loins; and so it becometh us mortals and wayfarers, whose days, in spite of ourselves, have been brought forward on the road which leadeth above, to make ready a viaticum which shall be useful to us in the other world, viz. a right theory of the orthodox faith, and the practice of good works. The use of the girdle teaches us these things.
CHAPTER VII.
Of the Resurrection, the Judgment to come, and Everlasting Life.
He who commenceth a work must have a design therein, and when this is attained he ceases working, and maketh an end of his work, otherwise his labour is vain and unprofitable. Now God, who is all-wise, did not create His creation in vain, and without a design; but, as we have already shown. He created it in consummate wisdom, and with an exalted purpose, to be the study of His rational creatures, and for the perfection of His Likeness in them. And when the time decreed in His wisdom shall arrive. He will bring this world to an end; for every beginning is the beginning of an end, and, contrarily, every end is the end of a beginning. On this subject a certain godly man has said: "When the tenth circle[1] shall be made up from among men, then shall the end be, and the cutting off of time shall come, and shall not fail." On that day the sun shall set and shall not rise again, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and all this world shall become a chaos of darkness, and all the motions of the elements shall cease. Then shall the sign of the Son of God, the shining Cross, appear in the heavens with power and great glory, accompanied with the awful sounds of the trumpets of angels. Thus shall Christ, the King of kings, appear like the lightning which cometh from the east, and shineth towards the west. His glorious appearance shall shake all the ends of the heavens, and all the foundations of the earth, and He shall then cry out with His life-giving voice: Let the resurrection and the renewal be. This is the
- ↑ There is a reference here to the nine orders of Angels, who are said to minister in the Church above. See Part III., Chapter viii.
VOL. II
