Chapter 27

§ 1.

For if the Father judgeth not,¹ either it is nothing to Him, or He consenteth to all that is done here: and if He judgeth not, all persons will be on a level, and will be counted in the same lot. Therefore the Advent of Christ will be nugatory, and inconsistent with itself, in respect of His not judging.² For He came to divide a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law: and where two are in one bed, to take the one and leave the other:³ and where two women are grinding in the mill, to take the one and leave the other:⁴ in the end to bid the reapers gather together first the tares, and bind up bundles, and consume⁵ them with unquenchable fire, but gather the wheat into the barn:⁶ and to call the lambs into the Kingdom prepared, while He dismisses the kids⁷ into fire everlasting, which is prepared by His Father for the Devil and his Angels.⁸ And for why? The Word is come for the fall and rising again of many: for the fall of those who believe Him not, to whom also He hath threatened a greater condemnation in the judgment than that of Sodom and Gomorrha; but to the rising again of believeres, and of such as do the Will of His Father which is in Heaven.

If then the Advent of the Son cometh indeed upon all alike, yet is judicial, and a separater of believers and unbelievers, because of their own purpose believers do His Will, and of their own purpose the disobedient draw not nigh unto His teaching: plain it is, that His Father also made indeed all alike, having every one his own purpose, and free way of thinking; yet He looketh upon all, and provideth for all,⁹ causing His Sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and raining on the just and unjust.

§ 2.

And whatever beings keep their love towards God, to them He affords communion with Himself.¹⁰ Now Communion with God is life and light, and enjoyment of the good things which are from Him. But whosoever in their purpose withdraw from God, upon them He bringeth separation from Himself. Now separation from God is Death; and separation from light is darkness, and separation from God is casting away all the good things which come from Him.¹¹ Those then, who by rebellion have cast away the things aforesaid, as being deprived of all good things, come to be in all manner of punishment. For though God punish them not by express dispensation, yet that punishment followeth after them, because they are deprived of all good things: and the good things from God being eternal and endless, the privation of them also is of course eternal and endless.¹² Just as Light being perpetual, those who have blinded themselves, or have been blinded by others, are in perpetuity deprived of the enjoyment of light; not that the Light inflicteth on them that penalty of blindness, but that the blindness of itself bringeth the distress upon them. And therefore our Lord said,¹³ He that believeth in Me is not judged, i.e., is not separated from God: for by Faith he is united unto God. But he that believeth not, saith He, is already judged, because he hath not believed in the Name of the Only Begotten Son of God: i.e., he hath separated himself from God by a voluntary sentence.¹⁴ For this is the judgment, that light is come into this world, and men loved Darkness rather than Light. For every one that doeth ill hateth the light and cometh not to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth His Will, cometh to the Light, that his deeds may be made manifest that he hath wrought them in God.