v. 1. river. In the river of life which flows in the midst “of the city, there is no longer indicated the celebration of Baptism, but the fruit of that sacrament is now revealed. For in the present time the Church sows in the Spirit, that it may then reap eternal life.”
2. life. The tree of life is seen by the fountain of Tife; and whether thou interpret this to be the glory of thé holy cross, or the Lord Christ, Who even before baptism was revealed already in the Old Testament, as He is now by the mystery of baptism becoming manifest, it alike endues the saints with heavenly fruit. For “Neither is there any other name tinder heaven given to men in which we must be saved;” seeing that the same ‘tree which John described as flourishing in the golden Jerusalem, dnd Moses in Paradise, Solomon pronounced to be ““a tree of life to those who laid hold upon it” This I think to have been prefigured by the Jordan, on the otherside of which Moses made “known to ‘the people the precepts of “salvation, as Jestis on this side of it the ‘tand of promise. month, In the twelve months he intimates all the time of life; the life, namely, in which it is said,. “And thy years shall not fail;” and again, “It shall be month after month, and Sabbath after Sab-. bath;” where the face of the Lord is present, and is the eternal health, the eternal food of life. It may also be understood simply -that- the cross of Christ bears fruit through the doctrine of the twelve Apostles.. - leaves. If the fruit is taken to be the reward of _ a blessed immortality, the leaves are rightly under-. stood to be a perpetual song, in that it is for health to those who sing in their now blissful lot. For there is the true healing of the nations, full redemption,. everlasting bliss.
4. see. The vision of God is reserved to us as the. reward of faith, and Philip understood this to be the chief good, when he said, ‘ Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” For it was diligently to be inculcated, that the saints would see and possess in reality that which they believe while living from faith,
name. The confession of the holy Name, which. is now maintained in the midst of enemies, then in their own country makes glorious the conquerors.
5. night. There no frailness of the body needs either the repose of night or the light of fire, at the time: in ~ which God, Who is the true light, and the eternal rest of the saints, will be all in all, But if thou refer the words to an allegory, there no exhortation of the prophets, no preaching of the law, are necessary, which are now said to be “a lamp shining in a dark place?;” seeing that in the contemplation of God all things are fulfilled, and the promise is possessed in its completeness. 6 faithful. He doubted not as to a want of faith in John. But he commended the truth of the vision to all the Church, in which he knew that there would also be little ones.
prophets. Doubt not, he says, of the person of him who shews. For God Himself, Who is wont to imbue the spirits of the prophets with heavenly vision, sent me to shew to thee beforehand that these things will be.
servants. He taught that the profit of all men generally has by him been foreseen.
7. book. “I am blessed,” is understood. So the blessed Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria‘, connects these clauses, For upon certain heresies arising on occasion of this book, he both refuted the error, and at the same time transferred to the eternal and heavenly promises the sense of the same prophecy, which he had purified from every cloud of carnal interpretation.
fell. He either did a second time that which had once been done’, and which, when forbidden, he did not dare to repeat; or he is overwhelmed with amazement at the vision, and confesses that he again desires to worship.
9. fellowservant. ’ Observe how often he both mames John ‘a prophet, and this book a prophecy. For he has many things in accordance with the prophets, and that not in sense alone, but also in words; for how many verses of Isaiah, how many of Zechariah, and of other prophets, wilt thou find here?
10. Seal. When the judgment which is to come draws near, it behoves the divine precepts, judgments, and promises to be manifested, by the observation of which the meék are to obtain a reward, and through neglect of them the obstinate to incur punishment.
1. still. He here demonstrates the secret but just judgments of God, by which bad men are permitted to advance to something worse, that is, to arrive at the highest wickedness, that it may find a just judgment. Like to this is that, “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree bad, and its fruit bads.”
13. Omega. In A he designates the divinity of the Word, and in the humanity assumed, the beginning without end; which is confirmed by frequent repe- Ch.xixi10, - « St. Matt, xii. 33.: tition in this book,:either to intimate the divinity and humanity of the one Christ from time to time; or that the whole Trinity may be declared to be of one nature, Which saith by the prophet, Before Me was there no God formed, meither shall there be after Met”