Judgment and the Second Coming
Commodian, Instructions 44
The city will descend from heaven at the first resurrection, and we must speak of so great a heavenly structure. We who were devoted will rise again, incorruptible, already living without death; neither pain nor groaning will exist there. Those who come under the Antichrist and overcome severe martyrdoms will also live for the whole period, receiving good things because they suffered evil, and they themselves will produce offspring for a thousand years while marrying. All the revenues of the earth are matched there, because the endlessly renewed earth pours out abundance. No rain, no cold will touch the golden camp; no sieges as now, no plundering; the city will not need lamplight, for it shines from its Author and will be visible across twelve thousand stadia wide, long, and equally high — its root on earth, its head level with heaven — and in the city, instead of gates, the sun and moon will shine. The Evil One is shut up in anguish for the sake of feeding the just. But after the thousand years God will destroy all things (Revelation 20:1-6).
Latin
De coelo descendet civitas in anastasi prima: Est quod referamus de fabrica tanta coelesti. Resurgemus illi qui fuimus illi devoti, Et incorrupti erunt, jam tunc sine morte viventes: Sed nec dolor ullus, nec gemitus erit in illa. Venturi sunt illi quoque sub Antichristo qui vincunt Robusta martyria: et ipsi toto tempore vivunt, Recipiuntque bona quoniam mala passi fuere, Et generant ipsi per annos mille nubentes. Comparantur ibi tota vectigalia terrae, Terra quia nimium fundit sine fine novata. Inibi non pluvia, non frigus in aurea castra, Obsidiae nullae, sicut nunc, neque rapinae, Nec lucernae lumen desiderat civitas illa: Ex auctore suo lucet, nec non ibi paret Per duodecim millia stadia lata; longa, sic alta; Radicem in terra, sed caput cum coelo peraequat, In urbe pro foribus autem sol et luna lucebit. Malus in angore septus propter justos alendos. Ab annis autem mille Deus omnia perdet.