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we suffer in the present life, in the future we will suffer all things. For how would it be reasonable, that they, being more childish, should have suffered such things, but that we, who have enjoyed more perfect instructions, and sinning much worse than they, should escape the punishments? Do you wish to hear also of their other calamities, as many as they suffered in Palestine at the hands of Babylonians and Assyrians and Macedonians? how many famines, plagues, wars, captivities they endured under Titus and Vespasian? Read the book of Josephus, which he wrote about the capture of Jerusalem, and you will learn of that bitter tragedy. For among other terrible things, they fell into such an excess of famine, as to eat even their belts, and their shoes, and things more abominable than these. For necessity brought everything under their teeth, as the aforementioned author somewhere says. And they did not stop even at these things, but also tasted of their own children. How then, when they have paid such penalties, shall we who do worse things than they escape? For if 56.290 they were punished then, why are we not punished now? Is it not clear even to a blind man, that it is because punishment is reserved for us in the future, as I have often said? But one must consider in addition to these things also what happens now in this life, and we will not disbelieve in Gehenna. For if God is just and impartial, as indeed He is, for what reason do some pay the penalty for murders here, while others do not? some adulterers are punished, while others die unpunished? how many tomb-robbers have escaped? how many bandits? how many greedy men? how many plunderers? If then there is no Gehenna, where will they suffer punishment? Do we then persuade those who contradict, that the account of it is not a myth? For so true is it, that not only we, but also poets and philosophers and story-writers have philosophized about the future retribution, and have said that the wicked are punished in Hades. For even if they were not able to speak of these things with truth, as they are, being moved by reasonings and by mishearings of our traditions, yet they still grasped some image of a judgment. For they speak of certain rivers, Cocytus and Pyriphlegethon, and the water of Styx, and Tartarus as far distant from the earth as it is from heaven, and many other modes of punishment; and again of the Elysian plain, and the isles of the blessed, and flowering meadows, and great fragrance, and a light breeze, and choruses abiding there, and clothed in white robes, and singing certain hymns, and in general a recompense laid up for both the good and the wicked after their departure from hence. Let us not therefore disbelieve in Gehenna, lest we fall into it; for he who disbelieves, becomes more careless; but he who is careless, will surely go into it; but let us believe without doubting, and let us discourse about it continually, and we shall not sin readily. For the memory of such words, like some bitter medicine, will be able to wipe away all wickedness, by settling continually in our soul. Let us therefore use it, so that, having been well cleansed, we may be counted worthy to see God, as it is possible for men to see, and may enjoy the good things to come, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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παρόντι βίῳ πάθωμεν, ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι πάντα πεισόμεθα. Πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἔχοι λόγον, ἐκείνους μὲν νηπιωδεστέρους ὄντας τοιαῦτα πεπονθέναι, ἡμᾶς δὲ τελειοτέρων ἀπολαύσαντας μαθημάτων, καὶ πολὺ χείρονα πταίοντας ἐκείνων, διαφυγεῖν τὰς τιμωρίας; Βούλεσθε καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς αὐτῶν ἀκοῦσαι συμφορὰς, ὅσας ἔπαθον ἐν Παλαιστίνῃ ὑπὸ Βαβυλωνίων καὶ Ἀσσυρίων καὶ Μακεδόνων; ὅσους ὑπέμειναν λιμοὺς, λοιμοὺς, πολέμους, αἰχμαλωσίας ἐπὶ Τίτου καὶ Οὐεσπασιανοῦ; Τὴν Ἰωσήπου βίβλον ἀνάγνωτε, ἣν ἔγραψε περὶ τῆς τῶν Ἱεροσολύμων ἁλώσεως, καὶ μαθήσεσθε τὴν πικρὰν ἐκείνην τραγῳδίαν. Μετὰ γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων δεινῶν, εἰς τοσαύτην λιμοῦ περιέπεσον ὑπερβολὴν, ὡς καὶ τὰς ζώνας αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ ὑποδήματα, καὶ τὰ τούτων ἐσθίειν βδελυρώτερα. Πάντα γὰρ ὑπ' ὀδόντας ἦγεν ἡ ἀνάγκη, καθώς πού φησιν ὁ προλεχθεὶς συγγραφεύς. Καὶ οὐδὲ μέχρι τούτων ἔστησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἰδίων ἀπεγεύσαντο τέκνων. Πῶς οὖν, ἐκείνων τοιαύτας δεδωκότων δίκας, ἡμεῖς οἱ τὰ χείρονα τούτων πράττοντες διαφευξώμεθα; Εἰ γὰρ 56.290 ἐκεῖνοι ἐκολάσθησαν τότε, διὰ τί ἡμεῖς οὐ κολαζόμεθα νῦν; Οὐχὶ καὶ τυφλῷ δῆλον, ὅτι διὰ τὸ ἀποκεῖσθαι ἡμῖν ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι τὴν κόλασιν, καθὼς ἔφην πολλάκις; Χρὴ δὲ λογίζεσθαι πρὸς τούτοις καὶ τὰ νῦν ἐν τῷ βίῳ γινόμενα, καὶ οὐκ ἀπιστήσομεν τῇ γεέννῃ. Εἰ γὰρ δίκαιός ἔστιν ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ἀπροσωπόληπτος, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἔστι, τίνος ἕνεκεν οἱ μὲν διδόασιν ἐνταῦθα φόνων δίκας, οἱ δὲ οὐ διδόασιν; οἱ μὲν τῶν μοιχῶν τιμωροῦνται, οἱ δὲ τελευτῶσιν ἀτιμώρητοι; πόσοι τυμβωρύχοι διέφυγον; πόσοι λῃσταί; πόσοι πλεονέκται; πόσοι ἅρπαγες; Ἂν οὖν γέεννα μὴ ᾖ, ποῦ τιμωρίαν ὑφέξουσιν; Ἆρα πείθομεν τοὺς ἀντιλέγοντας, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι μῦθος ὁ περὶ αὐτῆς λόγος; Οὕτω γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθὴς, ὅτι οὐχ ἡμεῖς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ποιηταὶ καὶ φιλόσοφοι καὶ λογοποιοὶ περὶ τῆς μελλούσης ἀνταποδόσεως ἐφιλοσόφησαν, καὶ ἐν ᾅδου κολάζεσθαι τοὺς πονηροὺς εἰρήκασιν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ μετὰ ἀληθείας, ὡς ἔχει ταῦτα, εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἠδυνήθησαν, ἅτε ἀπὸ λογισμῶν κινηθέντες καὶ παρακουσμάτων τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν, ἀλλ' ὅμως εἰκόνα τινὰ κρίσεως ἔλαβον. Κωκυτοὺς γάρ φασί τινας καὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντας ποταμοὺς, καὶ Στυγὸς ὕδωρ, καὶ Τάρταρον τοσοῦτον ἀπέχοντα τῆς γῆς, ὅσον αὕτη τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ πολλοὺς ἑτέρους κολάσεως τρόπους· καὶ πάλιν Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, καὶ μακάρων νήσους, καὶ λειμῶνας εὐανθεῖς, καὶ εὐωδίαν πολλὴν, καὶ αὔραν λεπτὴν, καὶ χοροὺς ἐκεῖ διατρίβοντας, καὶ λευκὴν περιβεβλημένους στολὴν, καὶ ᾄδοντας ὕμνους τινὰς, καὶ ὅλως καὶ ἀγαθοῖς καὶ πονηροῖς ἀποκειμένην ἀντίδοσιν μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἔξοδον. Μὴ τοίνυν ἀπιστῶμεν τῇ γεέννῃ, ἵνα μὴ ἐμπέσωμεν εἰς αὐτήν· ὁ γὰρ ἀπιστῶν, ῥᾳθυμότερος γίνεται· ὁ δὲ ῥᾳθυμῶν, εἰς αὐτὴν ἀπελεύσεται πάντως· ἀλλὰ καὶ πιστεύωμεν ἀνενδοιάστως, καὶ διαλεγώμεθα περὶ αὐτῆς συνεχῶς, καὶ οὐ ταχέως ἁμαρτησόμεθα. Τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων λόγων ἡ μνήμη, καθάπερ τι φάρμακον πικρὸν, πᾶσαν κακίαν ἀποσμῆξαι δυνήσεται, διαπαντὸς ἡμῶν ἐνιζάνουσα τῇ ψυχῇ. Χρησώμεθα τοίνυν αὐτῷ, ἵνα καθαρθέντες καλῶς, ἀξιωθῶμεν ἰδεῖν τὸν Θεὸν, ὡς ἀνθρώποις ἰδεῖν δυνατὸν, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἀπολαύσωμεν ἀγαθῶν, χάριτι καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Ἀμήν.