Chapter 8
[Revelation 8:1] -- And when he had opened the seventh seal, etc. After the destruction of the Antichrist, a brief rest is believed to come in the Church, about which Daniel predicted thus: "Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days" (Daniel XII). Which blessed Jerome explains thus: "Blessed," he says, "is he who, after the Antichrist is killed, awaits beyond the one thousand two hundred and ninety days, that is, three and a half years, forty-five days, during which the Lord and Savior is to come in his majesty." But why there is a silence of forty-five days after the killing of the Antichrist is known to divine knowledge. Unless we might say: the delay of the kingdom of the saints is a test of patience. Note that in the sixth seal he sees the greatest pressures on the Church, in the seventh he sees rest, because the Lord, crucified on the sixth day, rested on the Sabbath, waiting for the time of resurrection. Thus far about the opening of the sealed book and the six seals. Now he recapitulates from the beginning, intending to speak the same things differently.
[Revelation 8:2] -- And I saw seven angels standing before God, etc. The Church, often commended by the number seven, is devoted to the duty of preaching, the first trumpet signifying the common destruction of the impious by fire and hail; the second, the devil expelled from the Church, more fervently inflaming the sea of the world; the third, heretics falling away from the Church, corrupting the rivers of the Holy Scripture; the fourth, the downfall of false brethren in the obscuration of the stars; the fifth, the greater infestation of heretics preceding the time of the Antichrist; the sixth, the open war of the Antichrist and his followers against the Church, and, by recapitulation from the coming of the Lord, the insertion of the destruction of the same adversary; the seventh, the day of judgment, when the Lord will render the reward to His own and will destroy those who have corrupted the earth.
[Revelation 8:3] -- And another angel came. He did not say, "Then he came," but proposing that the angels had received the trumpets, he goes back to explain how they had received them. For although the Church preached before the coming of the Lord, it was not everywhere, until it was confirmed by His Spirit.
[Revelation 8:3] -- And he stood before the altar, having a golden censer. Clearly, he appeared in the sight of the Church, having become the censer, from which God received the odor of sweetness, and was propitiated towards the world. Another Edition has "Upon the altar," which means that He offered His golden censer, that is, His immaculate body conceived by the Holy Spirit, upon the altar of the cross to the Father for us.
[Revelation 8:3] -- And there was given unto him much incense, etc. From the prayers of the saints he offered the incense. For to them the Church entrusted its prayers, saying: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight" (Psalm 140). It is said that he received from the prayers of the saints and offered it, because through him the prayers of all can sweetly reach God.
[Revelation 8:4] -- And the smoke of the incense ascended from the prayers of the saints, etc. Christ the Lord offering Himself as a sacrifice of sweetness made the compunction of the hearts of the saints acceptable, which, being born from the inner fire, usually stirs up tears like smoke.
[Revelation 8:5] -- And the angel took the censer, etc. Rightly he introduces the censer filled with fire. For God does not give the Spirit by measure (John 3). This we properly know was fulfilled in the humanity of Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Divinity dwells bodily (Colossians 2).
[Revelation 8:5] -- And he cast it into the earth. Thus also the Lord in the Gospel: "I came to cast fire upon the earth" (Luke 12).
[Revelation 8:5] -- And there were thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake. With the thunder of divine threat, and the voice of exhortation, and the lightning of miracles, He moved the earth, some following, others preceding, these saying: "He is good," but others: "No, but he deceives the people" (John 7).
[Revelation 8:6] -- And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound the trumpets. The Church, inflamed with the sevenfold spirit, prepared itself confidently to preach, intending to cast down the glory of the world with heavenly trumpets, as if to topple the walls of Jericho. For that seven-day circuit also indicates the entire time of the Church.
[Revelation 8:7] -- And the first angel sounded the trumpet. Rightly, the preaching of the plagues of the trumpet, which is a sign of war, is compared. “Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgressions” (Isaiah 58). And elsewhere, “Set the trumpet to your lips, like an eagle over the house of the Lord” (Hosea 8), that is, preach loudly that Nebuchadnezzar will come to destroy the temple.
[Revelation 8:7] -- And there was hail and fire, mixed with blood, etc. It is proclaimed by the voice of preachers that the punishment of hell is due for bloodstained deeds, saying: “From excessive heat they will pass by the waters of snow” (Job 24). The name blood can also mean the death of the spiritual soul itself. Tyconius interprets this verse thus: “the wrath of God was made, which had in it the death of many.”
[Revelation 8:7] -- And a third part of the earth was burned up, etc. The life of the good consists in teachers and listeners. “Blessed is the one who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy” (Revelation 1). The third part of the wicked lacks both of these. For good earth, bringing forth fruit with patience (Luke 8), receives blessing from the Lord (Psalm 23). But the bad produces thorns and thistles, whose end is in burning. Thus, the farmer Father cultivates the fruitful tree, but cuts down the barren one, providing it as fuel for the fire (Matthew 7).
[Revelation 8:7] -- And all green grass was burned up. All flesh is grass (Isaiah 40), which now, fattened with the softness of luxury, loses the flower of beauty under the burning sun of judgment, and, as the Lord says, today it is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven (Matthew 6). Tyconius says about the third part in this place. He calls the third part the internal enemies. However, anything outside the Church is called the third part, and the Church is the third part, which fights against the double evil.
[Revelation 8:8] -- And as it were a great mountain burning with fire, was cast into the sea, etc. With the growth of the Christian religion, the devil, swollen with pride and burning with the fire of his fury, was cast into the sea of the world, with the Lord saying: “If you say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done” (Mark 11). Not that he was not there before, but that, having been cast out from the Church, he began to rage more greatly against his own, inflicting spiritual death on them with the pride of carnal wisdom. For to think according to the flesh is death (Romans 8). But the apostles were not taught by flesh and blood, but by the Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16). For in that sea, they steered the ship of faith which offered itself to be trodden by the feet of the Lord.
[Revelation 8:9] -- And a third of them died, those that had souls in the sea. He said, "those that have souls," to show that the spiritually living were dead. Just as the Apostle says of the voluptuous widow: "Living," he says, "she is dead" (I Tim. V).
[Revelation 8:9] -- And a third of the ships perished. Another Edition, by saying "And they corrupted a third of the ships," signifies that the third that died killed another third, that is, the succeeding one, with harmful tradition and useless imitation of doctrine.
[Revelation 8:10] -- And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, etc. Heretics, whom Jude the apostle calls stars of seduction, falling from the height of the Church, try to infect the springs of divine Scriptures with the flame of their wickedness. They are not afraid to falsify not only the meaning but also the words frequently. They are worthy of the name "wormwood," whose slight mixing tends to embitter great sweetness.
[Revelation 8:11] -- And many men died from the waters. For many (as the Apostle says) follow their luxuries, through whom the way of truth is blasphemed (II Pet. II), yet for the people of God, as Moses teaches, every wave of the waters is drinkable.
[Revelation 8:12] -- And a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, etc. The beauty of the Church, like a shining star, is often obscured by false brethren, who make it shine less by their defection, whether in the prosperity or adversity of the world.
[Revelation 8:12] -- And a third part of the day did not shine, and likewise a third part of the night. Another Edition has it thus: And a third part of the day appeared, and likewise of the night. That is, it was struck so that a third part of the day and a third of the night might appear, which belong to Christ and which to the devil. I say, it was struck for this purpose, that, being handed over to their own wills, with sins overflowing and becoming insolent, it might be revealed in its time.
[Revelation 8:13] -- And I saw and heard the voice of one eagle flying through the midst of heaven, etc. The voice of this eagle flies daily through the mouths of the eminent doctors in the Church, when they gravely announce to the lovers of the earth the wickedness of the heretics, the savagery of the Antichrist, and the day of judgment to come, saying: In the last days, perilous times will come, and men will be lovers of themselves (II Tim. III); and further: Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith (Ibid.), and elsewhere: Then shall that Wicked be revealed, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or is worshipped (II Thess. II). And again: The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them (I Thess. V).
[Revelation 8:13] -- Concerning the other voices of the three angels. Not that the trumpets of the angels bring plagues to the world, but that each one announces the coming or future events in their own time.