'What is it that my beloved has done many wicked deeds in my house? Shall the holy flesh take away from you your malice?' And the Apostle: 'Let a man examine himself,' he says, 'and so let him eat of that bread and drink of the cup.' On Martyrdom. The servant of God is broken by no adversity, but for the defense of the truth offers himself of his own accord to the contest, and never loses confidence for the truth. Often from the disciples are chosen for martyrdom those who precede their own teachers to the crown, and those who are last in order become sometimes first in the contest. The holy man ought to offer himself of his own accord into the arena for the contest of righteousness. Yet nevertheless, if they see the fruit of the contest to be most abundant, they ought not to shun the peril of the labor.
But if the labor is greater than the gain of souls, the labor is to be shunned which the least increase accompanies. For the Apostle does both: he both gave himself up of his own accord to perils where he saw the greatest gain of the soul, and wisely withdrew himself from peril in which he foresaw the labor to be greater than the gain. Paul of his own accord offered himself to perils at Ephesus, because he saw the gain to be greater than the peril. But at Damascus he withdrew himself from peril, because he judged there to be no fruit of that peril.
Learn how each one offers himself of his own accord to martyrdom, or how, according to God's sentence, he is girded by another and led where he himself does not wish to go: namely, that both on account of the glory to come the righteous man rejoices in the contest, and on account of the violence of the passion he shrinks from undergoing what pains him. Take an example of approaching martyrdom under trembling from the practice of warfare, in which each man, being trained, both advances to the contest through boldness in battle, and is moved by fear to hesitation. Likewise take an example of martyrdom from the restoration of the human body to health, when each man both rejoices in the hope of restoration, and grieves at the incisions or the most bitter draughts. On the miracles of the saints.
Although to the apostles the power of signs was given for nourishing the faith of the nations, yet to the Church was given the power of works for adorning that same faith; and yet even in the apostles themselves the power of works was more admirable than the power of signs. So now also in the Church it is more to live well than to work signs. That the Church now does not work those miracles which it worked under the apostles, the cause is this: because then it was fitting that the world should believe by miracles, but now the already believing world ought to shine with good works; for therefore signs were then done outwardly, so that inwardly faith might be strengthened. Whoever now seeks miracles in the faith seeks empty glory, that he may be praised. For it is written:
'Tongues are for a sign, not to believers, but to unbelievers.' Behold, a sign is not necessary to believers who have already believed, but to unbelievers, that they may be converted. For Paul, on account of the unbelief of those who did not believe, cured the father of Publius of the infirmity of fevers by mighty works; but the faithful Timothy, when sick, he treated not by prayer but medicinally, that you may know that miracles are done for the unbelieving, not for the faithful. Before Antichrist appears, the powers and signs will cease from the Church, so that he may persecute her the more boldly as being, as it were, more despised.
For this benefit miracles and powers will cease from the Church under Antichrist, so that through this the patience of the saints may shine forth, and the fickleness of the reprobate who will be scandalized may be shown, and the boldness of the persecutors may be made more ferocious. On Antichrist and his signs. Everyone who either does not live according to the norm of his profession or teaches otherwise is an antichrist. But very many will not see the times of Antichrist, and yet they are to be found among the members of Antichrist. Before Antichrist comes, many of his members have gone before, and by the desert of their depraved action have anticipated their own head, according to the sentence of the Apostle, who affirms that the mystery of iniquity is already at work even before he is revealed.
The greatness of the signs will bring it about under Antichrist that the elect, if it were possible, might be led into error. But if they are the elect, how are they to be led into error? Therefore they will go into the error of wavering for a little while on account of the multitude of prodigies, yet they are not to be cast down from their stability by the onslaught of terrors and of signs. Whence also is placed the phrase 'if it were possible,' because the elect cannot perish, but quickly recovering, they will restrain the error of the heart by religion, knowing it to have been foretold by the Lord that, when the adversaries do this, the saints be not troubled. So wondrous are the prodigies and signs that Antichrist will work when he comes, that even in the elect a certain scruple of heart may be engendered.
Which nevertheless reason quickly overcomes in them, by which they will know that these same signs are done in the deception of the reprobate and in the proving of the elect. In which time the saints will be glorious through patience, not through miracles as were the martyrs of former days. For those men will both endure persecutors and those working prodigies. Accordingly they will endure a harder war, because they are to fight not only against the persecutors, but also against those who shine with miracles. More grievously in the times of Antichrist will the synagogue rage against the Church than it persecuted the Christians at the very coming of the Savior.
Since the devil, even bound, has already exercised great cruelty against the martyrs, he will be crueler still in the times of Antichrist, when he is also to be loosed. For if bound he could do such great things, how great will he do when loosed? The nearer the devil sees the end of the world, the more cruelly he exercises persecutions, so that, because he beholds himself to be immediately condemned, he may multiply for himself companions with whom he may be given over to the fires of Gehenna. The shorter the time the devil sees to remain to him before he is condemned, the more is he moved to the great wrath of persecution, by divine justice permitting it, so that the righteous may be glorified, the wicked defiled, and that a harsher sentence of damnation may grow for the devil. On the Resurrection.
The beginning of the peace of the saints is in this life, not its perfection. But then will be the fullness of peace, when, the infirmity of the flesh being absorbed, they shall have grown strong for the contemplation of God. The resurrection of the dead, as the Apostle says, shall be unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, namely in the age of youth, which needs no advancement and is without any inclination to decline, in perfection on both sides, both full and robust. Although now faithful men are called by the name of the sons of God, yet from the fact that they suffer this servitude of corruption, being still bound to the yoke of servitude, they are to receive the full liberty of the sons of God, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption.
Now God is known through a mirror; but in the future each of the elect will be presented face to face, so that he may contemplate that very form which now he strives to see through a mirror. In this life the number of the elect who belong to the right hand and of the reprobate who are to go to the left fill the Church of God. But at the end of the age the tares are separated from the wheat. On the Judgment. Christ knows the day of judgment, but in the Gospel he was unwilling to tell and to make known to the disciples. For when the same Lord says through the prophet, 'The day of vengeance is in my heart,' he indicates that he is not ignorant of it, but unwilling to make it known. From the house of the Lord, as it is written, judgment begins, when the elect, that is, the house of God, are here judged by scourges.
But the impious are to be judged there unto condemnation. Whence it also follows: 'But if first from us, what shall be the end of those who have not believed?' At the strict examination of the judge, not even the righteousness of the righteous man is secure, except by divine mercy, so that even that very righteousness by which anyone is righteous may be justified by God who justifies. Otherwise, before God even it is sin. Hence is that which Job says: 'Both the innocent and the impious he himself consumes.' For the innocent is consumed by God when that very innocence, more clearly examined and compared with the divine innocence, is found to be nothing, unless there too man be justified by the mercy of his loving-kindness. Likewise the impious is consumed by God when he is examined with the subtlety of the divine scrutiny, and his impiety, being uncovered, is judged and condemned.
The innocent and the impious are consumed alike by the end of the flesh, not by the punishment of damnation. The learned and the unlearned alike die, but by the death of the flesh, not by the punishment of damnation. All things go to one place, when by bodily death both the righteous and the impious return to the earth. But the recompense is dissimilar, as is said through the same Solomon: 'What more has the wise man than the fool, except that he goes thither where there is life?' Therefore all alike return to the earth, for where there is life they do not go alike. The impious is punished by a twofold sentence, when either here for his merits he is smitten with blindness of mind, that he may not see the truth; or when in the end he shall be condemned, that he may pay the debt of due penalties. The divine judgment is twofold:
one by which men are judged both here and in the future; the other by which they are here judged for this end, that they may not be judged there. And so for some the temporal punishment avails unto purgation; but for others the damnation begins here, and there the completed perdition is awaited. In the judgment, the reprobate will see the humanity of Christ, in which he was judged, that they may grieve. But his divinity they will not see, lest they rejoice. For to whom the divinity is shown, it is surely shown unto joy. According to the diversity of consciences, Christ will appear both gentle to the elect in the judgment and terrible to the reprobate.
For as each one has borne his conscience, such also will he have him as a judge, so that, while Christ remains in his own tranquillity, he appears terrible only to those alone whom their conscience accuses in evils. There are two distinctions or orders of men in the judgment, that is, of the elect and of the reprobate; which nevertheless are divided into four. One is the order of the perfect who judge with the Lord, and another which is judged. Yet both will reign with Christ. Likewise the order of the reprobate is divided into two, since those who are evil within the Church are to be judged and condemned. But those who are to be found outside the Church are not to be judged, but only condemned.
The first order, then, of those who are judged and perish is set over against that order of the good of whom are those who are judged and reign. The second order of those who are not judged and perish is set over against that order of the perfect in which are those who are not judged and reign. The third order of those who are judged and reign is contrary to that order of whom are those who are judged and perish. The fourth order of those who are not judged and reign is set over against that contrary order in which are those who are not judged and perish. The impious is punished by a twofold sentence, when either here for his merits he is smitten with blindness of mind, that he may not see the truth, or when in the end he shall be condemned, that he may pay the debt of due penalties. On Gehenna.
The punishment of the damned in Gehenna is twofold, whose mind sorrow burns and whose body the flame burns by turns, so that those who in mind devised what they should accomplish in body may be punished both in soul and in body together. The fire of Gehenna has light in one respect and has it not in another, that is, it has light unto damnation, that the impious may see whereat to grieve, and has it not unto consolation, lest they see whereat to rejoice. An apt comparison is made from the furnace of the three young men as an example of the fire of Gehenna.
For as that fire did not burn unto the punishment of the three young men, and did burn unto the consuming of the bonds of their fetters, so the fire of Gehenna will both give light to the wretched unto the increase of punishments, that they may see whereat to grieve, and will not give light unto consolation, lest they see whereat to rejoice. Between the misery of this life and of the future unhappiness there is much distinction. For there is both misery on account of the torment of pains, and darkness on account of the aversion from light. Of which one, that is misery, exists in this life, the other does not; but in hell both exist. On the punishments of the impious.
As bundles of wood are bound together from like pieces for burning, so on the day of judgment those guilty of like fault are joined to their like, that the punishment may bind them equally, as into a bundle, whom their action has made alike in evil. As each saint in the future judgment will be glorified according to the quantity of his virtues, so also each impious man will be condemned according to the quantity of his crimes. Nor will there be lacking in the punishment a future order of damnation, but according to the quality of the crimes there will be a distinction of punishments, the prophet confirming it. To the sufferings of their own dear ones a further punishment is added even for the departed, as the evangelical discourse declares concerning the rich man among those below. As, to increase the sufferings of Judas, the psalm also says:
Let his sons be driven off in disquiet and go begging. 29.4. The wicked are on this account to be more harshly punished in the judgment by anguish of mind: that they shall behold the just to have merited the blessedness of glory. 29.5. In the sight of all is the devil to be cast down, when, under the gaze of all the good angels and men, together with those who shall belong to his party, he is to be sent into the eternal fire. 29.6. When the devil has been taken up to be condemned, many of the elect who shall be found in the body, when the Lord comes to judgment, are to be shaken with dread, seeing the wicked one punished by such a sentence. By that terror they are to be purged; for if anything of sin still remains in them from the body, by that very dread with which they behold the devil condemned they shall be purged. Hence it is that Job says:
When he has been taken up, the angels shall fear, and being terrified shall be purged. 29.7. That many of those who now seem to be elect and holy can perish on the day of judgment, the prophet teaches: The Lord shall summon judgment unto fire, and it shall devour a great abyss, and shall consume a part of the house. For a part of the house shall be devoured, because hell shall swallow up even those who now glory in the heavenly precepts. Of whom the Lord also says: Many shall say to me in that day, 「Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name, and in thy name cast out demons, and do many mighty works?」 Then will I confess to them, 「Because I never knew you; depart from me, you who work iniquity; I know not who you are.」 XXXI. On the glory of the saints. 30.1.
In the world to come, the compassion of pitying the damned shall not make the heart of the just wretched, where there shall be so great a joy for the saints in the contemplation of God that no entrance is granted to sorrow. 30.2-3. Just as a white color set beside a black color becomes the fairer, so too the rest of the saints, compared with the damnation of the wicked, shall be the more glorious; — so justice beside injustice, so virtue beside vice. The glory of the saints therefore grows, while the wicked are condemned to their deserved punishment. 30.4. After the resurrection, an ascension into the heavens is promised to the saints in the flesh, Christ saying to the Father: I will that where I am, they also may be with me. For if we are members of the head, and Christ is one both in himself and in us, then surely where he himself ascended, we too shall ascend.