from the fourth chapter.

1. “After this, I beheld, and, lo, a door was opened in heaven.”] The new testament is announced as an open door in heaven.  

“And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, saying, Come up hither.”] Since the door is shown to be opened, it is manifest that previously it had been closed to men. And it was sufficiently and fully laid open when Christ ascended with His body to the Father into heaven. Moreover, the first voice which he had heard when he says that it spoke with him, without contradiction condemns those who say that one spoke in the prophets, another in the Gospel; since it is rather He Himself who comes, that is the same who spoke in the prophets. For John was of the circumcision, and all that people which had heard the announcement of the Old Testament was edified with his word.  

“That very same voice,” said he, “that I had heard, that said unto me, Come up hither.”] That is the Spirit, whom a little before he confesses that he had seen walking as the Son of man in the midst of the golden candlesticks. And he now gathers from Him what had been foretold in similitudes by the law, and associates with this scripture all the former prophets, and opens up the Scriptures. And because our Lord invited in His own name all believers into heaven, He forthwith poured out the Holy Spirit, who should bring them to heaven. He says:—  

2. “Immediately I was in the Spirit.”] And since the mind of the faithful is opened by the Holy Spirit, and that is manifested to them which was also foretold to the fathers, he distinctly says:—  

“And, behold, a throne was set in heaven.”] The throne set: what is it but the throne of judgment and of the King?  

3. “And He that sat upon the throne was, to look upon, like a jasper and a sardine stone.”] Upon the throne he says that he saw the likeness of a jasper and a sardine stone. The jasper is of the colour of water, the sardine of fire. These two are thence manifested to be placed as judgments upon God’s tribunal until the consummation of the world, of which judgments one is already completed in the deluge of water, and the other shall be completed by fire.  

“And there was a rainbow about the throne.”] Moreover, the rainbow round about the throne has the same colours. The rainbow is called a bow from what the Lord spake to Noah and to his sons,23    Gen. ix. [Wordsworth, Lect. iv.]   that they should not fear any further deluge in the generation of God, but fire. For thus He says: I will place my bow in the clouds, that ye may now no longer fear water, but fire.  

6. “And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like to crystal.”] That is the gift of baptism which He sheds forth through His Son in time of repentance, before He executes judgment. It is therefore before the throne, that is, the judgment. And when he says a sea of glass like to crystal, he shows that it is pure water, smooth, not agitated by the wind, not flowing down as on a slope, but given to be immoveable as the house of God.  

“And round about the throne were four living creatures.”] The four living creatures are the four Gospels.  

7–10. “The first living creature was like to a lion, and the second was like to a calf, and the third had a face like to a man, and the fourth was like to a flying eagle; and they had six wings, and round about and within they were full of eyes; and they had no rest, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord Omnipotent. And the four and twenty elders, falling down before the throne, adored God.”] The four and twenty elders are the twenty-four books of the prophets and of the law, which give testimonies of the judgment. Moreover, also, they are the twenty-four fathers—twelve apostles and twelve patriarchs. And in that the living creatures are different in appearance, this is the reason: the living creature like to a lion designates Mark, in whom is heard the voice of the lion roaring in the desert. And in the figure of a man, Matthew strives to declare to us the genealogy of Mary, from whom Christ took flesh. Therefore, in enumerating from Abraham to David, and thence to Joseph, he spoke of Him as if of a man: therefore his announcement sets forth the image of a man. Luke, in narrating the priesthood of Zacharias as he offers a sacrifice for the people, and the angel that appears to him with respect of the priesthood, and the victim in the same description bore the likeness of a calf. John the evangelist, like to an eagle hastening on uplifted wings to greater heights, argues about the Word of God. Mark, therefore, as an evangelist thus beginning, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet;”24    Mark i. 3. [On the Zoa, see p. 341, supra.]   The voice of one crying in the wilderness,”25    Isa. xl. 3.  —has the effigy of a lion. And Matthew, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham:”26    Matt. i. 1.   this is the form of a man. But Luke said, “There was a priest, by name Zachariah, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron:”27    Luke i. 5.   this is the likeness of a calf. But John, when he begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,”28    John i. 1.   sets forth the likeness of a flying eagle. Moreover, not only do the evangelists express their four similitudes in their respective openings of the Gospels, but also the Word itself of God the Father Omnipotent, which is His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, bears the same likeness in the time of His advent. When He preaches to us, He is, as it were, a lion and a lion’s whelp. And when for man’s salvation He was made man to overcome death, and to set all men free, and that He offered Himself a victim to the Father on our behalf, He was called a calf. And that He overcame death and ascended into the heavens, extending His wings and protecting His people, He was named a flying eagle. Therefore these announcements, although they are four, yet are one, because it proceeded from one mouth. Even as the river in paradise, although it is one, was divided into four heads. Moreover, that for the announcement of the New Testament those living creatures had eyes within and without, shows the spiritual providence which both looks into the secrets of the heart, and beholds the things which are coming after that are within and without.  

8. “Six wings.”] These are the testimonies of the books of the Old Testament. Thus, twenty and four make as many as there are elders sitting upon the thrones. But as an animal cannot fly unless it have wings, so, too, the announcement of the New Testament gains no faith unless it have the fore-announced testimonies of the Old Testament, by which it is lifted from the earth, and flies. For in every case, what has been told before, and is afterwards found to have happened, that begets an undoubting faith. Again, also, if wings be not attached to the living creatures, they have nothing whence they may draw their life. For unless what the prophets foretold had been consummated in Christ, their preaching was vain. For the Catholic Church holds those things which were both before predicted and afterwards accomplished. And it flies, because the living animal is reasonably lifted up from the earth. But to heretics who do not avail themselves of the prophetic testimony, to them also there are present living creatures; but they do not fly, because they are of the earth. And to the Jews who do not receive the announcement of the New Testament there are present wings; but they do not fly, that is, they bring a vain prophesying to men, not adjusting facts to their words. And the books of the Old Testament that are received are twenty-four, which you will find in the epitomes of Theodore. But, moreover (as we have said), four and twenty elders, patriarchs and apostles, are to judge His people. For to the apostles, when they asked, saying, “We have forsaken all that we had, and followed Thee: what shall we have?” our Lord replied, “When the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”29    Matt. xix. 27, 28.   But of the fathers also who should judge, says the patriarch Jacob, “Dan also himself shall judge his people among his brethren, even as one of the tribes in Israel.”30    Gen. xlix. 16.    

5. “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, and voices, and thunders, and seven torches of fire burning.”] And the lightnings, and voices, and thunders proceeding from the throne of God, and the seven torches of fire burning, signify announcements, and promises of adoption, and threatenings. For lightnings signify the Lord’s advent, and the voices the announcements of the New Testament, and the thunders, that the words are from heaven. The burning torches of fire signify the gift of the Holy Spirit, that it is given by the wood of the passion. And when these things were doing, he says that all the elders fell down and adored the Lord; while the living creatures—that is, of course, the actions recorded in the Gospels and the teaching of the Lord—gave Him glory and honour.31    The living creatures are held to be the Gospels, or the acts and teaching of our Lord narrated in them. [Wordsworth, Lect. iv.]   In that they had fulfilled the word that had been previously foretold by them, they worthily and with reason exult, feeling that they have ministered the mysteries and the word of the Lord. Finally, also, because He had come who should remove death, and who alone was worthy to take the crown of immortality, all for the glory of His most excellent doing had crowns.  

10. “And they cast their crowns under His feet.”] That is, on account of the eminent glory of Christ’s victory, they cast all their victories under His feet. This is what in the Gospel the Holy Spirit consummated by showing, For when about finally to suffer, our Lord had come to Jerusalem, and the people had gone forth to meet Him, some strewed the road with palm branches cut down, others threw down their garments, doubtless these were setting forth two peoples—the one of the patriarchs, the other of the prophets; that is to say, of the great men who had any kind of palms of their victories against sin, and cast them under the feet of Christ, the victor of all. And the palm and the crown signify the same things, and these are not given save to the victor.  

EX CAPITE IV.

Post haec vidi et ecce ostium apertum in coelo. Ostium apertum in coelo, Novum Testamentum praedicatur.

Et vox prima quam audivi, tanquam tubae loquentis mecum, dicens: ascende huc. Quando apertum ostenditur, clausum fuisse antea hominibus manifestum est. Satis autem et plene patefactum est, quando Christus cum corpore in coelos ad Patrem ascendit. Vox autem prior quam audierat, cum dicit illam secum 0323D esse locutam, sine contradictione arguit eos, qui alium in prophetis, alium in Evangelio dicunt fuisse locutum; cum magis ipse qui venit, ipse sit qui in prophetis locutus est. Joannes enim ex circumcisione erat; et omnis ille populus qui Veteris Testamenti praedicationem audierat, illa voce aedificatus est.

Illa eademque vox, inquit, quam audieram, illa mihi dixit: Ascende huc. Id est spiritus, quem paulo ante quam filium hominis inter candelabra aurea ambulantem 0324A se vidisse fatetur: et nunc exinde recolit, quae per legem in similitudinibus praenuntiata erant, et per hanc scripturam conjungit omnes priores prophetas, et aperit scripturas. Et quia postquam invitavit in coelum omnes credentes in nomine suo Dominus noster, statim Spiritum sanctum effudit qui ferturus est ad coelum, ait:

2. Statim fui in spiritu. Et cum aperiatur per Spiritum sanctum mens fidelium, et illud eis manifestetur, quod et prioribus est praedicatum, significanter ait.

Et ecce sedes posita erat in coelo. Sedes posita, quid est, nisi sedes judicii et regis?

3. Et supra sedem sedens, similis aspectu lapidi jaspidi et sardio. Supra solium vidisse ait similitudinem 0324B jaspidis et sardii. Jaspis aquae coloris est, sardius ignis. Haec duo judicia posita esse usque ad consummationem orbis super tribunal Dei exinde manifestantur, quorum judiciorum unum jam consummatum est in cataclysmo per aquam, aliud autem consummabitur per ignem.

Et iris erat in circuitu throni. Iris autem circa solium eosdem colores habet. Iris arcus dicitur, de quo etiam ad Noe et ad filios ejus locutus est Dominus (Gen., IX), ne timerent ultra diluvium in generatione Dei, sed ignem. Sic enim ait: Statuam arcum meum in nubibus, ut non jam aquam timeatis, sed ignem.

6. Et ante sedem tamquam mare vitreum simile crystallo. Id est donum baptismi, quod per Filium suum 0324C poenitentiae tempore, antequam judicium faciat, effudit. Ideo ante solium, id est judicium. Cum autem dicit mare vitreum simile chrystallo, aquam mundam, stabilem, non vento agitatam, non in proclivo defluentem, sed tamquam domum Dei immobilem traditam ostendit.

Et per circuitum sedis quatuor animalia. Quatuor animalia quatuor sunt Evangelia.

7---10. Primum animal simile leoni, et secundum simile vitulo, et tertium habens faciem similem homini, et quartum simile aquilae volanti; habentia alas senas: et per circuitum et intus, plena oculis; et requiem non habebant dicentia: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus omnipotens. Et procidentes viginti quatuor seniores ante sedem adoraverunt Deum. Viginti quatuor seniores 0324D viginti quatuor libri sunt prophetarum, et legis referentes testimonia judicii. Sunt autem et vinginti quatuor patres, duodecim apostoli et duodecim patriarchae. Animalia igitur quod differentia sunt vultus hanc habent rationem; simile leoni animal, Marcum designat, in quo vox leonis in eremo rugientis auditur. Hominis autem figura enititur Matthaeus enuntiare nobis genus Mariae , unde carnem accepit Christus. Ergo dum enumerat ab Abraham usque ad David, et usque ad Joseph, tamquam de homine locutus est. 0325A ideo praedicatio ejus effigiem hominis ostendit. Lucas sacerdotium Zachariae offerentis hostiam pro populo, et apparentem sibi angelum dum enarrat, propter sacerdotium et hostiam, ipsa conscriptione vituli tulit imaginem. Joannes Evangelista aquilae similis assumptis pennis ad altiora festinans de Verbo Dei disputat. Marcus, itaque Evangelista, sic incipiens: Initium Evangelii Jesu Christi, sicut scriptum est in Esaia propheta (Marc., I, 3): Vox clamantis in deserto (Esa., XL, 3) leonis habet effigiem. Matthaeus autem: Liber generationis Jesu Christi filii David, filii Abraham (Matth. I, 1); haec est facies hominis. Lucas vero dixit: Fuit Sacerdos nomine Zacharias de vice Abia, et uxor illi de filiabus Aaron (Luc., I, 5); haec est imago vituli. At Joannes cum incipit: In principio 0325B erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum (Joan., I, 1); similitudinem aquilae volantis ostendit. Non solum autem suas Evangelistae quaternas similitudines in suis exordiis Evangeliorum exprimunt, sed et ipsum Verbum Dei Patris omnipotentis qui est filius ejus, Dominus noster Jesus Christus fert easdem imagines in tempore adventus sui. Cum nobis praedicat, est tamquam leo et catulus leonis. Et cum propter salutem hominum, homo factus est, ad mortem devincendam et universos liberandos. Et quod se ipsum obtulerit hostiam Patri pro nobis, vitulus dictus est. Et quod mortem devicerit et ascendit in coelos, extendens alas suas et protegens plebem suam, aquila voians nominatus est. Hae ergo praedicationes, quamvis quatuor sint, una est tamen, 0325C quia de uno ore processit. Sicut fluvius in paradiso cum sit unus, in quatuor partes divisus est. Oculos autem intus et foris habere ea animalia in praedicationem Novi Testamenti; providentiam spiritualem ostendit quae et secreta cordis inspicit, et supervenientia videt quae sunt intus et foris.

8. Alas senas. Testimonia sunt Veteris Testamenti librorum. Ideo viginti et quatuor totidem faciunt , quot sunt seniores super tribunalia sedentes. Sed sicut animal volare non potest nisi pennas habeat, sic, nec praedicatio Novi Testamenti fidem habet, nisi habeat Veteris Testamenti praenuntiata testimonia, per quae tollitur a terra et volat. Semper enim, quod ante dictum est, et postea factum invenitur, illud fidem facit indubitabilem. Rursum et 0325D alae si non haereant animalibus, vitam unde trahant, non habent. Nisi enim quae praedixerunt prophetae, in Christo essent consummata, inanis erat praedicatio 0326A eorum. Haec enim tenet Ecclesia catholica quae et antea predicata, et postea consummata sunt. Et volat quippe et merito tollitur a terra vivum animal. Haereticis autem qui testimonio prophetico non utuntur, adsunt et eis animalia, sed non volant, quia sunt terrena. Judaeis autem qui non accipiunt Novi Testamenti praedicationem, adsunt alae, sed non volant, id est inanem vaticinationem hominibus afferunt, facta dictis non conferentes. Sunt autem libri Veteris Testamenti qui recipiuntur viginti quatuor, quos in Epitomis Theodori invenies . Sed et viginti quatuor (ut diximus) seniores Patriarchas et Apostolos judicare populum suum oportet. Interrogantibus enim Apostolis et dicentibus: Nos omnibus nostris relictis, secuti sumus te, quid erit nobis (Matth., XIX, 27, 28)? 0326B respondit Dominus noster: Cum sederit filius hominis super sedem gloriae suae, sedebitis et vos super duodecim tribunalia judicantes duodecim tribus Israel. Sed et de patribus qui judicaturi sunt, ait Jacob patriarcha: Dan judicabit et ipse populum suum inter fratres suos, sicut et una tribus in Israel (Gen., XLIX, 16).

5. Et a sede procedebant fulgura et voces et tonitrua et septem faculae ignis ardentes. Procedentia autem fulgura et voces et tonitrua a solio Dei, et septem faces ignis ardentes significant praedicationes et repromissiones adoptionis, et minas. Nam fulgura adventum Domini significant. Voces autem Novi Testamenti praedicationes. Tonitrua autem quod coelestia sunt verba. Faces ignis ardentes donum Spiritus sancti quod id ligno passionis est redditum. Et cum haec 0326C fierent, cecidisse dicit universos majores natu, et adorasse Dominum, cum darent illi animalia gloriam et honorem, id est Evangelica actio scilicet et doctrina Domini cum ademplisset ante per illos praenuntiatum verbum, digne meritoque exsultant sentientes secreta et verbum Domini ministrasse. Denique et quia venerat qui mortem disjungeret, et coronam immortalitatis solus dignus sumeret, omnes habebant pro gloria aliqua actus sui optimi coronas.

10. Et projecerunt coronas suas sub pedibus ejus. Id est, propter eminentem gloriam victoriae Christi, omnes victorias suas projecerunt sub pedibus ejus. Hoc est quod in evangelio supplevit Spiritus sanctus ostendendo. Cum enim, passurus novissime, venriet Hierosolymas Dominus noster, et exisset illi 0326D populus obviam, alii praecisis ramis palmarum viam sternebant alii tunicas suas subjiciebant; duos scilicet populos ostendentes, unum patriarcharum, alium 0327A prophetarum, magnorum scilicet virorum qui quascumque habebant palmas victoriarum suarum contra peccatum, victori omnium Christo, eas sub pedibus jactabant. Palma autem et corona idem significant, quae non dantur nisi victori.