VISIO DECIMA, cap. V
The Flood as Divine Judgment
The watery part of the visionary wheel signifies the flood, through which God's power judged the wicked descendants of Adam, filling the devil with terror at God's invincible strength.
But where the same line of the foretold wheel, as you see, is joined to its left side — that is, where the outer part of that wheel becomes somewhat watery for a short space — this means that once my will, joined to my power for the procreation of creatures, had brought creatures into being, the judgments of that same power of mine showed themselves in the outpouring of the waters at the flood; for once the first man began producing sons, their descendants sank from evil into evil. For Adam and his sons, out of reverence for me, rightly produced offspring according to human nature; but their descendants most wickedly violated human nature against its own order — and because I was unwilling to endure this any longer, I drowned them through the flood. And so the devil, terrified, trembled — because he saw that my strength, by which human beings were so scattered, was invincible. And then, a little beyond the midpoint of my power — by which human beings were so scattered — he saw that it was invincible.
From the Flood to the Incarnation
From the flood onward, God's judgments moved toward righteousness through the ages, marked by Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, until the fullness of time was reached.
And then, a little beyond the midpoint of the same wheel — which is drawn in red across the aforementioned line — and afterward it becomes pure and bright: for from the flood all the way to the Incarnation of my Son, whom I sent mightily, at the appointed fullness of their times, in the silence of my will, the judgments of my power passed over into the blush of righteousness; because even after the flood, through the various ages of days, people, in their own works, seized the brightness of the fear of me. For the building of righteousness arose in Noah, circumcision in Abraham, the giving of the law in Moses, and prophecy in the prophets — and all of these together suppressed idolatry, just as day drives out night — in which all the ages rush forward, just as human works appear among human beings. But when all these things were tending toward their setting, like the sun going down — and when the people were advancing in this way by procreation — I looked upon the fullness of that number, concerning which it is written by my inspiration:
The Fullness of Time in Christ
Paul's words about the fullness of time are fulfilled in Christ's Incarnation, which completed the ancient mysteries and, through apostolic preaching, illuminated and renewed the world.
Paul's words about the fullness of time, when God sent his Son, made from a woman, who at his coming fulfilled the mystical sayings or deeds of the ancients, and by his own teaching and the preaching of the apostles or the teachers of the Church, illuminating the world, turned everything to what is better.✦
Read the original Latin
Quod autem, ut vides, mox ubi eadem linea praedictae rotae in sinistra ejus parte conjuncta videtur, exterior pars ipsius rotae per breve spatium aliquantum aquosa fit, hoc est quod postquam voluntas mea potestati meae ad procreationem creaturarum conjuncta creaturas produxerat, judicia ejusdem potestatis meae ad effusionem aquarum in diluvio apparuerunt, quoniam, primo homine filios generante, progenies eorum de malo in malum se immersit. Adam namque et filii ejus propter timorem meum secundum naturam hominis juste germinaverunt; sed posteri eorum contra naturam hominis se nequissime violaverunt, quod ego diutius sustinere nolens per diluvium eos suffocavi. Quapropter et diabolus exterritus contremuit, quia fortitudinem meam per quam homo sic dissipatus est invincibilem vidit. Et deinde aliquantum ultra medietatem meam per quam homo sic dissipatus est invincibilem vidit. Et deinde aliquantum ultra medietatem medietatis ejusdem rotae, quae sub praefata linea in transversum ducta est rubicunda, ac postmodum pura et lucida existit, quoniam a diluvio usque ad Incarnationem Filii mei, quem transacta fortitudine temporum in fine eorum potenter sub silentio voluntatis meae misi, judicia potestatis meae in ruborem justitiae transierunt, quia etiam post diluvium per diversas aetates dierum homines in operibus suis fulgorem timoris mei arripuerunt. Nam aedificatio justitiae in Noe surrexit, circumcisio in Abraham, legalis propositio in Moyse, prophetia vero in prophetis, istaque omnia idololatriam compresserunt, velut dies noctem fugat, in quibus omnia tempora currunt, quemadmodum opera hominum in hominibus apparent. Cum autem omnia haec ad occasum tenderent, velut cum sol occidit, et cum sic populus generando procederet, plenitudinem numeri illius inspexi, de quo inspiratione mea scriptum est:
Verba Pauli de plenitudine temporis, in quo misit Deus Filium suum factum ex muliere, qui et in adventu suo mystica dicta vel facta veterum implendo absolvit et doctrina sua et praedicatione apostolorum vel magistrorum Ecclesiae mundum illustrans omnia in melius convertit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gal.4.4 — But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
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