Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsRevelation 20

Bound him.

Christ by his Passion hath abridged the power of the Devil for a thousand years, that is, the whole time of the new Testament, until Antichrist' time, when he shall be loosed again, that is, be permitted to deceive the world, but for a short time only, to wit, three years and a half.

I saw seats.

S. Augustine (li. 20 de Civit. Dei c. 9) taketh this to be spoken, not of the last judgement, but of the Sees or Consistories of Bishops and Prelates, ^[1] and of the Prelates themselves, by whom the Church is now governed. As the judgement here given, can be taken no otherwise better, than of that which was said by our Saviour Mat. 18 Whatsoever you bind in earth, shall be bound in heaven, and therefore the Apostle saith, What have I to do to judge of them that are without? ^[2]

• 1 Bishops' consistories & judicial power.
• 2 1. Cor. 5.

And the souls.

He meaneth (saith S. Augustine in the place alleged) the souls of Martyrs, that they shall in the mean time, during these thousand years, which is the time of the Church militant, be in heaven without their bodies, and reign with Christ. ^◦ For the souls (saith he) of the godly departed, are not separated from the Church, which is even now the kingdom of Christ. For else there should be kept no memory of them at the altar of God in the communicating of the body of Christ: neither should it avail to hasten to Baptism in the perils of death, for fear of ending our life without it: nor to hasten to be reconciled, if we fortune for penance or of ill conscience to be separated from the same body. And why are all these things done, but for that the faithful departed also be members of the Church? And though for an example the Martyrs be only named here, yet it is meant of others also that die in the state of grace.

• ◦ During a thousand years (that is the time of this militant Church) Saints reign with Christ in soul only.

The rest lived not.

^◦ The rest which are not of the happy number aforesaid, but lived and died in sin, reign not with Christ in their souls during this time of the new Testament, but are dead in soul spiritually, and in body naturally, till the day of judgement. S. August. ibidem.

• ◦ The rest are dead and damned in soul, during the same time.

This is the first resurrection.

As there be two regenerations, one by faith, which is now in Baptism: and another according to the flesh, when at the later day the body shall be made immortal and incorruptible: so there are two resurrections, ^◦ the one now of the souls to salvation when they die in grace, which is called the first, the other of the bodies at the later day. S. Augustine. li. 20 de Civit. c. 6.

• ◦ The first resurrection, of the soul only.

They shall be Priests.

^[1] It is not spoken (saith S. Augustine li. 20 de Civit. c. 10) of Bishops and Priests only, which are properly now in the Church called Priests: but as we call all, Christians, for the mystical Chrism or ointment, so all, Priests, because they are the members of one Priest. Of whom the Apostle Peter saith, A holy people, a kingly Priesthood. ^[2] Which words be notable for their learning that think there be none properly called Priests now in the new Testament, no otherwise then all Christian men and women, and a confusion to them that therefore have turned the name Priests into Ministers.

• 1 Priests, some properly so called, some unproperly.
• 2 1. Pet. 2.

Satan shall be loosed.

In the whole 8 chapter of the said 20 book de Civitate Dei in S. Augustine, is a notable commentary of these words. Where first he declareth, ^[1] that neither this binding nor loosing of Satan is in respect of seducing or not seducing the Church of God: proving that whether he be bound or loose, he can never seduce the same. The same, saith he, shall be the state of the Church at that time when the Devil is to be loosed, even as since it was instituted. The same hath it been & shall be at all time in her children that succeed each other by birth & death. And a little after, This I thought was therefore to be mentioned, lest any man should think, that during the little time wherein the Devil shall be loosed, the Church shall not be upon the earth, he either not finding it here when he shall be let loose, or consuming it when he shall by all means persecute the same. Secondly he declareth, that the Devil to be bound, is nothing else but not to be permitted by God to exercise all his force or fraud in tentations: as to be loosed, is to be suffered by God for a small time, that is, for three years and a half, to practise and prove all his power and arts of tentations against the Church and her children, and yet not to prevail against them. Thirdly this Doctor sheweth by what great mercy our Lord hath tied Satan and abridged his power during the whole millenary or thousand years, which is all the time of the new Testament until then: & with what wisdom he permitteth him to break loose that little time of three years and six months, ^[2] toward the later day, which shall be the reign of Antichrist. Lastly he sheweth what kind of men shall be most subject to the Devil's seduction, (even such as now by tentation of Heretics go out of the Church) and who shall avoid it.

• 1 The binding and loosing of Satan, explicated by S. Augustine.
• 2 The short reign of Antichrist.

By all which we may confute diverse false expositions of old & late Heretics. First, the ancient sect of the Millenaries, ^[1] that grounded upon these thousand years named by the Prophet, this heresy, that there should be so many years after the resurrection of our bodies, in which we should reign with Christ in this world, in our bodies, in all delights and pleasures corporal, of meats, drinks, and such like, which they called the first resurrection, of which heresy Cerinthus was the author. Epiph. hær. 77 in fine. Hiero. Comment. in c. 19 Matt. August. hær. 8 ad Quod vult Deum. Eusebius also (li. 3 historia c. 33) sheweth that some principal men were in part (though after a more honest manner concerning those corporal delicacies) of the same opinion, by misconstruction of these words of S. John. Whereby we learn and all the world may perceive, the holy Scriptures to be hard, ^[2] when so great clerks did err, and that there is no security but in that sense which the Church alloweth of.

• 1 Millenarii or Chiliastæ.
• 2 The Scriptures hard.

^[1]

The late Heretics also by the said S. Augustine's words are fully refuted, affirming not only that the Church may be seduced in that great persecution of the Devil's loosing, but that it hath been seduced even a great piece of this time when the Devil is bound: holding that the very true Church may err or fall from truth to error and idolatry, yea (which is more blasphemy) that the chief governor of the Church is Antichrist himself, and the very Church under him, the whore of Babylon: and that this Antichrist, (which the Scriptures in so many places, and here plainly by S. Augustine's exposition, testify, shall reign but a small time, and that toward the last judgement,) hath been revealed long sithence, to be the Pope himself, Christ's own Vicar, and that he hath persecuted the Saints of their sect for these thousand years at the least. Which is no more but to make the Devil to be loose, and Antichrist to reign the whole thousand years, or the most part thereof, that is, almost the whole time of the Church's state in the new Testament: (which is against this and other Scriptures evidently, appointing that, to be the time of the Devil's binding:) ^[2] Yea it is to make Antichrist and the Devil weaker toward the day of judgement than before, and the truth better to be known, and the faith more common, the nearer we come to the same judgement: which is expressly against the Gospel, and this prophecy of S. John. ^[3] We see that the sects of Luther, Calvin, and other, be more spread through the world than they were ever before, and consequently the Pope and his religion lessened, and his power of punishing (or, as they call it) persecuting the said Sectaries, through the multitude of his adversaries, diminished. How then is the Pope Antichrist, whose force shall be greater at the later end of the world, than before? Or how can it be otherwise, but these sect-Masters should be Antichrist's near precursors, that make Christ's chief Ministers & the Church's chief governors that have been these thousand years and more, to be Antichrists: and themselves and their sects to be true, that come so near the time of the Devil's loosing and seduction & of the personal reign of Antichrist?

• 1 By S. Augustine's foresaid explication, is evidently deduced against the Protestants, that the Church cannot err, and that the Pope cannot possibly be Antichrist.
• 2 An invincible demonstration.
• 3 Mat. 24. Lu. 18, 8.

The camp of the Saints.

^[1] S. Augustine in the said 20 book de Civit. Dei cap. 11. It is not, saith he, to be taken that the persecutors shall gather to any place, as though the camp of the saints or the beloved city should be but in one place, which indeed are no other thing but the Church of Christ spread through the whole world. And therefore wheresoever the Church shall then be (which shall be in all Nations even then, for so much is insinuated by this latitude of the earth here specified) there shall the tents of saints be, and the beloved city of God, and there shall she be besieged by all her enemies, which shall be in every country where she is, in most cruel and forcible sort. So writeth this profound holy Doctor. Whereby we see, that, ^[2] as now the particular Churches of England, Scotland, Flanders, and such like, be persecuted by their enemies in those countries, so in the time of Antichrist, the Churches of all Nations, as of Italy, Spain, France, and all other which now be quiet, shall be assaulted as now the foresaid are, and much more, for that the general persecution of the whole, shall be greater than the particular persecution of any Churches in the world.

• 1 The camp of Saints is the Catho. Church through the world.
• 2 As now Heretics in particular countries, so Antichrist shall persecute the Churches of all nations.

There came down a fire.

^◦ It is not meant of the fire of Hell (saith S. Augustine ib. c. 12) into which the wicked shall be cast after the resurrection of their bodies, but of an extraordinary help that God will send from heaven, to give succourse to the Saints of the Church that then shall fight against the wicked: or, the very fervent and burning zeal of religion and God's honour, which God will kindle in the hearts of the faithful, to be constant against all the forces of that great persecution.

• ◦ What is meant by fire from heaven.

Another book.

^◦ This is the book of God's knowledge or predestination, wherein that which before was hid to the world, shall be opened, and wherein the true record of every man's works shall be contained, and they have their judgement diversly according to their works, and not according to faith only, or lack of faith only. For, all infidels (as Turks, obstinate Jews, and Heretics) shall never come to that examination, being otherwise condemned.

• ◦ The book of every man's works, opened in the day of judgement.