There remains the glory of the blessed, which holds the last place among the last things. Of this last thing I shall briefly consider only those three points which I considered in the preceding chapter on the punishments of hell: the place, the time, and the manner. The place of the glory of the blessed is the heavenly paradise; the time is eternity, which has no end; the manner is a happiness exceeding all measure.
Let us begin with the first. The place of the heavenly paradise is most high, above all the mountains of the earth, above all the elements, above all the stars. Hence in the holy Scriptures it is called the kingdom of heaven, the house of God, the city of the great King, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Ps. 47:3). From this most lofty situation of the heavenly city we can easily understand that this place has many privileges or prerogatives above all the places of the whole world. For first, the higher a place is in this universe of things, the greater and more capacious it also is; since the figure of the universe of created things is seen to be round, so that the orb of the earth holds the center of the world, while the highest heaven embraces within its compass an almost boundless expanse.
The place of the blessed, therefore, as it is the highest, so also is it the most spacious; just as, on the contrary, the place of the lost, as it is the lowest of all, so is it the narrowest of all. Moreover, the highest place is also the purest place; for surely water is purer than earth, air than water, fire than air, heaven than fire, and the empyrean heaven than the starry heaven. Finally, the highest place is also the safest, so that no evil can come to that place, nor can any scourge draw near to its dwelling. First, then, the seat of the blessed is most spacious, so that blessed men can pass freely from place to place; nor will there be any danger of their being wearied, since by the gift of agility they can go from place to place in a moment. How great will be that delight — now to pass from the East to the West, now to transfer oneself from the South to the North, now in a moment to circle the whole world — while lost men in hell, their hands and feet bound, remain in one place for all eternity (Matt. 22:13)! But greater still will be the felicity of blessed men, while they enjoy that purest air in heaven, which neither darkness, nor mists, nor vapors, nor blasts of wind, nor any pestilence can defile — while the inhabitants of hell, miserable beyond all measure, must lie in that place most full of horror, amid the darkness of the earth and the smoke of a seething furnace, without any hope of purer air. What now shall I say of the city on high, most safe by reason of its surpassing height from every assault or evil whatsoever? "Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem," says St. David, "praise your God, O Zion, for He has strengthened the bars of your gates" (Ps. 147:12-13). Yet this fortification of the gates does not mean what the words sound like; for it is said in the Apocalypse of the heavenly city: "And its gates shall not be shut by day, for there shall be no night there" (Rev. 21:25). God, therefore, strengthened the bars of the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem because He made it impregnable by reason of its height. And if the dragon fought in heaven with Michael the Archangel, the cause was not that he had ascended from the depths into heaven, but that, created in heaven before he was confirmed in grace, he rebelled against his Creator and, lifted up in pride, attempted to be equal to the Most High. But because the heavenly Jerusalem is founded in peace, the enemy of peace could not abide in her, but straightway fell like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18), nor could he thereafter set foot in her; and from that time no one is admitted to dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem unless founded in perpetual peace and most firmly confirmed. And so much for the place.
Now a few words must be said about time. The time for dwelling in the heavenly Jerusalem, after the devil's fall, is a time without time — that is, a perpetual duration without the flow of days and nights. For thus in the Apocalypse the Angel "swore by Him who lives for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer" (Rev. 10); and the Lord in the Gospel, when the last day is ended, will say: "So shall these go — the wicked, that is — into everlasting fire, but the just into life everlasting" (Matt. 25). This alone will be the difference: the wicked will endure eternity unwillingly, and will seek death and will not find it; but the just will hear nothing more delightful than blessed eternity — that is, life without fear of dying, and the virtue of standing without fear of falling.
It remains for us to explain in a few words the manner in which the blessed will fare in paradise after the resurrection. And this one thing I judge can most truly be affirmed: all the good things that are desired on earth, though mingled with very many evils, are to be possessed by the blessed in heaven far greater and without any admixture of evils. The things reckoned among goods on earth are these: honor, power, riches, delights. The honor of the blessed in heaven might well seem plainly incredible, were it not affirmed by Him who cannot lie. Hear the Lord Christ, who is the truth, speaking thus in the Apocalypse of Blessed John: "To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne" (Rev. 3). What, I ask, can be added to this honor? Surely the throne of the Son of God in heaven is the highest, and he who sits upon it can be thought to have attained an honor plainly beyond belief. What applause, what praises will resound in heaven before God and all the Angels, when a man once mortal and frail is placed by the hands of God upon the throne of the Son of God, who is the Prince of the kings of the earth, and King of kings, and Lord of lords? Surely nothing can be added to this honor.
The power of this same blessed man will be so great that we can scarcely conceive it. The same Christ gives a promise in the Gospel concerning the faithful servant: "Amen I say to you, He will set him over all His goods" (Matt. 24). These words plainly signify that the faithful servant in heaven will share in the power that God has over all created things. And how great is God's power over created things? Altogether the greatest and incomparable. Therefore all the saints will be called — and most truly will be — kings of the whole world, not for a few years, but for all eternity. And this is the sentence that Christ the supreme Judge will pronounce at the last judgment, when He says to the just: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25).
Concerning the riches of the blessed, this alone ought to suffice for all men: that there will be riches most ample and everlasting, as the Prophet says (Ps. 33); and "God shall be all in all," as the Apostle says in the epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 15). Theophylact and also St. Anselm explain these words so that the sense is: "God shall be all in all"; because now one thing is food for us, another drink, another clothing, another a house, another riches, another pleasure, another honor, another power; but in heaven, after the resurrection, God will be to all the blessed food, drink, clothing, house, riches, pleasure, honor, power. The blessed in heaven will therefore possess all things precious, all things incorruptible, all things divine. St. Jerome adds, in his letter to Amandus, that God will be all things to all the blessed — not only bodily things but also spiritual: for now the divine graces are not all given to all, but wisdom to one, as to Solomon; goodness to another, as to David; patience to another, as to Job; but when the end of all things has come, then all things will be in all, so that each of the saints will possess all virtues and gifts. What, I ask, would a miser give in this world to possess all the riches of all men? What would the voluptuary give to obtain all the pleasures he desires? What would the ambitious man give to attain all the honors and dignities he courts? And yet these things are temporal, quickly perishing, and — what is more miserable — soon to be exchanged for everlasting want, and pain, and ignominy. Why then do we not seek God, in whom alone we shall possess all spiritual and bodily goods that will endure for all eternity?
But what, finally, shall we say of the joy and delight of the blessed? Isaiah and Paul cry out and say: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man, the things God has prepared for those who love Him" (Isa. 64). For truly God has prepared for the just who love Him, in the heavenly fatherland, a joy, gladness, pleasure, delight, sweetness, and suavity such as no mortal has ever tasted, nor could ever attain even in thought. Three things are required for delight to be produced: a faculty, an object, and the union of the faculty with the object; and the greater these are, the greater the delight engendered. No faculty among created things is greater, more lively, or more capable of delight than the rational will; and no object is more excellent, more lovable, or sweeter than the essence of the Creator. "Taste," says David, "and see that the Lord is sweet" (Ps. 33). And the Wise Man, speaking of the sun and the stars, says: "If men, delighted by their beauty, took them for gods, let them know how much more beautiful their Lord is than these; for the author of beauty created all these things" (Wis. 13). No union more intimate can be conceived than that of God with the rational will, as the Apostle says: "He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6). The union of bodies for the most part takes place on the surface and does not penetrate to the interior; and yet bodily pleasure so affects men that they are in a manner driven to madness. What sweetness, then, what delight will the soul taste, when it is so intimately united with God, who is infinite sweetness, that it becomes one spirit with Him? Here words utterly fail me, so that I can in no way express what I turn over within myself in thought.
Add to this that all human pleasure arising from created things is either momentary or certainly very brief; but the pleasure arising from the union of the human spirit with God, who is infinite sweetness, will never come to an end. And yet so great a madness reigns in many men that they prefer to enjoy carnal pleasures — sordid, meager, and lasting but a very short time — rather than the greatest and purest pleasures, which without any doubt will endure for all eternity. And let this suffice at this place concerning the four last things.