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"After that," says John, "he must be loosed a little season."
If the binding and shutting up of the devil means his being made unable
to seduce the Church, must his loosing be the recovery of this
ability? By no means. For the Church predestined and elected before
the foundation of the world, the Church of which it is said, "The
Lord knoweth them that are His," shall never be seduced by him.
And yet there shall be a Church in this world even when the devil
shall be loosed, as there has been since the beginning, and shall be
always, the places of the dying being filled by new believers. For a
little after John says that the devil, being loosed, shall draw the
nations whom he has seduced in the whole world to make war against the
Church, and that the number of these enemies shall be as the sand of
the sea. "And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire
came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who
seduced them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night
for ever and ever." This relates to the last judgment, but I have
thought fit to mention it now, lest any one might suppose that in that
short time during which the devil shall be loose there shall be no
Church upon earth, whether because the devil finds no Church, or
destroys it by manifold persecutions. The devil, then, is not bound
during the whole time which this book embraces, that is, from the
first coming of Christ to the end of the world, when He shall come
the second time, not bound in this sense, that during this interval,
which goes by the name of a thousand years, he shall not seduce the
Church, for not even when loosed shall he seduce it. For certainly
if his being bound means that he is not able or not permitted to seduce
the Church, what can the loosing of him mean but his being able or
permitted to do so? But God forbid that such should be the case!
But the binding of the devil is his being prevented from the exercise
of his whole power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or
fraudulently deceiving them into taking part with him. If he were
during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of men, very
many persons, such as God would not wish to expose to such
temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or would be prevented
from believing; and that this might not happen, he is bound.
But when the short time comes he shall be loosed. For he shall rage
with the whole force of himself and his angels for three years and six
months; and those with whom he makes war shall have power to withstand
all his violence and stratagems. And if he were never loosed, his
malicious power would be less patent, and less proof would be given of
the steadfast fortitude of the holy city: it would, in short, be less
manifest what good use the Almighty makes of his great evil. For the
Almighty does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation,
but shelters only their inner man, where faith resides, that by
outward temptation they may grow in grace. And He binds him that he
may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice, hinder or
destroy the faith of those countless weak persons, already believing or
yet to believe, from whom the Church must be increased and completed;
and he will in the end loose him, that the city of God may see how
mighty an adversary it has conquered, to the great glory of its
Redeemer, Helper, Deliverer. And what are we in comparison with
those believers and saints who shall then exist, seeing that they shall
be tested by the loosing of an enemy with whom we make war at the
greatest peril even when he is bound? Although it is also certain that
even in this intervening period there have been and are some soldiers of
Christ so wise and strong, that if they were to be alive in this
mortal condition at the time of his loosing, they would both most
wisely guard against, and most patiently endure, all his snares and
assaults.
Now the devil was thus bound not only when the Church began to be more
and more widely extended among the nations beyond Judea, but is now
and shall be bound till the end of the world, when he is to be loosed.
Because even now men are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall
be, converted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them.
And this strong one is bound in each instance in which he is spoiled of
one of his goods; and the abyss in which he is shut up is not at an end
when those die who were alive when first he was shut up in it, but
these have been succeeded, and shall to the end of the world be
succeeded, by others born after them with a like hate of the
Christians, and in the depth of whose blind hearts he is continually
shut up as in an abyss. But it is a question whether, during these
three years and six months when he shall be loose, and raging with all
his force, any one who has not previously believed shall attach himself
to the faith. For how in that case would the words hold good, "Who
entereth into the house of a strong one to spoil his goods, unless
first he shall have bound the strong one?" Consequently this verse
seems to compel us to believe that during that time, short as it is,
no one will be added to the Christian community, but that the devil
will make war with those who have previously become Christians, and
that, though some of these may be conquered and desert to the devil,
these do not belong to the predestinated number of the sons of God.
For it is not without reason that John, the same apostle as wrote
this Apocalypse, says in his epistle regarding certain persons,
"They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us." But what
shall become of the little ones? For it is beyond all belief that in
these days there shall not be found some Christian children born, but
not yet baptized, and that there shall not also be some born during
that very period; and if there be such, we cannot believe that their
parents shall not find some way of bringing them to the laver of
regeneration. But if this shall be the case, how shall these goods be
snatched from the devil when he is loose, since into his house no man
enters to spoil his goods unless he has first bound him? On the
contrary, we are rather to believe that in these days there shall be no
lack either of those who fall away from, or of those who attach
themselves to the Church; but there shall be such resoluteness, both
in parents to seek baptism for their little ones, and in those who
shall then first believe, that they shall conquer that strong one,
even though unbound, that is, shall both vigilantly comprehend, and
patiently bear up against him, though employing such wiles and putting
forth such force as he never before used; and thus they shall be
snatched from him even though unbound. And yet the verse of the
Gospel will not be untrue, "Who entereth into the house of the
strong one to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the
strong one?" For in accordance with this true saying that order is
observed, the strong one first bound, and then his goods spoiled; for
the Church is so increased by the weak and strong from all nations far
and near, that by its most robust faith in things divinely predicted
and accomplished, it shall be able to spoil the goods of even the
unbound devil. For as we must own that, "when iniquity abounds, the
love of many waxes cold," and that those who have not been written in
the book of life shall in large numbers yield to the severe and
unprecedented persecutions and stratagems of the devil now loosed, so
we cannot but think that not only those whom that time shall find sound
in the faith, but also some who till then shall be without, shall
become firm in the faith they have hitherto rejected and mighty to
conquer the devil even though unbound, God's grace aiding them to
understand the Scriptures, in which, among other things, there is
foretold that very end which they themselves see to be arriving. And
if this shall be so, his binding is to be spoken of as preceding, that
there might follow a spoiling of him both bound and loosed; for it is
of this it is said, "Who shall enter into the house of the strong one
to spoil his goods, unless he shall first have bound the strong one?"
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