Lactantius, The Divine Institutes

First of all, therefore, we say that the power of God is so great, that He perceives even incorporeal things, and manages them as He will. For even angels fear God, because they can be chastised by Him in some unspeakable manner; and devils dread Him, because they are tormented and punished by Him. What wonder is it, therefore, if souls, though they are immortal, are nevertheless capable of suffering at the hand of God? For since they have nothing solid and tangible in themselves, they can suffer no violence from solid and corporeal beings; but because they live in their spirits only, they are capable of being handled by God alone, whose energy and substance is spiritual. But, however, the sacred writings inform us in what manner the wicked are to undergo punishment. For because they have committed sins in their bodies, they will again be clothed with flesh, that they may make atonement in their bodies; and yet it will not be that flesh with which God clothed man, like this our earthly body, but indestructible, and abiding for ever, that it may be able to hold out against tortures and everlasting fire, the nature of which is different from this fire of ours, which we use for the necessary purposes of life, and which is extinguished unless it be sustained by the fuel of some material. But that divine fire always lives by itself, and flourishes without any nourishment; nor has it any smoke mixed with it, but it is pure and liquid, and fluid, after the manner of water. For it is not urged upwards by any force, as our fire, which the taint of the earthly body, by which it is held, and smoke intermingled, compels to leap forth, and to fly upwards to the nature of heaven, with a tremulous movement.1393 Cum trepidatione mobili. [See vol. vi. p. 375, note 1.]

The same divine fire, therefore, with one and the same force and power, will both burn the wicked and will form them again, and will replace as much as it shall consume of their bodies, and will supply itself with eternal nourishment: which the poets transferred to the vulture of Tityus. Thus, without any wasting of bodies, which regain their substance, it will only burn and affect them with a sense of pain. But when He shall have judged the righteous, He will also try them with fire. Then they whose sins shall exceed either in weight or in number, shall be scorched by the fire and burnt:1394 Perstringentur igni atque amburentur. [See p. 216, n. 5, supra.] This idea of passing through flames of the final judgment has in it nothing in common with “purgatory” as a place and as a punishment from which admission into heaven may be gained before judgment.] but they whom full justice and maturity of virtue has imbued will not perceive that fire; for they have something of God in themselves which repels and rejects the violence of the flame. So great is the force of innocence, that the flame shrinks from it without doing harm; which has received from God this power, that it burns the wicked, and is under the command of the righteous. Nor, however, let any one imagine that souls are immediately judged after death. For all are detained in one and a common place of confinement, until the arrival of the time in which the great Judge shall make an investigation of their deserts.1395 [See vol. iii. p. 59, supra, Elucidation X.] Then they whose piety shall have been approved of will receive the reward of immortality; but they whose sins and crimes shall have been brought to light will not rise again, but will be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked, being destined to certain punishment.

CAPUT XXI. De cruciatibus et poenis animarum.

Primum igitur dicimus, tantam esse Dei potestatem, ut etiam incorporalia comprehendat, et quemadmodum voluerit, afficiat. Nam et Angeli Deum metuunt, quia castigari ab eo possunt inenarrabili quodam modo; et daemones reformidant, quia torquentur ab 0801A eo ac puniuntur. Quid ergo mirum, si cum sint immortales animae, tamen patibiles sint Deo? 0801A Nam cum in se nihil habeant solidum et contrectabile, a solidis et corporalibus nullam vim pati possunt: sed quia in solis spiritibus vivunt, a solo Deo tractabiles sunt, cui virtus ac substantia spiritalis est. Sed tamen docent nos sanctae Litterae, quemadmodum poenas impii sint daturi. Nam quia peccata in corporibus contraxerunt, rursus carne induentur, ut in corporibus piaculum solvant; et tamen non erit caro illa, quam Deus homini superjecerit, huic terrenae similis: sed insolubilis ac permanens in aeternum, ut sufficere possit cruciatibus, et igni sempiterno, cujus natura diversa est ab hoc nostro, quo ad vitae necessaria utimur, qui nisi alicujus materiae fomite alatur, extinguitur. 0801B At ille divinus per seipsum semper vivit ac viget sine ullis alimentis, nec admixtum habet fumum: sed est purus, ac liquidus, et in aquae modum fluidus. Non enim vi aliqua sursum versus urgetur, sicut noster, quem labes terreni corporis, quo 0802A tenetur, et fumus intermixtus exilire cogit, et ad coelestem naturam cum trepidatione mobili subvolare.

Idem igitur divinus ignis una eademque vi atque potentia, et cremabit impios, et recreabit, et quantum e corporibus absumet, tantum reponet, ac sibi ipse aeternum pabulum subministrabit; quod poetae in vulturem Tityi transtulerunt; ita sine ullo revirescentium corporum detrimento aduret tantum, ac sensu doloris afficiet. Sed et justos cum judicaverit, etiam in igni eos examinabit. Tum quorum peccata vel pondere, vel numero praevaluerint, perstringentur igni atque amburentur: quos autem plena justitia et maturitas virtutis incoxerit, ignem illum non sentient; habent enim aliquid in se Dei, quod vim 0802B flammae repellat, ac respuat. Tanta vis est innocentiae, ut ab ea ignis ille refugiat innoxius; qui accepit a Deo hanc potentiam, ut impios urat, justis obtemperet. Nec tamen quisquam putet animas post mortem protinus judicari. Nam omnes in una communique 0803A custodia detinentur, 0803A donec tempus adveniat, quo maximus judex meritorum faciat examen. Tum quorum fuerit probata justitia, ii praemium immortalitatis accipient: quorum autem peccata et scelera detecta fuerint, non resurgent, sed cum impiis in easdem tenebras recondentur, ad certa supplicia destinati.