VISIO SECUNDA, cap. XII
The Promise to the Conqueror
The Lord promises hidden manna, a white pebble, and a new secret name to the one who conquers.
To the one who conquers I will give hidden manna, and I will give that person a white pebble, and on the pebble a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.✦
The Battle Against the Serpent
The vision is interpreted: the one who flees the left side faces a great battle against the crooked serpent who seeks to drag them down.
This is clear to the understanding: whoever flees the left side has a great battle against the crooked serpent, who is always seeking to drag that person to the left side with him.✦
The Living Bread and the Cornerstone
The conqueror who resists Satan by faithful counsel receives the living bread from heaven, a share in Christ the cornerstone, and the name of new regeneration known only in eternal blessedness.
And if that one, persevering in this battle, puts Satan to flight by that one's own counsel, not consenting to it — I who am — I will give that person the living bread that descends from heaven, which was hidden from all the humility of the human will and from all the deceit of the ancient serpent, and I will also give them a share in the one who, existing as the cornerstone in brilliant clarity, is God and man, and in him the name of new regeneration, which is Christ, from whom also Christians are, which name no one fully understands while in this fading and temporary life, except the one who attains the life of eternal blessedness in the reward of heavenly prizes.✦✦✦✦
The Earth Founded in the Center
The vision turns to cosmology: the earth is immovably founded as a globe in the middle of the sixth circle, the thin air, inviting reflection on its significance.
That the mass of the earth, like a globe beneath the six circles already mentioned, set at an equal distance from the five above, is immovably fixed in the middle of the sixth — that is, of the thin air — and what significance may be drawn from this.
Read the original Latin
« Vincenti dabo manna absconditum, et dabo illi calculum candidum, et in calculo nomen novum, quod nemo scit nisi qui accipit . » Quod sic intellectui patet: Quicunque sinistram partem fugit, hic magnum praelium contra tortuosum serpentem habet, qui semper quaerit, ut illum ad sinistram partem secum trahat. Et si ille in pugna ista perseverans Satanam fugaverit consilio illius non consentiens, ego qui sum, ei dabo panem vivum qui de coelo descendit, qui ab omni humilitate voluntatis viri, et ab omni dolo antiqui serpentis absconditus erat, ac etiam dabo ipsis participationem illius, qui lapis angularis existens in candida claritate Deus et homo est, et in ipso nomen novae regenerationis, quod Christus est, a quo et Christiani sunt, quod nemo dum in caduca et temporali vita est ad perfectum intelligit, nisi qui vitam aeternae beatitudinis in remuneratione coelestium praemiorum adipiscitur.
Quod moles terrae instar globi infra praedictos sex circulos aequali distantia a quinque superioribus remota, in medio sexti, id est tenuis aeris immobiliter fundata sit, et quid inde significationis colligatur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rev.2.17 — The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except the one who receives it.
- ↩Rev.2.17 — The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except the one who receives it.
- ↩John.6.51 — I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
- ↩Eph.2.20 — built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone
- ↩1Pet.2.4-1Pet.2.6 — As you come to Him—a living Stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious in His sight— 1Pet.2.5 — and you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1Pet.2.6 — For it stands written in Scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a chosen, precious cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame."
- ↩Rev.2.17 — The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written that no one knows except the one who receives it.
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