Chapter 36

§ 1.

For since men are real, the plantation¹ also of them must be real; yea, and it must not go out into things which are not, but go forward in things which are. For it is not that the subsistence nor the essence of the Creation is annihilated (seeing that He who framed it is true and constant) but the fashion of this world passeth away, i.e., in those things in which transgression hath taken place, for in them man hath waxed old. And therefore was this fashion made temporary, God knowing all beforehand; as we have explained in the preceding Book: and have set forth as we might the cause of the formation of the temporal things of the world.

Now when this fashion has passed away, and Man is made young again, and hath become ripe for incorruption, so as never more to be susceptible of decay from age², there shall be the new Heaven and the new Earth: in them, being new, shall man abide always new, and in Communion with God. And to shew that this will always continue,³ without end, Esaias saith, For as the new Heaven and the new Earth, which I make, abide before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name stand. And as the Elders say,⁴ then also both those who are deemed meet for the heavenly abode shall depart thither, and others shall enjoy the deliciousness of Paradise, and others possess the brightness of the city; for in every place shall the Saviour be seen, according as they who see Him shall be worthy.

§ 2.

And that this is the distinction of the abode of those who bear fruit,⁵ some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty: whereof the one sort shall be taken up into the Heavens, the next shall abide in Paradise, others again shall inherit the city: and that on this account the Lord said, In My Father’s House are many mansions.⁶ For all things belong to God, who bestoweth on all their proper habitation: as His Word saith, that to all distribution is made by the Father, according as each one is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch with three compartments, on which shall recline all who feast having been invited to the marriage.

That such is the order and arrangement of those who are saved, we are told by Elders, disciples of the Apostles; and that by the aforesaid degrees they advance, and first by the Spirit ascend unto the Son, then by the Son unto the Father; The Son in process of time, yielding up His work to the Father; as also was said by the Apostle:⁷ That He must reign, until He shall put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (For in the times of the Kingdom the just man being upon earth, shall for the future forget to die.) But when,⁸ saith he, He affirmeth, ‘All things are subject,’ of course it is besides Him who subjected all. But when all things shall have been subdued unto Him, then the Son Himself shall be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.

§ 3.

Attentively then did John foresee the first Resurrection of the just, and their inheritance of the earth in the Kingdom: and with one Voice did the Prophets also prophesy of it. For this Lesson the Lord also taught,⁹ promising that in the Kingdom He would solemnize with His Disciples a new mixture of the Cup.¹⁰ And the Apostle too made profession that the Creature should be free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.

And in all these things, and by all, the same God and Father is manifested who framed man, and promised to the Fathers the inheritance of the earth, who brought forth¹¹ the aforesaid Creation in the resurrection of the just, and accomplisheth the promises to [perfect] His Son’s Kingdom: afterwards, as a Father, vouchsafing those things,¹² which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man. For indeed there is One Son, Who fulfilled all the Father’s Will; and one race of mankind, in which are fully accomplished the mysteries of God, Whom the Angels desire to see, and are not able to trace out God’s Wisdom, whereby His handy-work is perfected, being made of one Form and Body with His Son: that His offspring, the Firstborn, the Word, may descend upon His work, i.e., upon what His Hands have framed, and may be received thereby; and that His work again may receive the Word, and ascend unto Him, overpassing the Angels; and it shall be made according to the Image and Likeness of GOD.