Chap. LXXII.—Of Christ Descending from Heaven to the General Judgment, and of the Millenarian Reign.1584    [See vol. i. p. 209.]  

Then the heaven shall be opened in a tempest,1585    In tempestate; others read “intempestâ nocte.”   and Christ shall descend with great power, and there shall go before Him a fiery brightness and a countless host of angels, and all that multitude of the wicked shall be destroyed, and torrents of blood shall flow, and the leader himself shall escape, and having often renewed his army, shall for the fourth time engage in battle, in which, being taken, with all the other tyrants, he shall be delivered up to be burnt. But the prince also of the demons himself, the author and contriver of evils, being bound with fiery chains, shall be imprisoned, that the world may receive peace, and the earth, harassed through so many years, may rest. Therefore peace being made, and every evil suppressed, that righteous King and Conqueror will institute a great judgment on the earth respecting the living and the dead, and will deliver all the nations into subjection to the righteous who are alive, and will raise the righteous dead to eternal life, and will Himself reign with them on the earth, and will build the holy city, and this kingdom of the righteous shall be for a thousand years. Throughout that time the stars shall be more brilliant, and the brightness of the sun shall be increased, and the moon shall not be subject to decrease. Then the rain of blessing shall descend from God at morning and evening, and the earth shall bring forth all her fruit without the labour of men. Honey shall drop from rocks, fountains of milk and wine shall abound. The beasts shall lay aside their ferocity and become mild, the wolf shall roam among the flocks without doing harm, the calf shall feed with the lion, the dove shall be united with the hawk, the serpent shall have no poison; no animal shall live by bloodshed. For God shall supply to all abundant and harmless1586    Innocentem, “without injury to any.”   food. But when the thousand years shall be fulfilled, and the prince of the demons loosed, the nations will rebel against the righteous, and an innumerable multitude will come to storm the city of the saints. Then the last judgment of God will come to pass against the nations. For He will shake the earth from its foundations, and the cities shall be overthrown, and He shall rain upon the wicked fire with brimstone and hail, and they shall be on fire, and slay each other. But the righteous shall for a little space be concealed under the earth, until the destruction of the nations is accomplished, and after the third day they shall come forth, and see the plains covered with carcases. Then there shall be an earthquake, and the mountains shall be rent, and valleys shall sink down to a profound depth, and into this the bodies of the dead shall be heaped together, and its name shall be called Polyandrion.1587    A name sometimes given to cemeteries, because many men (πολλοὶ ἅνδρες) are borne thither.   After these things God will renew the world, and transform the righteous into the forms of angels, that, being presented with the garment of immortality, they may serve God for ever; and this will be the kingdom of God, which shall have no end. Then also the wicked shall rise again, not to life but to punishment; for God shall raise these also, when the second resurrection takes place, that, being condemned to eternal torments and delivered to eternal fires, they may suffer the punishments which they deserve for their crimes.  

CAPUT LXXII. (Lib. VII Inst., c. 20, 24, 26.)1091A De Christo e coelo descendente ad universale judicium, et de regno millenario.

Tunc coelum in tempestate 1091A patefiet, et descendet Christus in virtute magna; et anteibit eum claritas ignea, et vis inaestimabilis angelorum; et extinguetur omnis illa multitudo impiorum, et torrentes sanguinis current; et ipse ductor effugiet, atque exercitu saepe reparato, quartum praelium faciet, quo captus cum caeteris omnibus tyrannis, tradetur exustioni. Sed et ipse daemonum princeps, auctor et machinator malorum, catenis igneis alligatus, custodiae dabitur, ut pacem mundus accipiat, et ut vexata tot saeculis terra requiescat. Pace igitur parta, compressoque omni 1091B malo, Rex ille justus et victor judicium magnum de vivis et mortuis faciet super terram: et viventibus quidem justis tradet in servitium gentes universas; mortuos autem ad aeternam vitam suscitabit, et in terra cum iis ipse regnabit, et condet sanctam civitatem, et erit hoc regnum justorum mille annis. Per idem tempus, et stellae candidiores erunt, et claritas solis augebitur, et luna non patietur diminutionem. Tunc descendet a Deo pluvia benedictionis matutina et vespertina, et omnem frugem terra sine labore hominum procreabit. Stillabunt mella de rupibus: lactis et vini fontes exuberabunt. Bestiae, deposita feritate, mansuescent, lupus inter pecudes errabit innoxius, vitulus cum leone pascetur, columba cum accipitre 1091C congregabitur, serpens virus non habebit, nullum 1092A animal vivet ex sanguine. Omnibus enim Deus copiosum atque innocentem victum ministrabit.

Peractis vero mille annis, ac resoluto daemonum principe, rebellabunt gentes adversus justos, et veniet innumerabilis multitudo ad expugnandam sanctorum civitatem. Tunc fiet ultimum judicium Dei adversus gentes. Concutiet enim a fundamentis suis terram, et corruent civitates, et pluet super impios ignem cum sulphure et grandine, et ardebunt, et se invicem trucidabunt. Justi vero sub terra paulisper latebunt, donec perditio gentium fiat, et exibunt post diem tertium, et videbunt campos cadaveribus opertos. Tunc fiet terrae motus, et scindentur montes, et subsident valles in altitudinem profundam, et congerentur in eam corpora mortuorum, et vocabitur nomen 1092B ejus Πολυάνδριον. Post haec renovabit Deus mundum, et transformabit justos in figuras angelorum, ut immortalitatis veste donati, serviant Deo in sempiternum. Tunc etiam impii resurgent, non ad vitam, sed ad poenam. Eos quoque, secunda resurrectione facta, Deus excitabit, ut ad perpetua tormenta damnati, et aeternis ignibus traditi, merita pro sceleribus suis supplicia persolvant.