Those Spared Punishment Here Are Most to Be Pitied

But we ought to consider those men truly wretched and miserable who defile themselves with every kind of sin and wickedness, and yet show no visible sign of the devil’s possession, meet no trial in proportion to their deeds, and have no scourge of punishment brought to bear on them. For they are granted no swift and immediate remedy in this world. Their “hardness and unrepentant heart,” too much for punishment in this life, “stores up for itself wrath and indignation in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” “where their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched.” [a]

Against them the prophet speaks, as if perplexed at the affliction of the saints. He sees the saints subject to various losses and trials, and on the other hand he sees sinners not only passing through the course of this world without any scourge to humble them, but even rejoicing in great riches and the greatest prosperity in everything. Burning with uncontrollable indignation and fervor of spirit, he cries out: “But as for me, my feet had almost gone; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was grieved at the wicked when I saw the peace of sinners. For there is no regard for their death, nor is there strength in the blows they suffer. They are not in the labor of men, nor will they be scourged like other men.” For hereafter they will be punished with the demons, since in this world they were not granted to be scourged along with men, in the lot and discipline of sons. Jeremiah too, speaking with God about this prosperity of sinners, never claims to doubt God’s justice, for he says, “For you are just, O Lord, if I dispute with you.” Yet in asking the reasons for this inequality, he goes on to say: “But still I will speak what is just to you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why is it well with all those who transgress and act wickedly? You planted them, and they have taken root; they prosper and bear fruit. You are near in their mouth and far from their hearts.”

And the Lord mourns their destruction through the prophet, and anxiously directs doctors and physicians to heal them, and in a way urges them on to a like lament, saying: “Babylon has suddenly fallen; she is destroyed. Wail for her; take balm for her pain, if perhaps she may be healed.” Then, in their despair, the angels to whom the care of human salvation is entrusted make reply; or at any rate the prophet does, speaking in the person of the apostles and of spiritual men and teachers who see the hardness of their soul and their unrepentant heart: “We have healed Babylon, but she is not cured. Let us leave her, and let each of us go to his own land, because her judgment has reached even to the heavens and is lifted up to the clouds.” Of their hopeless weakness, then, Isaiah speaks in the person of God to Jerusalem: “From the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it: wounds and bruises and swelling sores. They are not bound up, nor dressed, nor soothed with oil.”