{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/102/1020619.htm","path":"chr/ecf/102/1020619.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/102/1020619.htm","text":"Chapter 17.\u2014Of the Endless Glory of the Church.\n\u201cAnd I saw,\u201d he says, \u201ca 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.\u201d 1391 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, \u201cI am the Lord that formed thee.\u201d 1392 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\u2019s final judgment, which shall be administered by His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by God\u2019s 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, \u201cGod 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.\u201d 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\u2019s people, or even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever live, without tears or pain,\u2014the 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: \u201cMy tears have been my meat day and night;\u201d 1393 and \u201cEvery night shall I make my bed to swim; with my tears shall I water my couch;\u201d 1394 and \u201cMy groaning is not hid from Thee;\u201d 1395 and \u201cMy sorrow was renewed?\u201d 1396 Or are not those God\u2019s children who groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life? 1397 Do not they even who have the first-fruits of the Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of their body? 1398 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? 1399 But when shall there be no more death in that city, except when it shall be said, \u201cO death, where is thy contention? 1400 O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin.\u201d 1401 Obviously there shall be no sin when it can be said, \u201cWhere is\u201d\u2014But as for the present it is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but this same Apostle John himself who says, \u201cIf we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.\u201d 1402 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, \u201cGod 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,\u201d there is so manifest a reference to the future world and the immortality and eternity of the saints,\u2014for only then and only there shall such a condition be p. 437 realized,\u2014that if we think this obscure, we need not expect to find anything plain in any part of Scripture.\nAugustin therefore read \u03bd\u03b5\u1fd6\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2, and not with the Vulgate \u03bd\u03af\u03ba\u03b7. [The correct reading is \u03c4\u1f78 \u03bd\u1fd6\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2, later form for \u03bd\u03af\u03ba\u03b7, victory.\u2014P.S.]\n436:1401 436:1402","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II: City of God: Cha...","type":"page"}