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But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the
same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time
of His first coming. For, leaving out of account that kingdom
concerning which He shall say in the end, "Come, ye blessed of my
Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you," the
Church could not now be called His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven
unless His saints were even now reigning with Him, though in another
and far different way; for to His saints He says, "Lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the world." Certainly it is in this
present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God,
and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure
things new and old. And from the Church those reapers shall gather
out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the
harvest, as He explains in the words "The harvest is the end of the
world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are
gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of
the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom all offenses." Can He mean out of that
kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present
kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered. So He says, "He
that breaketh one of the least of these commandments, and teacheth men
so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth
and teacheth thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." He
speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does
not perform the commandments which He teaches, for "to break" means
not to keep, not to perform, and the man who does and teaches as He
did; but the one He calls least, the other great. And He
immediately adds, "For I say unto you, that except your
righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,", that is,
the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the
scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, "For they say and do
not;", unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is,
so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, "ye shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven." We must understand in one sense the
kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he
teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and
in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what
he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it
is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is
the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in
her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and
the kingdom of heaven.
Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise
than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in
the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For
they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, "If ye be risen
with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sitteth
at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the
things which are on the earth." Of such persons he also says that
their conversation is in heaven. In fine, they reign with Him who
are so in His kingdom that they themselves are His kingdom. But in
what sense are those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more,
though they are in it until all offenses are gathered out of it at the
end of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the things
that are Christ's?
It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict with the enemy
is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or
government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most
peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of
this first resurrection in the present life, that the Apocalypse
speaks in the words just quoted. For, after saying that the devil is
bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it
goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in
the Church in those days, in the words, "And I saw seats and them
that sat upon them, and judgment was given." It is not to be
supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the
rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now
governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be
produced than that which we have in the words, "What ye bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven." Whence the apostle says, "What have I to do with judging
them that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?" "And
the souls," says John, "of those who were slain for the testimony
of Jesus and for the word of God,", understanding what he
afterwards says, "reigned with Christ a thousand years,", that
is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For
the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which
even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no
remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the
body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His
baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to
reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be
severed from His body. For why are these things practised, if not
because the faithful, even though dead, are His members?
Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with
Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. And
therefore in another part of this same book we read, "Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from henceforth and now, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors; for their works do follow
them." The Church, then, begins its reign with Christ now in the
living and in the dead. For, as the apostle says, "Christ died
that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead." But he
mentioned the souls of the martyrs only, because they who have
contended even to death for the truth, themselves principally reign
after death; but, taking the part for the whole, we understand the
words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the kingdom of
Christ.
As to the words following, "And if any have not worshipped the beast
nor his image, nor have received his inscription on their forehead, or
on their hand," we must take them of both the living and the dead.
And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful
investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to
understand it of the ungodly city itself, and the community of
unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of
God. "His image" seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in
those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they
pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from
a true likeness but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong
not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most
glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His
kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who
do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the
apostle says, "Be not yoked with unbelievers?" For such do not
worship, i.e., do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they
receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by
their profession, on their hand by their practice. They, then, who
are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal
flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ even now, through this whole
interval which is indicated by the thousand years, in a fashion suited
to this time.
"The rest of them," he says, "did not live." For now is the
hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they
that hear shall live; and the rest of them shall not live. The words
added, "until the thousand years are finished," mean that they did
not live in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from
death to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection
arrives, they shall come out of their graves, not to life, but to
judgment, namely, to damnation, which is called the second death.
For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished,
i.e., during this whole time in which the first resurrection is going
on, whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of God, and passed
from death to life, that man shall certainly in the second
resurrection, the resurrection of the flesh, pass with his flesh into
the second death. For he goes to say "This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection," or who experiences it. Now he experiences it who not
only revives from the death of sin, but continues in this renewed
life. "In these the second death hath no power." Therefore it has
power in the rest, of whom he said above, "The rest of them did not
live until the thousand years were finished;" for in this whole
intervening time called a thousand years, however lustily they lived in
the body, they were not quickened to life out of that death in which
their wickedness held them, so that by this revived life they should
become partakers of the first resurrection, and so the second death
should have no power over them.
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