The Fate of the Impious

Non sic impii, non sic: sed tamquam pulvis quem projicit ventus a facie terrae  Non est impiis comparativae hujus beatitudinis spes relicta, sed vagum os, obtritum, bentilatum, dispersum et inquietum manet, ut ex illa corporalis soliditatis firmitate decussi, ludibrio pulveris differantur in poenam: non in nihilum dissoluti, ut sit in his materies poenae; sed in inane ac leve aridumque pretriti, it ludibriosa poenae mobilitate jactentur. Cujus poenae et loco altero idem propheta meminit, dicens: 'Comminuam eos ut pulverem ante faciem venti, it lutum platearum delebo illos.' Comparatio itaque ut beatitudiniis, ita et poenae est contituta. Quomodo enim nullus labor est vento pulverem dissipare, et quomodo lutum in plateis ingredientes se prope calcasse non sentiunt: ita poenae illi inferni facile est impios delere atque dispergere, quos peccatorum ratio et in lutum solverit, et comminuerit in pulverem, non relicta neque substantia firmitatis, cum pulvis et lutm sint; et per id quod pulvis et lutm sunt, in naturam tantum poenalis substantiae reservati. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum Primum

Not so the impious, not so, but they are as dust which the wind drives away from the face of the earth. The impious have no possible hope of having the image of the happy tree applied to them; the only lot that awaits them is one of wandering and winnowing, crushing, dispersion and unrest. Shaken out of the solid framework of their bodily condition, they must be swept away to punishment in dust, a plaything of the wind. They shall not be dissolved into nothing, however, for punishment must find in them some stuff to work on, but rather ground into particles, and so weightless, unsubstantial and dry they shall be tossed to and fro the amusement of ceaseless punishment. And their punishment is recorded by the same Prophet in another place where he says: 'I will beat them small as the dust before the wind, like the mire of the streets I will destroy them.'1 Thus as there is an appointed type for happiness, so is there one for punishment. For as it is no hard task for the wind to scatter the dust, and as men who walk through the mud of the streets are hardly aware that they have been treading on it, so it is easy for the punishment of hell to destroy and disperse the ungodly, the logical result of whose sins is to melt them into mud and crush them into dust, bereft of all solid substance, for dust and mud they are, and being merely mud and dust are good for nothing else than punishment. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 1 1 Ps 17.43