Chap. III.
I asked her about the four colours which the beast had on his head. And she answered, and said to me, "Again you are inquisitive in regard to such matters." "Yea, Lady," said I, "make known to me what they are." "Listen," said she: "the black is the world in which we dwell: but the fiery and bloody points out that the world must perish through blood and fire: but the golden part are you who have escaped from this world. For as gold is tested by fire, and thus becomes useful, so are you tested who dwell in it. Those, therefore, who continue stedfast, and are put through the fire, will be purified by means of it. For as gold casts away its dross, so also will ye cast away all sadness and straitness, and will be made pure so as to fit into the building of the tower. But the white part is the age that is to come, in which the elect of God will dwell, since those elected by God to eternal life will be spotless and pure. Wherefore cease not speaking these things into the ears of the saints. This then is the type of the great tribulation that is to come. If ye wish it, it will be nothing. Remember those things which were written down before." And saying this, she departed. But I saw not into what place she retired. There was a noise, however, and I turned round in alarm, thinking that that beast was coming. [148]
[129] [This address to "brethren" sustains the form of the primitive prophesyings, in the congregation.]
[130] [One of the tribulations spoken of in the Apocalypse is probably intended. This Vision is full of the imagery of the Book of Revelation.]
[131] Rarely. Easily.--Lips., Sin.
[132] He might strengthen me, omitted in Vat.
[133] For ... marvels. This clause is connected with the subsequent sentence in Vat.
[134] [Rev. ix. 3.]
[135] Comp. Rev. xi. 7, xii. 3, 4, xiii. 1, xvii. 8, xxii. 2. [The beast was "like a whale" in size and proportion. It was not a sea-monster. This whole passage is Dantesque. See Inferno, canto xxxi., and, for the colours, canto xvii. 15.]
[136] God.--Lips., Vat.
[137] The Vat. adds: with a stroke.
[138] [Those who remember the Vatican collection and other antiques, will recall the exquisite figure and veiling of the Pudicitia.]
[139] The Lord. God.--Vat.
[140] Care. Loneliness and anxiety.--Vat.
[141] God. The Lord.--Vat.
[142] [Acts iv. 12.]
[143] [Perhaps compounded from ther and agreuo.] The name of this angel is variously written, Hegrin [Query. Quasi egregorein, or corrupted from (Sept.) eir kai hagios; Hir in Daniel's Chaldee], Tegri. Some have supposed the word to be for agrion, the wild; some have taken it to mean "the watchful," as in Dan. iv. 10, 23: and some take it to be the name of a fabulous lion. [See, also, Dan. vi. 22.]
[144] The Lord. God.--Vat.
[145] Send scourges. Send you help. But woe to the doubters who.--Vat.
[146] [1 Thess. v. 20.]
[147] Matt. xxvi. 24.
[148] [Very much resembling Dante, again, in many passages. Inferno, xxi. "Allor mi volsi," etc.]
Vision Fifth.
Concerning the Commandments. [149]
After I had been praying at home, and had sat down on my couch, there entered a man of glorious aspect, dressed like a shepherd, with a white goat's skin, a wallet on his shoulders, and a rod in his hand, and saluted me. I returned his salutation. And straightway he sat down beside me, and said to me, "I have been sent by a most venerable angel to dwell with you the remaining days of your life." And I thought that he had come to tempt me, and I said to him, "Who are you? For I know him to whom I have been entrusted." He said to me, "Do you not know me?" "No," said I. "I," said he, "am that shepherd to whom you have been entrusted." And while he yet spake, his figure was changed; and then I knew that it was he to whom I had been entrusted. And straightway I became confused, and fear took hold of me, and I was overpowered with deep sorrow that I had answered him so wickedly and foolishly. But he answered, and said to me, "Do not be confounded, but receive strength from the commandments which I am going to give you. For I have been sent," said he, "to show you again all the things which you saw before, especially those of them which are useful to you. First of all, then, write down my commandments and similitudes, and you will write the other things as I shall show you. For this purpose," said he, "I command you to write down the commandments and similitudes first, that you may read them easily, and be able to keep them." [150] Accordingly I wrote down the commandments and similitudes, exactly as he had ordered me. If then, when you have heard these, ye keep them and walk in them, and practice them with pure minds, you will receive from the Lord all that He has promised to you. But if, after you have heard them, ye do not repent, but continue to add to your sins, then shall ye receive from the Lord the opposite things. All these words did the shepherd, even the angel of repentance, command me to write. [151]
[149] [This vision naturally belongs to book ii., to which it is a preface.]
[150] Keep them. That you may be able to keep them more easily by reading them from time to time.--Vat.
[151] ["The Shepherd," then, is the "angel of repentance," here represented as a guardian angel. This gives the work its character, as enforcing primarily the anti-Montanist principle of the value of true repentance in the sight of God.]
The Pastor