To Demetrian 23–26

Look, therefore, while there is time, to true and eternal salvation; and since the end of the world is now near, turn your minds to God in the fear of God. Nor let this powerless and empty dominion in the world over the righteous and meek delight you, since in the field also darnel and wild oats lord it among the cultivated and fertile crops; and do not say that evils happen because your gods are not worshiped by us, but know that this is the anger of God, this the censure of God, so that he who is not understood through his benefits may at least be understood through his blows. Seek God, even late, for long ago God, warning through the prophet, exhorts and says: “Seek God, and your soul shall live.” Know God, even late, for Christ also, at his coming, admonishes and teaches this, saying: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” Believe him who does not deceive at all. Believe him who foretold that all these things would come. Believe him who will give to believers the reward of eternal life. Believe him who will inflict on unbelievers eternal punishments in the fires of Gehenna.

What glory of faith will there be then, what punishment of unbelief, when the day of judgment comes! What joy of believers, what sorrow of unbelievers, that they refused to believe here before, and that now they cannot return to believe! Ever-burning Gehenna will burn up those condemned to it, and a devouring punishment with living flames; nor will there be any source from which they could ever have respite or end of their torments. Souls with their bodies will be kept for pain in infinite tortures. There he will be forever looked upon by us who looked upon us here for a time; and the brief enjoyment of cruel eyes in the persecutions they carried out will be paid for by a perpetual sight, according to the faithful word of holy Scripture, which says: “Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a spectacle to all flesh.” And again: “Then the righteous will stand in great boldness against those who afflicted them and who took away their labors. Seeing it, they will be troubled with horrible fear, and will marvel at the suddenness of unexpected salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning in anguish of spirit: These are those whom we once held in derision and as a byword of reproach. We fools thought their life madness and their end without honor. How have they been counted among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints? So we have strayed from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness has not shone for us, and the sun has not risen for us. We have wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and we have walked through difficult wildernesses, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What has pride profited us, or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow.” Then there will be the pain of punishment without the fruit of repentance, empty weeping and ineffective pleading. Too late do they believe in eternal punishment who refused to believe in eternal life.

Provide, therefore, for your security and life while you may. We offer you the saving gift of our mind and counsel. And since it is not lawful for us to hate, and we please God more when we return no requital for injury, we exhort you, while you have the opportunity, while something of the world still remains, to make satisfaction to God and to emerge from the depth of dark superstition into the bright light of true religion. We do not envy your advantages, nor do we hide the divine benefits. We return goodwill for your hatred, and for the tortures and punishments inflicted on us we show you the ways of salvation. Believe and live; and you who persecute us for a time, rejoice with us forever. When one has departed from here, there is no longer any place for repentance, no effect of satisfaction. Here life is either lost or held; here provision is made for eternal salvation by the worship of God and the fruit of faith. Nor let anyone be held back, either by sins or by years, from coming to obtain salvation. For one who still remains in this world no repentance is too late. The way to God's indulgence is open, and access is easy to those who seek and understand the truth. Though it be at the very end and setting of temporal life, if you pray for your sins and implore the God who is one and true by confession and the faith of acknowledging him, pardon is given to the one who confesses, and saving indulgence is granted from the divine mercy to the one who believes, and one passes to immortality at the very moment of death.

This grace Christ imparts; this gift of his mercy he bestows, by subduing death with the trophy of the cross, by redeeming the believer at the price of his blood, by reconciling man to God the Father, by giving life to the mortal through heavenly regeneration. Him, if it can be, let us all follow; let us be enrolled under his sacrament and sign. He opens to us the way of life; he brings us back to paradise; he leads us to the kingdoms of heaven. With him we shall always live, made children of God through him; with him we shall always exult, restored by his blood. We shall be Christians glorious together with Christ, blessed by God the Father, rejoicing with perpetual delight, always in the sight of God and always giving thanks to God. For he cannot but be always joyful and grateful who, though he had been liable to death, has been made secure in immortality.