In heaven means in the church. The silence for half an hour shows the beginning of the eternal rest.

The loosing of the seventh seal effects the most perfect and complete glory for us. No longer is there as before the loosing of sin and our turning to God or God’s turning to us. Rather there is now the most unspeakable blessings: to be called sons of God, to be inheritors of God, to be co-heirs with Christ, to be brothers and friends and children of Christ, also to rule with him and to be glorified with him, and those blessings that eye has not seen nor has ear heard nor has come into the heart of man.^[1] And what is the loosing of the seventh seal? It is the second coming of Christ and the giving of blessings as rewards. For although some are handed over to the punishment of sinners, nonetheless it is the aim of Christ and the intention of the incarnation that everyone become an heir of his kingdom. Therefore, when the seventh seal was loosed, there was, it says, silence for about half an hour, since the king of creation was coming and every angelic and supernatural power, astounded at the exceeding greatness of the glory of him who was coming, for that reason became silent.

Often the number of seven is taken by this saint to correspond to this age and the sabbath rest of the saints. Therefore, also here at the loosing of the seventh seal, the dissolution of the earthly city is signified, the seven angels administering the torments against those people who are deserving of chastisement or punishment. The silence reveals the good order of the piety of the angels as well as the fact that the second coming of Christ is unknown even to angels. The half hour shows the shortness of time, for when the plagues come and the events of the consummation upon the earth are occurring, the kingdom of Christ will appear.

It is believed that after the destruction of the antichrist, there will be a short rest in the church. Daniel prophesied of this, Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.^[1] The blessed Jerome commented upon this passage [of Daniel]. Blessed, he says, is he who when the antichrist is killed waits for the forty-five days beyond the thousand two hundred and ninety days, that is, three and a half years. For during them our Lord and Savior will come in his majesty. It is a matter of divine knowledge why there is silence for forty-five days after the death of the antichrist, unless we make the conjecture that the delay of the kingdom of the saints is a test of patience.^[2] We should note that the greatest afflictions of the church are envisaged in the sixth period, while a rest is seen in the seventh. For the Lord was crucified on the sixth day, and he rested on the seventh, awaiting the time of the resurrection.

In the seven angels we shall recognize again the church according to that rule that indicates that universality is often to be acknowledged in the number seven. [The church] is said to have received a most powerful trumpet of proclamation by which she is strong and by which, we believe, every age comes to faith. For we read, Life up your voice like a trumpet.^[1]

And seven trumpets were given to the seven angels, so that they might sound the signal that the king was arriving. But the sound of these very trumpets will also awaken those who are dead. For, the apostle, who is wise in divine things, wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians that the Lord himself will descend at a command, at the call of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.^[1] And again, The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.^[2]

The seven angels received trumpets, and another [angel], it says, came. One might think that this one came after the seven angels, although he saw all of this at one time. As the angel was coming, those seven received their trumpets, that is, when Christ the Lord was coming, his church received the power to preach. And we understand that he himself came over the altar, that is, over the church, which is wholly assumed as the body of the same priesthood and to whom Peter said, [You are] a holy nation, a chosen race, a royal priesthood.^[1] He had a golden censer, which is his immaculate body that was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit and that he offered as an oblation and sweet-smelling sacrifice to God for the redemption of the world and through which he cleansed the conscience of all from dead works. He is also said to have received the prayers of the saints and to have offered them, for through him the prayers of all are able to come to God in an agreeable manner.

He calls the altar a censer, because it receives incense. When Christ appears, the prayers of the saints, which are by nature fragrant but made even more fragrant by the cooperation of the holy angels, are brought to him by those angels that govern us as though they were his spoils and the first offerings of homage given to him. And for this reason it is said that much incense was given to him. It is clear that the governance of people was given to the angels from God that they might make our prayers acceptable to him. And the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel. You see that the prayers of the saints are made more fragrant by the angel and rendered worthy to be offered before God.

Although what is revealed to the saints is depicted in material form and with colors, whether it be the altar or the censer or something else, in reality these things are invisible and intellectual. And it is at such an altar that the angel stands and swings the censer (that is, that bowl that receives incense) bearing to God the prayers of the saints as though they were incense. . . . The altar is Christ upon which every ministering and holy power is established and upon which the sacrifices of the martyrs are offered. This altar was prefigured in the altar that was shown to Moses on Mount Sinai together with the tabernacle. The incense is the prayers of the saints. . . . He says that the altar, namely, Christ, is before the throne, that is, before the most eminent and holy of powers who are there because of the abundance of the divine love and of the pure wisdom and knowledge in them.

He stood before the altar, that is, he appeared in the sight of the church. He was himself made the censer, from which God received the smell of sweet savor and became more favorable toward the world. Another version reads upon the altar, because for us he offered to the Father upon the altar of the cross his own golden censer, namely, his own sinless body conceived by the Holy Spirit. . . . When Christ offered himself to the Lord as an agreeable and acceptable sacrifice, he made the sorrow of the hearts of the saints acceptable, which arising from the fire within elicits tears, as is usual with smoke.

The Lord received his body, that is, the church, and filled her with fire from the altar to accomplish the Father’s will. This is to say that he filled [the church] with the power of loosing and of binding, which consists in sacrifices and the propitiation of God. Therefore, it is also said, Who makes the winds his messengers and burning fire his ministers.^[1] For in them the church received all power in heaven and on earth, while she perfected the sacrifice of God, first of all the Lord offering up himself and the saints presenting their own bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. And he cast it upon the earth, for through the preaching of the church knowledge of the future judgment comes to the world, as Zechariah says, I will place the officers of Judah as a flaming fire.^[2] . . . And there were thunders and voices and lightning and earthquakes. All of these things are spiritual and have to do with the church. The voices are of those who reproach and who threaten, the broods of vipers^[3] and following. Or, [the voices say], Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.^[4] The thunder is the proclamation of the Christian faith; the lightning represents the virtues of those have have been made whole; the earthquakes are persecutions that are foretold to come and that are suffered at various times.

Then, it says, the holy angel took and filled the altar with divine fire and threw it on the earth, and there were voices and peals of thunder and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Similarly, an angel threw this heavenly fire upon Mount Sinai and there was thunder and voices and trumpets and lightning, and the mountain was covered in smoke, since God had come and was present.^[1] Therefore, just as at that time thunder and fearsome wonders preceded him, so also now such wonders occur before the glorious advent of the Lord.

Jesus received his body, that is, the church, and he filled her with the fire of the Holy Spirit in order that the will of the Father might be fulfilled. And there were voices and thunder and lightning and earthquakes. All of these things are the spiritual proclamations and virtues of the church.

The prayers of the saints offered through an administering angel cause the censer filled with the avenging fire to be poured out upon the earth. This is just as it was revealed long ago to Ezekiel by one of the cherubim, that he should receive from such a fire and give it to the angels that they might send the fire for the punishment of the wicked inhabitants of Jerusalem.^[1] And every high priest is representative of such an angel, for as a mediator between God and people, he carries up their petitions and brings down God’s redemption, and he turns some sinners to repentance either by word or by harsher chastisements.

Rightly does he mention the censer as filled with fire. For God does not give the Spirit in measure,^[1] and we know that this was most especially fulfilled concerning the humanity of Christ, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.^[2]

He sends these seven great archangels to strike against the kingdom of the antichrist. For the Lord himself said in the Gospel: Then the Son of man will send his angels and will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.^[1] And before that he said, Then there will peace in our land, when in it seven shepherds will arise and eight attacks of men and they will encircle Asshur, that is, the antichrist, in the trench of Nimrod,^[2] that is, at the damnation of the devil. And similarly Ecclesiastes says, When the keepers of the house tremble.^[3]And the Lord himself spoke as follows: When the servants came to him and asked him, ‘Lord, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?’ He answered them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ They said, ‘Do you want us to go and pluck them out?’ He said to them, ‘No, let both grow together until the harvest, and at that time I will tell the reapers to gather the weeds and throw them into the fire, but to gather the wheat into the barn.’^[4] Here the Revelation reveals that these reapers and laborers are the archangels. The trumpet is the word of power. And although there is a repetition of scenes by means of the bowls,^[5] this is not as though the events occurred twice. Rather, since those events that are future to them have been decreed [by God] to happen, these things are spoken twice. And therefore, whatever he said rather briefly by way of the trumpets he said more completely by way of the bowls. Nor ought we pay too much attention to the order of what is said. For the sevenfold Holy Spirit, when he has passed in revue [the events] to the last time, to the very end, returns again to the same times and supplements what he had said incompletely. Nor ought we inquire too much into the order of the Revelation. Rather, we ought inquire after the meaning, for there is also the possibility of a false understanding. And there-fore, those things written concerning the trumpets and the bowls are either the devastation of the plagues sent to the world, or the madness of the antichrist himself, or the blasphemies of the peoples, or the variety of the plagues, or the hope for the kingdom of saints, or the ruin of cities or the ruin of Babylon, that is, of the city of Rome.

The church, often indicated by the number seven, prepared herself for faithful preaching.

Then angels blew their trumpets to announce the coming of God, for indeed also at that time trumpets were used to announce great occasions.

Made zealous by the sevenfold Spirit, the church prepared herself to preach with faithfulness and to cast down the pomp of the world by the heavenly trumpets, even as happened to the walls of Jericho. For even that walking around them for seven days is indicative of the entire time of the church.

By the fire and blood he signifies the wrath of God, which devours the multitude of the impious.

Since the righteous have been accounted worthy of the blessed portion . . . and so are to be caught up in the clouds of the air prior to the coming of the Lord, that they might greet the coming Lord,^[1] . . . the vision now finally discusses the fate of the rest of humankind and the punishment of sinners. When the coming destruction occurs, there will necessarily be various kinds of death and various rewards for the wicked. The greater part of these will be consumed by fire, for in his first letter to the Corinthians the holy apostle wrote that that day will be revealed in fire.^[2] For if there are many rooms for rest, as the Lord says,^[3] there are also different places for torment. And these trumpets that bring death to those upon earth are the same that also raise the dead afterwards. Why does it say that when the first angel blew his trumpet, hail and fire consumed a third of those upon the earth? Were someone to think that this will happen literally, he would not be interpreting this passage incorrectly. But if we understand the passage figuratively, we will also not be wrong, for the passage speaks of fire when it refers to the distress and profound grief of the sinners who see the saints caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, while they themselves remain dishonorable upon the earth and are not regarded as worthy of any greeting. The passage refers figuratively to sinners as trees and grass that are on fire because of their folly and the insensitivity of their souls, which are hard as dry wood and so are suitable for burning.

Some have interpreted these things to depict the punishment of sinners in Gehenna, which is symbolically described as various kinds of physical torment. However, we think it more likely that the third portion is not of those from the totality of people who will be punished in the coming age, but rather—for the way which leads to destruction is broad^[1]—this passage shows the plagues that will occur before the consummation. The hail indicates the scourgings that will come from heaven for righteous judgment, and the fire mixed with blood indicates the destruction by fire and slaughter at the hands of the barbarians that will occur daily.^[2]

The first trumpet of [the church’s] preaching reveals the universal destruction of the impious by fire and hail. . . . The foretelling of these plagues is rightly compared with a trumpet, which is the signal for battle. For, the Scripture says, Lift up your voice as a trumpet; declare to my people their transgressions,^[1] and elsewhere, Set the trumpet to your lips, as an eagle over the house of the Lord.^[2] That the punishment of Gehenna is the reward for works that spill blood is indicated by the voice of the preachers who say, He will pass from the waters of the snow to very great heat.^[3] It is possible that by the word blood the spiritual death of the soul is intended.

A third of the earth and the trees and all the grass is said to be burned up. The earth represents everything terrestrial, while persons who wave about through unfaithfulness are depicted as trees. For those blown about by every wind of doctrine^[1] are mentioned by the apostle Jude, fruitless trees in late autumn, uprooted, twice dead.^[2] The green grass represents flesh fattened with luxury, for all flesh is grass.^[3] Although in an earlier passage three fourths were set against one, that is, the church, this passage confines those opposed to the church to two thirds. One third consists of the false brothers who are mixed in among the good within the church, and another third that is separated by the error of the Gentiles or by heretical depravity or by open schism. And so the church (namely, the one third) must struggle against a double evil, as though it were simplicity resisting duplicity. It is as we read in the Gospel that a king with ten thousand went out to war against twenty thousand.^[4] And God did make a promise concerning this through Zechariah, saying, In the whole land, says the Lord, two thirds shall be dispersed and perish, and one third shall remain in it; and I shall lead the third part through fire, and I shall refine them as one refines silver, and I shall test them as gold is tested. It shall call my name, and I will answer them and say, ‘You are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’^[5]

The trees and the earth represent people who are the internal enemies of the church and whom [God] shall punish by a future judgment to everlasting punishment. The grass represents the flesh, which is fattened through the vices of sins and whose strength and beauty have dried through the heat of the sun. To be sure, the third part which it said was destroyed by being burned up refers to the heretics. For anyone who is found outside of the true church shall be condemned to perpetual torments, along with the devil, who is the author of such division. And so through Zechariah the Lord promised to strike the false shepherds and to free his sheep from their difficulties and to separate the third part, which he says is like the nations and Sodom,^[1] from the midst of his sheep, that is, from the midst of the pious. Awake, O sword, it says, against the shepherds and those who are next to me, says the Lord Almighty. Strike the shepherds and scatter the sheep, that is, my people. And I shall test it as gold is tested. It will call me and I will answer it and say, ‘You are my people,’ and it will say ‘You are my God.’^[2] Before this separation occurs, all are regarded as the people of God. However, after the separation has happened, then it will become apparent who are the people of God and who are of the devil.

By these torments not less than one third of all the creatures on the earth will be physically killed, for wars destroy not only human beings but also everything that is produced upon the earth. And the blessed Joel confirms our understanding of what will come when he says, Blood and fire and vapor of smoke will come before the great day.^[1]

He speaks of the devil as a burning mountain, for he consumed those near to him as though he were a fire. He is called great because he is one angel among others and is himself a creature. . . . He calls the world a sea, in which he saw the devil who had been cast down from heaven as a burning fire.

The holy apostle writes to the Romans that the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.^[1] And when will it be set free? When there will be new heavens and a new earth according to his promises, as Peter proclaims to us in his second letter.^[2] And since the earth changes that it might be freed from corruption and made new, it is necessary that also the sea suffer this same fate, for the sea is on the earth. And how would it also be purified unless by means of purifying fire? And so fire is thrown into it and changes it into blood and kills one third of those in it. This may be interpreted as something that is literal and perceptible.

The burning mountain cast into the sea is the devil, who was sent against the peoples. A third part of the sea became blood. By blood he means the wisdom of the flesh, which is hostile to God.^[1] For this reason it is said that through such wisdom the human soul is destroyed. And so the apostle said, To be wise according to the flesh is death,^[2] for flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.^[3]

We are aware that according to the opinion of some this shows the sea with those in it burning by a purifying fire after the resurrection.^[1] However, the mention of a third seems to us illsuited for this interpretation. For, as it is said, those who are being punished are more than those being saved. But according to the anagogical sense^[2] there is nothing wrong with thinking that the present life is figuratively called a sea. . . . As some of our teachers think, we think that the great mountain is the devil,^[3] who burns with the fire of wrath against us but who will be bound in Gehenna. But during the time allowed to him he will destroy a third of the islands and ships in the sea and that which swims in it, even as long ago he did to Job. For he is an enemy and an accuser against the righteous judgment of God. For to that which one is submitted, to that one is a slave.^[4] And it would not be foreign and contrary to the intention of the passage to say that the death of the soul comes upon those who in the sea of life blaspheme the Trinity through works and words.

The second trumpet indicates the expulsion of the devil from the church that he might burn more hotly in the sea of the world. . . . As the Christian religion increased, the devil, puffed up with pride and burning with the fire of his own anger, was cast into the sea of the world, as the Lord said: If you should say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast yourself into the sea,’ it will be done,^[1] not because he was not there before but because, thrown out of the church, he began to rage even more against his own followers, inflicting upon them spiritual death by the arrogance of fleshly wisdom. For to be wise according to the flesh is death.^[2] For flesh and blood did not teach the apostles, but the Father who is in heaven.^[3] For they guided the ship of faith upon that sea that had proven itself suitable for walking to the feet of the Lord.

Another edition has the reading [a third of] those who have souls^[1] and shows thereby that they have died a spiritual death, similar to that which the apostle said about the widow, She who is self-indulgent is dead.^[2] And so the passage suggests that one third has killed another third by a poisonous tradition and by imitation of a useless teaching.

When he speaks customarily of the part that has a soul, he refers to persons who are spiritually dead and separated from the kingdom of God. And a third of the birds fell to the ground.^[1] Therefore, that third that died in the sea destroyed by its own death another third. He is describing the devil and those who are of one mind with the devil, who after the manner of birds fly around and deceive or wish to deceive all by their trickery.

According to analogy and rhetorical custom, the sea may be regarded as the present life because of its turbulence and its many distractions. And one might interpret the fish and the boats to be those persons who are made filthy by salty and bitter sins and who are dissipated by anxiety over useless regrets for what they did in life.