Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXV: De prophetia Malachielis, qua dei iudicium ultimum declaratur et quorundam dicitur per purificatorias poenas facienda mundatio.

Propheta Malachiel siue Malachi, qui et angelus dictus est, qui etiam Esdras sacerdos, cuius alia in canonem scripta recepta sunt, ab aliquibus creditur - nam de illo hanc esse Hebraeorum opinionem dicit Hieronymus, iudicium nouissimum prophetat dicens: ecce uenit, dicit dominus omnipotens; et quis sustinebit diem introitus eius, aut quis ferre poterit ut adspiciat eum? quia ipse ingreditur quasi ignis conflatorii et quasi herba lauantium; et sedebit conflans et emundans sicut argentum et sicut aurum, et emundabit filios Leui, et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum; et erunt domino offerentes hostias in iustitia, et placebit domino sacrificium Iudae et Hierusalem, sicut diebus pristinis et sicut annis prioribus. et accedam ad uos in iudicio, et ero testis uelox super maleficos et super adulteros et super eos, qui iurant in nomine meo mendaciter, et qui fraudant mercedem mercennario et obprimunt per potentiam uiduas et percutiunt pupillos et peruertunt iudicium aduenae, et qui non timent me, dicit dominus omnipotens: quoniam ego dominus deus uester, et non mutor. ex his quae dicta sunt uidetur euidentius apparere in illo iudicio quasdam quorundam purgatorias poenas futuras. ubi enim dicitur: quis sustinebit diem introitus eius, aut quis ferre poterit, ut adspiciat eum? quia ipse ingreditur quasi ignis conflatorii et quasi herba lauantium; et sedebit conflans et emundans sicut argentum et sicut aurum et emundabit filios Leui, et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum: quid aliud intellegendum est? dicit tale aliquid et Esaias: lauabit dominus sordes filiorum et filiarum Sion, et sanguinem emundabit de medio eorum spiritu iudicii et spiritu combustionis. nisi forte sic eos dicendum est emundari a sordibus et eliquari quodammodo, cum ab eis mali per poenale iudicium separantur, ut illorum segregatio atque damnatio purgatio sit istorum, quia sine talium de cetero permixtione uicturi sunt. sed cum dicit: et emundabit filios Leui et fundet eos sicut aurum et argentum; et erunt domino offerentes hostias in iustitia, et placebit domino sacrificium Iudae et Hierusalem, utique ostendit eos ipsos, qui emundabuntur, deinceps in sacrificiis iustitiae domino esse placituros, ac per hoc ipsi a sua iniustitia mundabuntur, in qua domino displicebant. hostiae porro in plena perfectaque iustitia, cum mundati fuerint, ipsi erunt. quid enim acceptius deo tales offerunt quam se ipsos? uerum ista quaestio de purgatoriis poenis, ut diligentius pertractetur, in tempus aliud differenda est. filios autem Leui et Iudam et Hierusalem ipsam dei ecclesiam debemus accipere, non ex Hebraeis tantum, sed ex aliis etiam gentibus congregatam; nec talem, qualis nunc est, ubi, si dixerimus, quia peccatum non habemus, nos ipsos seducimus, et ueritas in nobis non est; sed qualis tunc erit, uelut area per uentilationem, ita per iudicium purgata nouissimum, eis quoque igne mundatis, quibus talis mundatio necessaria est, ita ut nullus omnino sit, qui offerat sacrificium pro peccatis suis. omnes enim qui sic offerunt, profecto in peccatis sunt, pro quibus dimittendis offerunt, ut, cum obtulerint acceptumque deo fuerit, tunc dimittantur.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 25.--Of Malachi's Prophecy, in Which He Speaks of the Last Judgment, and of a Cleansing Which Some are to Undergo by Purifying Punishments.

The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel, and is by some (for Jerome ¹ tells us that this is the opinion of the Hebrews) identified with Ezra the priest, ² others of whose writings have been received into the canon, predicts the last judgment, saying, "Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty; and who shall abide the day of His entrance? . . . for I am the Lord your God, and I change not." ³ From these words it more evidently appears that some shall in the last judgment suffer some kind of purgatorial punishments; for what else can be understood by the word, "Who shall abide the day of His entrance, or who shall be able to look upon Him? for He enters as a moulder's fire, and as the herb of fullers: and He shall sit fusing and purifying as if over gold and silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out like gold and silver?" Similarly Isaiah says, "The Lord shall wash the filthiness of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse away the blood from their midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning." ⁴ Unless perhaps we should say that they are cleansed from filthiness and in a manner clarified, when the wicked are separated from them by penal judgment, so that the elimination and damnation of the one party is the purgation of the others, because they shall henceforth live free from the contamination of such men. But when he says, "And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out like gold and silver, and they shall offer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness; and the sacrifices of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord," he declares that those who shall be purified shall then please the Lord with sacrifices of righteousness, and consequently they themselves shall be purified from their own unrighteousness which made them displeasing to God. Now they themselves, when they have been purified, shall be sacrifices of complete and perfect righteousness; for what more acceptable offering can such persons make to God than themselves? But this question of purgatorial punishments we must defer to another time, to give it a more adequate treatment. By the sons of Levi and Judah and Jerusalem we ought to understand the Church herself, gathered not from the Hebrews only, but from other nations as well; nor such a Church as she now is, when "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," ⁵ but as she shall then be, purged by the last judgment as a threshing-floor by a winnowing wind, and those of her members who need it being cleansed by fire, so that there remains absolutely not one who offers sacrifice for his sins. For all who make such offerings are assuredly in their sins, for the remission of which they make offerings, that having made to God an acceptable offering, they may then be absolved.