Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XVIII: Quid apostolus Petrus de nouissimo dei iudicio praedicarit.

Nunc iam uideamus, quid etiam apostolus Petrus de hoc iudicio scripserit: uenient, inquit, in nouissimo dierum inlusione inludentes, secundum proprias concupiscentias suas euntes et dicentes: ubi est promissum praesentiae ipsius? ex quo enim patres dormierunt, sic omnia perseuerant ab initio creaturae. latet enim illos hoc uolentes, quia caeli erant olim et terra de aqua, et per aquam constituta dei uerbo, per quae, qui tunc erat mundus, aqua inundatus deperiit. qui autem nunc sunt caeli et terra, eodem uerbo repositi sunt, igni reseruandi in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum inpiorum. hoc unum uero non lateat uos, carissimi, quia unus dies apud dominum sicut mille anni et mille anni sicut dies unus. non tardat dominus promissum, sicut quidam tarditatem existimant; sed patienter fert propter uos, nolens aliquem perire, sed omnes in paenitentiam conuerti. ueniet autem dies domini ut fur, in quo caeli magno inpetu transcurrent, elementa autem ardentia resoluentur et terra et quae in ipsa sunt opera exurentur. his ergo omnibus pereuntibus quales oportet esse uos in sanctis conuersationibus exspectantes et properantes ad praesentiam diei domini, per quam caeli ardentes soluentur et elementa ignis ardore decoquentur? nouos uero caelos et terram nouam secundum promissa ipsius exspectamus, in quibus iustitia inhabitat. nihil hic dixit de resurrectione mortuorum, sed sane de perditione mundi huius satis. ubi etiam commemorans factum ante diluuium uidetur admonuisse quodammodo, quatenus in fine huius saeculi mundum istum periturum esse credamus. nam et illo tempore perisse dixit, qui tunc erat, mundum; nec solum orbem terrae, uerum etiam caelos, quos utique istos aerios intellegimus, quorum locum ac spatium tunc aqua crescendo superauerat. ergo totus aut paene totus aer iste uentosus - quod caelum uel potius caelos uocat, sed utique istos imos, non illos supremos, ubi sol et luna et sidera constituta sunt - conuersus fuerat in umidam qualitatem atque hoc modo cum terra perierat, cuius terrae utique prior facies fuerat deleta diluuio. qui autem nunc sunt, inquit, caeli et terra, eodem uerbo repositi sunt, igni reseruandi in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum inpiorum. proinde qui caeli et quae terra, id est, qui mundus pro eo mundo qui diluuio periit, ex eadem aqua repositus est, ipse igni nouissimo reseruatur in diem iudicii et perditionis hominum inpiorum. nam et hominum propter magnam quandam commutationem non dubitat dicere perditionem futuram, cum tamen eorum quamuis in aeternis poenis sit mansura natura. quaerat forsitan aliquis, si post factum iudicium iste mundus ardebit, antequam pro illo caelum nouum et terra noua reponatur, eo ipso tempore conflagrationis eius ubi erunt sancti, cum eos habentes corpora in aliquo corporali loco esse necesse sit. possumus respondere futuros eos esse in superioribus partibus, quo ita non adscendet flamma illius incendii, quemadmodum nec unda diluuii. talia quippe illis inerunt corpora, ut illic sint, ubi esse uoluerint. sed nec ignem conflagrationis illius pertimescent inmortales atque incorruptibiles facti, si uirorum trium corruptibilia corpora atque mortalia in camino ardenti inlaesa uiuere potuerunt.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 18.--What the Apostle Peter Predicted Regarding the Last Judgment.

Let us now see what the Apostle Peter predicted concerning this judgment. "There shall come," he says, "in the last days scoffers. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." ¹ There is nothing said here about the resurrection of the dead, but enough certainly regarding the destruction of this world. And by his reference to the deluge he seems as it were to suggest to us how far we should believe the ruin of the world will extend in the end of the world. For he says that the world which then was perished, and not only the earth itself, but also the heavens, by which we understand the air, the place and room of which was occupied by the water. Therefore the whole, or almost the whole, of the gusty atmosphere (which he calls heaven, or rather the heavens, meaning the earth's atmosphere, and not the upper air in which sun, moon, and stars are set) was turned into moisture, and in this way perished together with the earth, whose former appearance had been destroyed by the deluge. "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Therefore the heavens and the earth, or the world which was preserved from the water to stand in place of that world which perished in the flood, is itself reserved to fire at last in the day of the judgment and perdition of ungodly men. He does not hesitate to affirm that in this great change men also shall perish: their nature, however, shall notwithstanding continue, though in eternal punishments. Some one will perhaps put the question, If after judgment is pronounced the world itself is to burn, where shall the saints be during the conflagration, and before it is replaced by a new heavens and a new earth, since somewhere they must be, because they have material bodies? We may reply that they shall be in the upper regions into which the flame of that conflagration shall not ascend, as neither did the water of the flood; for they shall have such bodies that they shall be wherever they wish. Moreover, when they have become immortal and incorruptible, they shall not greatly dread the blaze of that conflagration, as the corruptible and mortal bodies of the three men were able to live unhurt in the blazing furnace.