Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 17.--Of the Endless Glory of the Church.

"And I saw," he says, "a great city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but neither shall there be any more pain: because the former things have passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." ¹ This city is said to come down out of heaven, because the grace with which God formed it is of heaven. Wherefore He says to it by Isaiah, "I am the Lord that formed thee." ² It is indeed descended from heaven from its commencement, since its citizens during the course of this world grow by the grace of God, which cometh down from above through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. But by God's final judgment, which shall be administered by His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by God's grace be manifested a glory so pervading and so new, that no vestige of what is old shall remain; for even our bodies shall pass from their old corruption and mortality to new incorruption and immortality. For to refer this promise to the present time, in which the saints are reigning with their King a thousand years, seems to me excessively barefaced, when it is most distinctly said, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more pain." And who is so absurd, and blinded by contentious opinionativeness, as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the midst of the calamities of this mortal state, God's people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain,--the fact being that the holier a man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abundant is the tearfulness of his supplication? Are not these the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem: "My tears have been my meat day and night;" ³ and "Every night shall I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water my couch;" ⁴ and "My groaning is not hid from Thee;" ⁵ and "My sorrow was renewed?" ⁶ Or are not those God's children who groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life? ⁷ Do not they even who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of their body? ⁸ Was not the Apostle Paul himself a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem, and was he not so all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow of heart for his Israelitish brethren? ⁹ But when shall there be no more death in that city, except when it shall be said, "O death, where is thy contention? ¹⁰ O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin." ¹¹ Obviously there shall be no sin when it can be said, "Where is"--But as for the present it is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but this same Apostle John himself who says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." ¹² No doubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse, there are in it many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the reader, and there are few passages so plain as to assist us in the interpretation of the others, even though we take pains; and this difficulty is increased by the repetition of the same things, in forms so different, that the things referred to seem to be different, although in fact they are only differently stated. But in the words, "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more pain," there is so manifest a reference to the future world and the immortality and eternity of the saints,--for only then and only there shall such a condition be realized,--that if we think this obscure, we need not expect to find anything plain in any part of Scripture.

Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XVII: De ecclesiae glorificatione sine fine post finem.

Et ciuitatem, inquit, magnam Hierusalem nouam uidi descendentem de caelo a deo, aptatam, quasi nouam nuptam ornatam marito suo. et audiui uocem magnam de throno dicentem: ecce tabernaculum dei cum hominibus, et habitabit cum eis, et erunt ipsi populus eius, et ipse deus erit cum eis. et absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum; et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus, quia priora abierunt. et dixit sedens in throno: ecce noua facio omnia. de caelo descendere ista ciuitas dicitur, quoniam caelestis est gratia, qua deus eam fecit. propter quod ei dicit etiam per Esaiam: ego sum dominus faciens te. et de caelo quidem ab initio sui descendit, ex quo per huius saeculi tempus gratia dei desuper ueniente per lauacrum regenerationis in spiritu sancto misso de caelo subinde ciues eius adcrescunt. sed per iudicium dei, quod erit nouissimum per eius filium Iesum Christum, tanta eius et tam noua de dei munere claritas apparebit, ut nulla remaneant uestigia uetustatis; quandoquidem et corpora ad incorruptionem atque inmortalitatem nouam ex uetere corruptione ac mortalitate transibunt. nam hoc de isto tempore accipere, quo regnat cum rege suo mille annis, inpudentiae nimiae mihi uidetur, cum apertissime dicat: absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum; et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus. quis uero tam sit absurdus et obstinatissima contentione uesanus, qui audeat adfirmare in huius mortalitatis aerumnis, non dico populum sanctum, sed unumquemque sanctorum, qui hanc uel ducat uel ducturus sit uel duxerit uitam, nullas habentem lacrimas et dolores; cum potius quanto est quisque sanctior et desiderii sancti plenior, tanto sit eius in orando fletus uberior? an non est uox ciuitatis supernae Hierusalem: factae sunt mihi lacrimae meae panis die ac nocte, et: lauabo per singulas noctes lectum meum, in lacrimis meis stratum meum rigabo, et: gemitus meus non est absconditus a te, et: dolor meus renouatus est? aut uero non eius filii sunt, qui ingemescunt grauati, in quo nolunt spoliari, sed superuestiri, ut absorbeatur mortale a uita? nonne ipsi sunt, qui primitias habentes spiritus in se met ipsis ingemescunt, adoptionem exspectantes, redemptionem corporis sui? an ipse apostolus Paulus non erat supernus Hierosolymitanus, uel non multo magis hoc erat, quando pro Israelitis carnalibus fratribus suis tristitia illi erat magna et continuus dolor cordi eius? quando autem mors non erit in ista ciuitate, nisi quando dicetur: ubi est, mors, contentio tua? ubi est, mors, aculeus tuus? aculeus autem mortis est peccatum. quod tunc utique non erit, quando dicetur: ubi est? nunc uero non quilibet infimus ciuis illius ciuitatis, sed idem iste Iohannes in epistula sua clamat: si dixerimus, quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et ueritas in nobis non est. et in hoc quidem libro, cuius nomen est apocalypsis, obscure multa dicuntur, ut mentem legentis exerceant, et pauca in eo sunt, ex quorum manifestatione indagentur cetera cum labore; maxime quia sic eadem multis modis repetit, ut alia atque alia dicere uideatur, cum aliter atque aliter haec ipsa dicere uestigetur. uerum in his uerbis, ubi ait: absterget omnem lacrimam ab oculis eorum, et mors iam non erit neque luctus neque clamor, sed nec dolor ullus, tanta luce dicta sunt de saeculo futuro et de inmortalitate atque aeternitate sanctorum - tunc enim solum atque ibi solum ista non erunt - , ut nulla debeamus in litteris sacris quaerere uel legere manifesta, si haec putauerimus obscura.