we all come to a perfect man, to the
measure of the age of the fullness of Christ," and from the words,
"Conformed to the image of the Son of God," some conclude that women
shall not rise women, but that all shall be men, because God made man only of
earth, and woman of the man. For my part, they seem to be wiser who make no
doubt that both sexes shall rise, For there shall be no lust, which is now the
cause of confusion. For before they sinned, the man and the woman were naked,
and were not ashamed. From those bodies, then, vice shall be withdrawn, while
nature shall be preserved. And the sex of woman is not a vice, but nature. It
shall then indeed be superior to carnal intercourse and child-bearing; nevertheless
the female members shall remain adapted not to the old uses, but to a new
beauty, which, so far from provoking lust, now extinct, shall excite praise to
the wisdom and clemency of God, who both made what was not and delivered from
corruption what He made. For at the beginning of the human race the woman was
made of a rib taken from the side of the man while he slept; for it seemed fit
that even then Christ and His Church should be fore-shadowed in this event. For
that sleep of the man was the death of Christ, whose side, as He hung lifeless
upon the cross, was pierced with a spear, and there flowed from it blood and
water, and these we know to be the sacraments by which the Church is
"built up." For Scripture used this very word, not saying "He
formed" or "framed," but "built her up into a woman;"
whence also the apostle speaks of the edification of the body of Christ, which
is the Church. The woman, therefore, is a creature of God even as the man; but
by her creation from man unity is commended; and the manner of her creation
prefigured, as has been said, Christ and the Church. He, then, who created both
sexes will restore both. Jesus Himself also, when asked by the Sadducees, who
denied the resurrection, which of the seven brothers should have to wife the
woman whom all in succession had taken to raise up seed to their brother, as
the law enjoined, says, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the
power of God." And though it was a fit opportunity for His saying, She
about whom you make inquiries shall herself be a man, and not a woman, He said
nothing of the kind; but "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." They shall be
equal to the angels in immortality and happiness, not in flesh, nor in
resurrection, which the angels did not need, because they could not die. The
Lord then denied that there would be in the resurrection, not women, but
marriages; and He uttered this denial in circumstances in which the question
mooted would have been more easily and speedily solved by denying that the
female sex would exist, if this had in truth been foreknown by Him. But,
indeed, He even affirmed that the sex should exist by saying, "They shall
not be given in marriage," which can only apply to females; "Neither
shall they marry," which applies to males. There shall therefore be those
who are in this world accustomed to marry and be given in marriage, only they
shall there make no such marriages.
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 29: OF THE BEATIFIC VISION
And now let us consider, with such ability as God may vouchsafe,
how the saints shall be employed when they are clothed in immortal and
spiritual bodies, and when the flesh shall live no longer in a fleshly but a
spiritual fashion. And indeed, to tell the truth, I am at a loss to understand
the nature of that employment, or, shall I rather say, repose and ease, for it
has never come within the range of my bodily senses. And if I should speak of
my mind or understanding, what is our understanding in comparison of its
excellence? For then shall be that "peace of God which," as the
apostle says, "passeth all understanding," ‹ that is to say, all
human, and perhaps all angelic understanding, but certainly not the divine.
That it passeth ours there is no doubt; but if it passeth that of the angels, ‹ and he who says
"all understanding" seems to make no exception in their favor, then
we must understand him to mean that neither we nor the angels can understand,
as God understands, the peace which God Himself enjoys. Doubtless this passeth
all understanding but His own. But as we shall one day be made to participate,
according to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in ourselves, and with
our neighbor, and with God our chief good, in this respect the angels
understand the peace of God in their own measure, and men too, though now far
behind them, whatever spiritual advance they have made. For we must remember how
great a man he was who said, "We know in part, and we prophesy in part,
until that which is perfect is come;" and "Now we see through a
glass, darkly; but then face to face." Such also is now the vision of the
holy angels, who are also called our angels, because we, being rescued out of
the power of darkness, and receiving the earnest of the Spirit, are translated
into the kingdom of Christ, and already begin to belong to those angels with
whom we shall enjoy that holy and most delightful city of God of which we have
now written so much. Thus, then, the angels of God are our angels, as Christ is
God's and also ours. They are God's, because they have not abandoned Him; they
are ours, because we are their fellow-citizens. The Lord Jesus also said,
"See that ye despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you,
That in heaven their angels do always see the face of my Father which is in
heaven." As, then, they see, so shall we also see; but not yet do we thus
see. Wherefore the apostle uses the words cited a little ago, "Now we see
through a glass, darkly; but then face to face." This vision is reserved
as the reward of our faith; and of it the Apostle John also says, "When He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
"By "the face" of God we are to understand His manifestation,
and not a part of the body similar to that which in our bodies we call by that
name.
And so, when I am asked how the saints shall be employed in that
spiritual body, I do not say what I see, but I say what I believe, according to
that which I read in the psalm, "I believed, therefore have I
spoken." I say, then, they shall in the body see God; but whether they
shall see Him by means of the body, as now we see the sun, moon, stars, sea,
earth, and all that is in it, that is a difficult question. For it is hard to
say that the saints shall then have such bodies that they shall not be able to
shut and open their eyes as they please; while it is harder still to say that
every one who shuts his eyes shall lose the vision of God. For if the prophet
Elisha, though at a distance, saw his servant Gehazi, who thought that his
wickedness would escape his master's observation and accepted gifts from Naaman
the Syrian, whom the prophet had cleansed from his foul leprosy, how much more
shall the saints in the spiritual body see all things, not only though their
eyes be shut, but though they themselves be at a great distance? For then shall
be "that which is perfect," of which the apostle says," We know
in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, then
that which is in part shall be done away." Then, that he may illustrate as
well as possible, by a simile, how superior the future life is to the life now
lived, not only by ordinary men, but even by the foremost of the saints, he
says, "When I was a child, I understood as a child, I spake as a child, I
thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we
see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but
then shall I know even as also I am known." If, then, even in this life,
in which the prophetic power of remarkable men is no more worthy to be compared
to the vision of the future life than childhood is to manhood, Elisha, though
distant from his servant, saw him accepting gifts, shall we say that when that
which is perfect is come, and the corruptible body no longer oppresses the
soul, but is incorruptible and offers no impediment to it, the saints shall
need bodily eyes to see, though Elisha had no need of them to see his servant?
For, following the Septuagint version, these are the prophet's words: "Did
not my heart go with thee, when the man came out of his chariot to meet thee,
and thou tookedst his gifts?" Or, as the presbyter Jerome rendered it from
the Hebrew, "Was not my heart present when the man turned from his chariot
to meet thee?" The prophet said that he saw this with his heart,
miraculously aided by God, as no one can doubt. But how much more abundantly
shall the saints enjoy this gift when God shall be all in all? Nevertheless the
bodily eyes also shall have their office and their place, and shall be used by
the spirit through the spiritual body. For the prophet did not forego the use
of his eyes for seeing what was before them, though he did not need them to see
his absent servant, and though he could have seen these present objects in
spirit, and with his eyes shut, as he saw things far distant in a place where
he himself was not. Far be it, then, from us to say that in the life to come the
saints shall not see God when their eyes are shut, since they shall always see
Him with the spirit.
But the question arises, whether, when their eyes are open, they
shall see Him with the bodily eye? If the eyes of the spiritual body have no
more power than the eyes which we now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen
with them. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that
incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every
place. For though we say that God is in heaven and on earth, as He, Himself
says by the prophet, "I fill heaven and earth," we do not mean that
there is one part of God in heaven and another part on earth; but He is all in
heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time, but both at once,
as no bodily nature can be. The eye, then, shall have a vastly superior power, ‹ the power not of
keen sight, such as is ascribed to serpents or eagles, for however keenly these
animals see, they can discern nothing but bodily substances, ‹ but the power of
seeing things incorporeal. Possibly it was this great power of vision which was
temporarily communicated to the eyes of the holy Job while yet in this mortal
body, when he says to God, "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and melt away, and
count myself dust and ashes;" although there is no reason why we should
not understand this of the eve of the heart, of which the apostle says,
"Having the eyes of your heart illuminated." But that God shall be
seen with these eyes no Christian doubts who believingly accepts what our God
and Master says, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God." But whether in the future life God shall also be seen with the
bodily eye, this is now our question.
The expression of Scripture, "And all flesh shall see the
salvation of God," may without difficulty be understood as if it were
said, "And every man shall see the Christ of God." And He certainly
was seen in the body, and shall be seen in the body when He judges quick and
dead. And that Christ is the salvation of God, many other passages of Scripture
witness, but especially the words of the venerable Simeon, who, when he had
received into his hands the infant Christ, said, "Now lettest Thou Thy
servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation." As for the words of the above-mentioned Job, as they are found
in the Hebrew manuscripts, "And in my flesh I shall see God," no
doubt they were a prophecy of the resurrection of the flesh; yet he does not
say "by the flesh." And indeed, if he had said this, it would still
be possible that Christ was meant by "God;" for Christ shall be seen
by the flesh in the flesh. But even understanding it of God, it is only equivalent
to saying, I shall be in tile flesh when I see God. Then the apostle's
expression, "face to face, does not oblige us to believe that we shall see
God by the bodily face in which are the eyes of the body, for we shall see Him
without intermission in spirit. And if the apostle had not referred to the face
of the inner man, he would not have said, "But we, with unveiled face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same
image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord." In the same
sense we understand what the Psalmist sings, "Draw near unto Him, and be
enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed." For it is by faith we
draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit, not of the body. But as we
do not know what degree of perfection the spiritual body shall attain, ‹ for here we speak
of a matter of which we have no experience, and upon which the authority of
Scripture does not definitely pronounce, ‹ it is necessary
that the words of the Book of Wisdom be illustrated in us: "The thoughts
of mortal men are timid, and our fore-castings uncertain."
For if that reasoning of the philosophers, by which they attempt
to make out that intelligible or mental objects are so seen by the mind, and
sensible or bodily objects so seen by the body, that the former cannot be
discerned by the mind through the body, nor the latter by the mind itself
without the body, ‹ if this reasoning were trustworthy, then it would certainly
follow that God could not be seen by the eye even of a spiritual body. But this
reasoning is exploded both by true reason and by prophetic authority. For who
is so little acquainted with the truth as to say that God has no cognizance of
sensible objects? Has He therefore a body, the eyes of which give Him this
knowledge? Moreover, what we have just been relating of the prophet Elisha,
does this not sufficiently show that bodily things can be discerned by the
spirit without the help of the body? For when that servant received the gifts,
certainly this was a bodily or material transaction, yet the prophet saw it not
by the body, but by the spirit. As, therefore, it is agreed that bodies are
seen by the spirit, what if the power of the spiritual body shall be so great
that spirit also is seen by the body? For God is a spirit. Besides, each man
recognizes his own life ‹ that life by which he now lives in the body, and which vivifies
these earthly members and causes them to grow ‹ by an interior
sense, and not by his bodily eye; but the life of other men, though it is
invisible, he sees with the bodily eye. For how do we distinguish between
living and dead bodies, except by seeing at once both the body and the life
which we cannot see save by the eye? But a life without a body we cannot see
thus.
Wherefore it may very well be, and it is thoroughly credible, that
we shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the
new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere
present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall see
Him, not as now we understand the invisible things of God, by the things which
are made, and see Him darkly, as in a mirror, and in part, and rather by faith
than by bodily vision of material appearances, but by means of the bodies we
shall wear and which we shall see wherever we turn our eyes. As we do not
believe, but see that the living men around us who are exercising vital
functions are alive, though we cannot see their life without their bodies, but
see it most distinctly by means of their bodies, so, wherever we shall look
with those spiritual eyes of our future bodies, we shall then, too, by means of
bodily substances behold God, though a spirit, ruling all things. Either,
therefore, the eyes shall possess some quality similar to that of the mind, by
which they may be able to discern spiritual things, and among these God, ‹ a supposition for
which it is difficult or even impossible to find any support in Scripture, ‹ or, which is more
easy to comprehend, God will be so known by us, and shall be so much before us,
that we shall see Him by the spirit in ourselves, in one another, in Himself,
in the new heavens and the new earth, in every created thing which shall then
exist; and also by the body we shall see Him in every body which the keen
vision of the eye of the spiritual body shall reach. Our thoughts also shall be
visible to all, for then shall be fulfilled the words of the apostle,
"Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of
the heart, and then shall every one have praise of God."
BOOK XXII CHAPTER 30: OF THE ETERNAL FELICITY OF THE CITY OF GOD,
AND OF THE PERPETUAL SABBATH
How great shall be that felicity, which shall be tainted with no
evil, which shall lack no good, and which shall afford leisure for the praises
of God, who shall be all in all! For I know not what other employment there can
be where no lassitude shall slacken activity, nor any want stimulate to labor.
I am admonished also by the sacred song, in which I read or hear the words,
"Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord; they will be still
praising Thee." All the members and organs of the incorruptible body,
which now we see to be suited to various necessary uses, shall contribute to
the praises of God; for in that life necessity shall have no place, but full,
certain, secure, everlasting felicity. For all those parts of the bodily
harmony, which are distributed through the whole body, within and without, and
of which I have just been saying that they at present elude our observation,
shall then be discerned; and, along with the other great and marvelous
discoveries which shall then kindle rational minds in praise of the great
Artificer, there shall be the enjoyment of a beauty which appeals to, the
reason. What power of movement such bodies shall possess, I have not the
audacity rashly to define, as I have not the ability to conceive. Nevertheless
I will say that in any case, both in motion and at rest, they shall be, as in
their appearance, seemly; for into that state nothing which is unseemly shall
be admitted. One thing is certain, the body shall forthwith be wherever the
spirit wills, and the spirit shall will nothing which is unbecoming either to
the spirit or to the body. True honor shall be there, for it shall be denied to
none who is worthy, nor yielded to any unworthy; neither shall any unworthy
person so much as sue for it, for none but the worthy shall be there. True
peace shall be there, where no one shall suffer opposition either from himself
or any other. God Himself, who is the Author of virtue, shall there be its
reward; for, as there is nothing greater or better, He has promised Himself.
What else was meant by His word through the prophet, "I will be your God,
and ye shall be my people," than, I shall be their satisfaction, I shall
be all that men honorably desire, ‹ life, and health,
and nourishment, and plenty, and glory, and honor, and peace, and all good
things? This, too, is the right interpretation of the saying of the apostle,
"That God may be all in all." He shall be the end of our desires who
shall be seen without end, loved without cloy, praised without weariness. This
outgoing of affection, this employment, shall certainly be, like eternal life
itself, common to all.
But who can conceive, not to say describe, what degrees of honor
and glory shall be awarded to the various degrees of merit? Yet it cannot be
doubted that there shall be degrees. And in that blessed city there shall be
this great blessing, that no inferior shall envy any superior, as now the
archangels are not envied by the angels, because no one will wish to be what he
has not received, though bound in strictest concord with him who has received;
as in the body the finger does not seek to be the eye, though both members are
harmoniously included in the complete structure of the body. And thus, along
with his gift, greater or less, each shall receive this further gift of
contentment to desire no more than he has.
Neither are we to suppose that because sin shall have no power to
delight them, free will must be withdrawn. It will, on the contrary, be all the
more truly free, because set free from delight in sinning to take unfailing
delight in not sinning. For the first freedom of will which man received when
he was created upright consisted in an ability not to sin, but also in an
ability to sin; whereas this last freedom of will shall be superior, inasmuch.
as it shall not be able to sin. This, indeed, shall not be a natural ability,
but the gift of God. For it is one thing to be God, another thing to be a
partaker of God. God by nature cannot sin, but the partaker of God receives
this inability from God. And in this divine gift there was to be observed this
gradation, that man should first receive a free will by which he was able not
to sin, and at last a free will by which he was not able to sin, ‹ the former being
adapted to the acquiring of merit, the latter to the enjoying of the reward.
But the nature thus constituted, having sinned when it had the ability to do
so, it is by a more abundant grace that it is delivered so as to reach that
freedom in which it cannot sin. For as the first immortality which Adam lost by
sinning consisted in his being able not to die, while the last shall consist in
his not being able to die; so the first free will consisted in his being able
not to sin, the last in his not being able to sin. And thus piety and justice
shall be as indefeasible as happiness. For certainly by sinning we lost both
piety and happiness; but when we lost happiness, we did not lose the love of
it. Are we to say that God Himself is not free because He cannot sin? In that
city, then, there shall be free will, one in all the citizens, and indivisible
in each, delivered from all ill, filled with all good, enjoying indefeasibly
the delights of eternal joys, oblivious of sins, oblivious of sufferings, and
yet not so oblivious of its deliverance as to be ungrateful to its Deliverer.
The soul, then, shall have an intellectual remembrance of its past
ills; but, so far as regards sensible experience, they shall be quite
forgotten. For a skillful physician knows, indeed, professionally almost all
diseases; but
experimentally he is ignorant of a great number which he himself
has never suffered from. As, therefore, there are two ways of knowing evil
things, ‹ one by mental insight, the other by sensible experience, for it
is one thing to understand all vices by the wisdom of a cultivated mind,
another to understand them by the foolishness of an abandoned life, ‹ so also there are
two ways of forgetting evils. For a well-instructed and learned man forgets
them one way, and he who has experimentally suffered from them forgets them
another, ‹ the former by neglecting what he has learned, the latter by
escaping what he has suffered. And in this latter way the saints shall forget
their past ills, for they shall have so thoroughly escaped them all, that they
shall be quite blotted out of their experience. But their intellectual knowledge,
which shall be great, shall keep them acquainted not only with their own past
woes, but with the eternal sufferings of the lost. For if they were not to know
that they had been miserable, how could they, as the Psalmist says, for ever
sing the mercies of God? Certainly that city shall have no greater joy than the
celebration of the grace of Christ, who redeemed us by His blood. There shall
be accomplished the words of the psalm, "Be still, and know that I am
God." There shall be the great Sabbath which has no evening, which God
celebrated among His first works, as it is written, "And God rested on the
seventh day from all His works which He had made. And God blessed the seventh
day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which
God began to make." For we shall ourselves be the seventh day, when we
shall be filled and replenished with God's blessing and sanctification. There
shall we be still, and know that He is God; that He is that which we ourselves
aspired to be when we fell away from Him, and listened to the voice of the
seducer, "Ye shall be as gods," and so abandoned God, who would have
made us as gods, not by deserting Him, but by participating in Him. For without
Him what have we accomplished, save to perish in His anger? But when we are
restored by Him, and perfected with greater grace, we shall have eternal
leisure to see that He is God, for we shall be full of Him when He shall be all
in all. For even our good works, when they are understood to be rather His than
ours, are imputed to us that we may enjoy this Sabbath rest. For if we
attribute them to ourselves, they shall be servile; for it is said of the
Sabbath, "Ye shall do no servile work in it." Wherefore also it is
said by Ezekiel the prophet, "And I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign
between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify
them." This knowledge shall be perfected when we shall be perfectly at
rest, and shall perfectly know that He is God.
This Sabbath shall appear still more clearly if we count the ages
as days, in accordance with the periods of time defined in Scripture, for that
period will be found to be the seventh. The first age, as the first day,
extends from Adam to the deluge; the second from the deluge to Abraham, equaling
the first, not in length of time, but in the number of generations, there being
ten in each. From Abraham to the advent of Christ there are, as the evangelist
Matthew calculates, three periods, in each of which are fourteen generations, ‹ one period from
Abraham to David, a second from David to the captivity, a third from the
captivity to the birth of Christ in the flesh. There are thus five ages in all.
The sixth is now passing, and cannot be measured by any number of generations,
as it has been said, "It is not for you to know the times, which the
Father hath put in His own power." After this period God shall rest as on
the seventh day, when He shall give us (who shall be the seventh day) rest in
Himself. But there is not now space to treat of these ages; suffice it to say
that the seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not
by an evening, but by the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated
by the resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring the eternal repose not only of
the spirit, but also of the body. There we shall rest and see, see and love,
love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other
end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is
no end?
I think I have now, by God's help, discharged my obligation in
writing this large work. Let those who think I have said too little, or those
who think I have said too much, forgive me; and let those who think I have said
just enough join me in giving thanks to God. Amen.
===============
Summa Contra Gentiles B4, A96 : Of the Last judgement
Of the Last judgement THERE is a twofold retribution for the
things that a man has done in life, one for his soul immediately upon its
separation from the body, another at the resurrection of the body. The first
retribution is to individuals severally, as individuals severally die: the
second is to all men together, as all men shall rise together. Therefore there
must be a twofold judgement: one of individuals, regarding the soul; another a
general judgement, rendering to all men their due in soul and body. And because
Christ in His Humanity, wherein He suffered and rose again, has merited for us
resurrection and life everlasting, it belongs to Him to exercise that judgement
whereby risen men are rewarded or punished, for so it is said of Him: He hath
given him authority to exercise judgement, because he is the Son of Man (John
v, 27). And further, since in the last judgement there will be question of the
reward or punishment of persons present in visible bodily shape, it is fitting
for that judgement to be a visible process. Hence Christ will take His seat as
judge in human shape, so that all can see Him, good and bad. But the vision of
His Godhead, which makes men blessed, will be visible only to the good. As for
the judgement of souls, that is an invisible process, dealing with invisible
beings.
Of the General Cause of Immutability in all Souls after their
Separation from the Body THE end is in matters of desire like the first
principles of demonstration in the abstract sciences. These principles are
naturally known, and any error concerning them could come only from a
perversion of nature [verging on idiotcy]: hence a man could not be moved from
a true understanding of such principles to a false one, or from a false to a
true, except through some change in his nature. It is impossible for those who
go wrong over first principles to be brought right by other and more certain
principles; or for any one to be beguiled from a true understanding of such
principles by other principles more plausible. So it is in regard of the last
end. Every one has a natural desire of the last end; and the possession of a
rational nature, generically as such, carries with it a craving for happiness:
but the desire of happiness and the last end in this or that shape and aspect
comes from a special disposition of nature: hence the Philosopher says that as
the individual is himself, so does the end appear to him.* If then the frame of
mind under which one desires a thing as his last end is fixed and immovable,
the will of such a person is unchangeably fixed in the desire of that end. But
these frames of mind, prompting such desires, can be removed from us so long as
the soul is united with the body. Sometimes it is an impulse of passion that
prompts us to desire a thing as our last end: but the impulse of passion
quickly passes away, and with it is removed the desire of that end. In other
cases the frame of mind, provocative of such desire, amounts to a habit; and
that frame of mind is not so easily got rid of, and the desire of an end thence
ensuing is consequently stronger and more lasting: yet even a habit is
removable in this life. We have seen then that so long as the frame of mind lasts,
which prompts us to desire a thing as our last end, the desire of that
particular end is irremovable, because the last end, or whatever be taken for
such, is desired above all things else; and no other object of greater desire
can ever call us away from the desire of that which we take for our last end.
Now the soul is in a changeable state so long as it is united with the body,
but not after it is parted from the body.* Separated therefore from the body,
the soul will be no longer apt to advance to any new end, but must rest for
ever in the end already attained. The will then will be immovable in its desire
of what it has taken for its last end. But on the last end depends all the
goodness or wickedness of the will. Whatever good things one wills in view of a
good end, he does well to will them,* as he does ill to will anything in view
of an evil end. Thus the will of the departed soul is not changeable from good
to evil, although it is changeable from one object of volition to another, its
attitude to the last end remaining constant.
Nor is such fixedness of will inconsistent with free will. The act
of free will is to choose, and choice is of means to the end, not of the last
end.* As then there is nothing inconsistent with free choice in our will being
immovably fixed in the desire of happiness and general abhorrence of misery, so
neither will our faculty of free choice be set aside by our will being
resistlessly carried to one definite object as its last end.* As at present our
common nature is immovably fixed in the desire of happiness in general, so
hereafter by one special frame of mind we shall be fixed in the desire of this
or that particular object as constituting our last end. *
Nor is it to be thought that when souls resume their bodies at the
resurrection, they lose the unchangeableness of their will, for in the
resurrection bodies will be organised to suit the requirements of the soul
(Chapp. LXXXVI, LXXXIX): souls then will not be changed by re-entering their
bodies, but will remain permanently what they were.
Of the State of the World after the judgement IT needs must be
that the motion of the heavens shall cease; and therefore it is said that time
shall be no more (Apoc. x, 6).*
==================
Catechism of the Catholic Church
I. HE WILL COME AGAIN
IN GLORY
Christ already reigns
through the Church.
668 "Christ died
and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the
living."549 Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in
his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses
all power in heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority
and power and dominion", for the Father "has put all things under his
feet."550 Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human
history and indeed all creation are "set forth" and transcendently
fulfilled.551
669 As Lord, Christ
is also head of the Church, which is his Body.552 Taken up to heaven and
glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on
earth in his Church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ,
by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The kingdom of
Christ [is] already present in mystery", "on earth, the seed and the
beginning of the kingdom".553
670 Since the
Ascension God's plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at
"the last hour".554 "Already the final age of the world is with
us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now
anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already
with a sanctity that is real but imperfect."555 Christ's kingdom already
manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its
proclamation by the Church.556
until all things are
subjected to him
671 Though already
present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled
"with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth.557 This
reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been
defeated definitively by Christ's Passover.557 Until everything is subject to
him, "until there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice
dwells, the pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to
this present age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she
herself takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and
await the revelation of the sons of God."559 That is why Christians pray,
above all in the Eucharist, to hasten Christ's return by saying to him:560
Marana tha! "Our Lord, come!"561
672 Before his
Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious
establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel562 which, according to
the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and
peace.563 According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and
of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial
of evil which does not spare the Church564 and ushers in the struggles of the
last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.565
The glorious advent of Christ, the hope of Israel
673 Since the
Ascension Christ's coming in glory has been imminent,566 even though "it
is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority."567. This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any
moment, even if both it and the final trial that will precede it are
"delayed".568
674 The glorious
Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition
by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come upon part of
Israel" in their "unbelief" toward Jesus.569 St. Peter says to
the Jews of Jerusalem after Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again,
that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the
presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,
whom heaven must receive until the time for establishing all that God spoke by
the mouth of his holy prophets from of old."570 St. Paul echoes him:
"For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will
their acceptance mean but life from the dead?"571 The "full
inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation, in the wake of
"the full number of the Gentiles",572 will enable the People of God
to achieve "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ", in
which "God may be all in all".573
The Church's ultimate
trial
675 Before Christ's
second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the
faith of many believers.574 The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on
earth575 will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a
religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the
price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of
the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of
God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.576
676 The Antichrist's
deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is
made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized
beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected
even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name
of millenarianism,577 especially the "intrinsically perverse"
political form of a secular messianism.578
677 The Church will
enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will
follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.579 The kingdom will be fulfilled,
then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy,
but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause
his Bride to come down from heaven.580 God's triumph over the revolt of evil
will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this
passing world.581
II. TO JUDGE THE
LIVING AND THE DEAD
678 Following in the
steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of the
Last Day in his preaching.582 Then will the conduct of each one and the secrets
of hearts be brought to light.583 Then will the culpable unbelief that counted
the offer of God's grace as nothing be condemned.584 Our attitude to our
neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love.585 On
the Last Day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of
the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."586
679 Christ is Lord of
eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of
men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right
by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son".587 Yet
the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in
himself.588 By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself,
receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all
eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.589