but now, six hundred times more and graver things are perpetrated, and no such fire is sent. Why? Because another fire is prepared, one that is never to be extinguished. For how A should God, who is just and impartial—as indeed He is—spare us when such wicked things are done? This is not the case, it is not.
8. But let us not stop here. Come, let us bring others into the middle who have been punished, so that through many demonstrations what is said may be confirmed. You all hear of Pharaoh, the king of the Egyptians; surely you know the justice he received, how with chariots and horses, together with all his host, he was submerged in the Red Sea. And that you might learn of the punishments of the Jews also, hear Paul saying: "Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and were destroyed in one day twenty-three thousand; neither let us murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer; neither let us tempt the Lord, as some of them tempted, and were destroyed by serpents" (1 Cor. 10. 8, 9, 10). If then they suffered such things for what they transgressed, why shall we not suffer? But now we suffer nothing terrible, and for this very reason we ought to be most afraid. For we are not kept from paying the penalty, but we are kept to pay a worse one, if we do not change. For they did not know of Gehenna, and were handed B over to punishments here; but we, whatever we might sin, even if we suffer nothing grievous in the present life, will suffer everything in the future. For how could it be reasonable that they, being more childish, suffered such things, while we, who have enjoyed more perfect teachings and commit far worse sins than they, should escape the punishments?
Do you wish to hear their other calamities also, which they suffered in Palestine at the hands of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and Macedonians? How many famines, pestilences, wars, and captivities they endured under Titus and Vespasian? Read the book of Josephus, which he wrote concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and you will learn of that bitter tragedy. For along with other grievous things, they fell into such an excess of famine that they ate their own belts and shoes, and things more loathsome than these. For necessity brought all things under their teeth, as the aforementioned writer says. And they did not stop even there, but tasted of their own children.
How then, when they have paid such penalties, shall we, who do things worse than these, escape? For if they were punished C then, why are we not punished now? Is it not manifest even to the blind that it is because the punishment is reserved for us in the future, as I have often said? Moreover, we ought to reflect on what happens now in this life, and we shall not disbelieve in Gehenna. But if God is just and impartial—as He is—why do some pay the penalty for murders here, while others do not? Some for adulteries are punished, while others die unpunished? How many grave-robbers have escaped? How many thieves? How many covetous men? How many plunderers? If then there is no Gehenna, where will they pay the penalty?
Do we persuade those who contradict us that the discourse concerning it is not a myth? For it is so true that not only we, but poets and philosophers and story-tellers have philosophized about the future retribution, and have said that the wicked are punished in Hades. Even if they were not able to speak of these things with the truth as it really is—since they were moved by reasonings and hearsay from among us—still they D took up a certain image of the judgment. For they speak of certain Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon rivers, and water of Styx, and Tartarus, as far distant from the earth as the latter is from heaven, and many other modes of punishment; and again, Elysian fields, and islands of the blessed, and flowery meadows, and much fragrance, and light breezes, and choirs dwelling there, and those wearing white robes, and singing certain hymns, and finally a retribution reserved for both the good and the bad after the departure from here.
Let us therefore not disbelieve in Gehenna, lest we fall into it; for he who disbelieves becomes more negligent; and he who is negligent will certainly go into it. But let us believe without doubt, and converse about it continually, and we shall not quickly sin. For the memory of such words, like a bitter medicine, will be able to wipe away all wickedness, abiding always in our soul. Let us therefore use it, so that, being well purified, we may be accounted worthy to see God, as it is possible for humans to see Him, and may enjoy the promised good things, by the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
ON THE HOMILY IN JOSEPH AND ON CONTINENCE
The learned and accurate Joseph Boevlesius, sub-librarian of the Bodleian, ensured that the very few [remnants] remaining in the Manuscript be written out and transmitted to me. For the rest perished when the leaves were torn away, as the praiseworthy Mr. Boevlesius himself warned.
The Latin interpretation, although old, is sufficiently well-composed.