THE 5. PART.
The final glorification of the Church.
Heauen and earth being made new, S. Iohn seeth the new citie Hierusalem prepared and adorned for
the spouse of the Lamb. 6. The iust are glorified, 7. and the wicked thrust into the poole of fire.
12. The wal and gates and foundations of the citie are described and measured: 18. al which are gold
and crystal, pretious stones and pearles.
1.
⋮
The Epistle vpon the dedication of a Church.
AND I saw a new heauen and a new earth. For
*
Esa. 63,17. 66,21.
2. Pet. 3,13.
the first heauen, and the first earth was
gone, & the sea now is not.
2. And I Iohn saw
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The Church triumphant.
the holy citie Hierusalem new descending from heauen, prepared of
God, as a bride adorned for her husband.
3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: Behold
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This tabernacle is Christ according to his humanitie.
the tabernacle of God with
men, and he wil dwel with them. And they shal be his people: and he God with them shal be their
God.
4. And
*
Esa. 25,8.
Apoc. 7,17.
God
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This happie day shal make an end of al the miseries of this mortalitie.
shal wipe away al teares from their eyes: and death shal be no more,
✟
' because the.
which
first things, are gone.
5. And he that sate in the throne, said:
*
Esa. 43,19.
Behold I make al things new. And he said to
me: Write, because these words be most faithful and true.
6. And he said to me: It is done,
*
Apoc. 1,8. 22,13.
I am Alpha and Omega: the beginning and the end. To
him that thirsteth I wil giue of the fountaine of the water of life, gratis.
7. He that shal ouercome,
✟
He that hath the victorie against sinne in the Church militant, shal haue his reward in
the triumphant.
shal possesse these things, and I wil be he God: and he shal
be my sonne.
8. But
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Al that commit mortal sinnes and repent not, shal be damned.
to the feareful, and incredulous, and execrable, and murderers, and fornicatours,
and sorcerers, and Idolaters, and al liers, their part shal be in the poole burning with fire and
brimstone, which is the second death.
9.
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THE 7. AND LAST VISION.
And there came one of the seuen Angels that had the vials ful of the seuen last
plagues, and spake with me, saying: Come, and I wil shew thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
10. And he tooke me vp in spirit vnto a mountaine great and high: and he shewed me the
holy citie Hierusalem descending out of heauen from God,
11.
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The glorie of the Church triumphant.
hauing the glorie of God, and the light thereof like to a pretious stone, as it
were to the iasper stone, euen as crystal.
12. And it had a wal great and high, hauing twelue gates, and in the gates twelue
Angels, & names written thereon, which are
✟
The names of the Patriarches and Apostles honourable and glorious in the triumphant
Church.
the names of the twelue Tribes of the children of Israel.
13. On the East, three gates: and on the North, three gates: and on the South, three
gates: and on the West, three gates.
14. And the wal of the citie hauing twelue foundations: and in them, twelue names of
the twelue Apostles of the Lamb.
15. And he that spake with me, had a measure of a reed, of gold, to measure the citie
and the gates thereof, and the wal.
16. And
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See S. Hierom ep. 17. touching this description of the heauenly Hierusalem, which is the
Church triumphant, teaching that these things must be taken spiritually, not
carnally.
the citie is situated quadrangle-wise, and the length thereof is as great as
also the bredth: and he measured the citie with the reed of twelue thousand furlongs, & the length
and height and bredth thereof be equal.
17. And he measured the wal thereof of an hundred fourtie foure cubits, the measure of
a man which is of an Angel.
18. And the building of the wal thereof was of iasper stone: but the citie it-self pure
gold, like to pure glasse.
19. And the foundations of the wal of the citie, were adorned with al pretious stone.
The first foundations, the iasper: the second, the saphire: the third, the calcedonius: the fourth,
the emerauld:
20. the fifth, the Sardonix: the sixt, the sardius: the seuenth, the chrysolithus: the
eight, the beryllus: the ninth, the topazius: the tenth, the chrysoprasus: the eleuenth, the
hyacinth: the twelfth, the amethyst.
21. And the twelue gates: there are twelue pearles, one to euery one: & euery gate was
of one seuerale pearle. And the street of the citie pure gold, as it were transparent glasse.
22. And
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Al external Sacrifice which now is necessarie dutie of the faithful, shal then cease,
and therfore there shal need no material temple.
the temple I saw not therein. For our Lord the God omnipotent is the temple
thereof and the Lamb.
23. And
*
Esa. 60,19.
the citie needeth not sunne nor moone, to shine in it. For the glorie of God
hath illuminated it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.
24. And
*
Esa. 60,3.
the Gentils shal walke in the light of it: and the Kings of the earth shal bring
their glorie and honour into it.
25. And
*
Esa. 60,21.
the gates thereof shal not be shut by day: for there shal be no night there.
26. And they shal bring the glorie and honour of Nations into it.
27. There shal
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None not perfectly cleansed of their sinnes, can enter into this heauenly Hierusalem.
not enter into it any polluted thing, nor that doeth abomination and
maketh lie, but
*
Apoc. 20,11.
they that are written in the booke of life of the Lamb.
ANNOTATIONS.
Cʜᴀᴘ. XXI.
18. Pure gold.)
S. Gregorie (li. 18. Moral. 6, 28) saith, the heauenly state is resembled to gold, pretious
stone, crystal, glasse, and the like, for the puritie, claritie, glittering of the glorious
bodies: where one mans body, conscience, and cogitations are represented to an other, as
corporal things in this life are seen through crystal or glasse.