from the twentieth chapter.

1–3. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a chain in his hand. And he held the dragon, that old serpent, which is called the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed a little season.”] Those years wherein Satan is bound are in the first advent of Christ, even to the end of the age; and they are called a thousand, according to that mode of speaking, wherein a part is signified by the whole, just as is that passage, “the word which He commanded for a thousand generations,”69    Ps. cv. 8.   although they are not a thousand. Moreover that he says, “and he cast him into the abyss,” he says this, because the devil, excluded from the hearts of believers, began to take possession of the wicked, in whose hearts, blinded day by day, he is shut up as if in a profound abyss. And he shut him up, says he, and put a seal upon him, that he should not deceive the nations until the thousand years should be finished. “He shut the door upon him,” it is said, that is, he forbade and restrained his seducing those who belong to Christ. Moreover, he put a seal upon him, because it is hidden who belong to the side of the devil, and who to that of Christ. For we know not of those who seem to stand whether they shall not fall, and of those who are down it is uncertain whether they may rise. Moreover, that he says that he is bound and shut up, that he may not seduce the nations, the nations signify the Church, seeing that of them it itself is formed, and which being seduced, he previously held until, he says, the thousand years should be completed, that is, what is left of the sixth day, to wit, of the sixth age, which subsists for a thousand years; after this he must be loosed for a little season. The little season signifies three years and six months, in which with all his power the devil will avenge himself under Antichrist against the Church. Finally, he says, after that the devil shall be loosed, and will seduce the nations in the whole world, and will entice war against the Church, the number of whose foes shall be as the sand of the sea.70    [Compare vol. v. pp. 207, 215, caps. 15 and 54.]    

4, 5. “And I saw thrones, and them that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were slain on account of the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his writing on their forehead or in their hand; and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years: the rest of them lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.”] There are two resurrections. But the first resurrection is now of the souls that are by the faith, which does not permit men to pass over to the second death. Of this resurrection the apostle says: “If ye have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.”71    Col. iii. 1.    

6. “Blessed and holy is he who has part in this resurrection: on them the second death shall have no power, but they shall be priests of God and Christ, and they shall reign with Him a thousand years.”] I do not think the reign of a thousand years is eternal; or if it is thus to be thought of, they cease to reign when the thousand years are finished. But I will put forward what my capacity enables me to judge. The tenfold number signifies the decalogue, and the hundredfold sets forth the crown of virginity: for he who shall have kept the undertaking of virginity completely, and shall have faithfully fulfilled the precepts of the decalogue, and shall have destroyed the untrained nature or impure thoughts within the retirement of the heart, that they may not rule over him, this is the true priest of Christ, and accomplishing the millenary number thoroughly, is thought to reign with Christ; and truly in his case the devil is bound. But he who is entangled in the vices and the dogmas of heretics, in his case the devil is loosed. But that it says that when the thousand years are finished he is loosed, so the number of the perfect saints being completed, in whom there is the glory of virginity in body and mind, by the approaching advent of the kingdom of the hateful one, many, seduced by that love of earthly things, shall be overthrown, and together with him shall enter the lake of fire.  

8–10. “And they went up upon 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 both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”] This belongs to the last judgment. And after a little time the earth was made holy, as being at least that wherein lately had reposed the bodies of the virgins, when they shall enter upon an eternal kingdom with an immortal King, as they who are not only virgins in body, but, moreover, with equal inviolability have protected themselves, both in tongue and thought, from wickedness; and these, it shows, shall dwell in rejoicing for ever with the Lamb.  

EX CAPITE XX.

0341D

1-3. Et vidi angelum descendentem de coelo, habentem clavem abyssi, et catenam in manu sua. Et tenuit draconem, illum serpentem antiquum qui cognominatus est diabolus et satanas, et alligavit illum mille annis: et misit illum in abyssum, et clausit, et signavit super eum, ut non seduceret etiam gentes, donec finiantur mille anni. Post haec oportet eum solvi brevi tempore. Illi anni in quibus alligatus est Satanas, isti sunt in adventu primo Christi usque ad terminum saeculi; 0342A mille autem dicti, eo loquendi modo quo pars significatur a toto sicut est illud: Verbi, quod mandavit in mille generationes (Psal. CIV, 8): cum non sunt mille. Quod autem ait, et misit illum in abyssum, hoc inquit, quia diabolus exclusus a credentium cordibus, coepit impios possidere, in quorum quotidie caecis cordibus, tamquam in abyssi profundo inclusus est. Et clausit, inquit, et signavit super eum ut non seduceret gentes donec finiantur mille anni. Clausit super eum dictum est, id est interdixit atque cohibuit, ne seducat pertinentes ad Christum. Signavit autem super eum, quia occultum est qui pertineant ad partem diaboli, et qui ad Christi. Nam et qui videntur stare, nescimus si casuri sint; et qui jacent, si surgant incertum est. Quod autem 0342B ait ligatum atque inclusum illum, ut non seducat gentes: gentes Ecclesiam significant ex quibus ipsa constat, quas seductas ante tenebat, donec finiantur, inquit, mille anni, id est quod reliquum est de sexto die, scilicet de sexta aetate, quae constat mille annis. Post haec oportet eum solvi brevi tempore. Breve tempus tres annos et sex menses significat, quibus totis viribus se ulturus est diabolus sub Antichristo adversus Ecclesiam. Deinde post dicit, quod solvendus erit diabolus, et seducturus gentes toto orbe terrarum, et attrahet bellum adversus Ecclesiam, quorum hostium numerus erit ut arena maris.

4, 5. Et vidi sedes et sedentes super eas, et judicium datum est illis: et animas occisorum propter testimonium 0342C Jesu, et propter verbum Dei, et qui non adoraverunt bestiam nec imaginem ejus, neque acceperunt scriptionem in frontem aut in manum suam, et regnaverunt cum Jesu mille annis: reliqui eorum non revixerunt, donec finiantur mille anni. Haec resurrectio prima est. Duae sunt resurrectiones: sed prima resurrectio nunc est animarum per fidem, quae non permittit homines transire ad mortem secundam. De hac resurrectione dicit Apostolus: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite (Coloss. III, 1) .

6. Beatus et sanctus qui habet in hac resurrectione partem: in istis secunda mors non habebit potestatem, sed erunt sacerdotes Dei et Christi, et regnabunt cum eo mille annis. Mille annorum regnum non arbitror esse aeternum; aut si ita sentiendum est, 0342D completis annis mille regnare desinunt; sed ut mei sensus capacitas sentit, proferam. Denarius numerus decalogum significat, et centenarius virginitatis coronam ostendit: qui enim virginitatis integrum servaverit propositum, et decalogi praecepta impleverit fideliter, et feros mores vel impuras cogitationes intra cordis cubiculum jugulaverit, ne dominentur ei, iste est verus sacerdos Christi, et millenarium numerum perficiens integre creditur regnare cum Christo, et recte apud eum ligatus est 0343A ligatus est diabolus. Qui vero vitiis et dogmatibus haereticorum irretitus est, in eo solutus est diabolus. Sed quia completis mille annis dicit eum solvi, et completo perfectorum sanctorum numero in quibus corpore et corde virginitatis decus est regni adveniendi abominandi adventu, multi ab eo amore terrenorum seducti supplantabuntur, et simul cum eo igneum ingredientur stagnum.

8-10. Et ascenderunt super terrae latitudinem, et cinxerunt castra sanctorum, et dilectam civitatem: et descendit ignis de coelo a Deo, et comedit eos; et diabolus qui seducebat eos, missus est in stagnum ignis et sulphuris, ubi et bestia et pseudopropheta cruciabuntur die ac nocte in saecula saeculorum. 0343B Hoc jam ad judicium novissimum pertinet, et post modicum tellus reddita est sancta, utique in qua dudum quieverant corpora virginea: cum immortali rege aeternum suscipient regnum, qui non solum corpore virgines, sed et lingua et cogitatione pariter inviolabiliter se a nequitia tutaverunt , quos exsultaturos cum Agno demonstrat permanere.