Contemplating Future States

Expedit igitur unicuique, priusquam praesentem finiat vitam, futuri supplicii timore converti, si vere non vult post hujus vitae finem sine fine torqueri. Quapropter inaniter in conspectu Dei malorum hominum permanens iniquitas remittenda creditur, in cujus conspectu inulta esse bonorum operum sterilitas non sinetur. Neque enim dicitur quisquam positus ad sinistram idcirco iturus in ignem aeternum, quia panem comedenti abstulit, sed quia esurienti non dedit; nec quia vestitum exspoliavit, sed quia vestimenta non tribuit; nec quia de domo propria quemquam pepulit, sed quia unum ex Christi minimis hospitio non recepit. Si ergo ibit in combustionem aeternam qui panem suum esurienti non dedit, quid recipiet qui alienum abstulit panem? Et si mittetur in stagnum ignis et sulphuris qui nudum vestimento non tegit, quis passurus est qui vestimeno crudelis expoliat? Et si rerum suarum avarus possessor requiem non habebit, quomodo alienarum rerum insatiabilis raptor, si in hac vita converti noluerit, postmodum sibi de judice justo indulgentiam frustra promittit? Consideremus divitem miserum purpura quondam byssoque vestitum, non ob aluid inexstinguibilibus flammis ardentem, nisi quia Lazaro pauperi continua esurie laboranti nunquam voluit saltem micas convivii sui mortifera praeditus iniquitate largari. Qui cum interminabili cruciamento damnatus, etiam digiti pauperis in aeterna requie laetantis refrigerio remaneret indignus, evidenti responsione Abraham patriarcha monstravit post hanc vitam, nec bonos posse ad iniquos aliquatenus transmeare, nec malos a poenis ad beatorum requiem posse quandoque transire. Sic enim dicit: Fili, recordare quia recepisti bona in vita tua, et Lazarus similiter mala. Nunc autem hic consolatur, tu vero cruciaris. Et in omnibus inter nos et vos chaos magnum firmatum est, ut hinc qui volunt transire ad vos, non possint, neque huc inde transmeare. Sanctus Fulgentius Ruspensis, De Remissione Peccatorum, Lib II Caput XIV Source: Migne 65.565a-c

It thus profits everyone before the end of this present life to contemplate with fear future punishment, if truly after the end of this life one has no wish for endless torment. Whence it is foolish in the sight of God to believe that the remaining inquity of evil men must be forgiven, in that sight in which it is not permitted that a sterility of good works shall go unpunished. For it is not said that whoever is placed on the left side will go into eternal fire because he took bread for eating, but because he did not give to the hungry, not because he stole clothes but because he did not give them, not because he expelled his own from his house, but because he did not receive as a guest one of Christ's little ones. If therefore he shall go to eternal burning who did not give his own bread to the hungry, what shall he receive who takes another man's bread? And if he who does not cover the naked with clothes shall go into the lake of fire and sulphur, shall that cruel man who strips clothing from another be spared? And if an avaricious possessor of his own goods shall have no rest, how shall the insatiable seizer of the goods of another, if in this life he will not be converted, if he is vainly promised that after he shall have forgiveness from the just judge? Consider that wretched wealthy man in his purple and fine linen garments, that nothing availed against the burning and inextinguishable flame, unless the poor man Lazarus, who had ever laboured in want, to whom he never wished to give crumbs from his table, bound in his fatal iniquity. He who when damned to endless torments was indeed unworthy of the finger of the happy poor man in his rest. And the answer of the patriarch Abraham plainly showed that after this life it is impossible for the good to pass over to the wicked, and nor shall the wicked at any time cross over to the rest of the blessed. He says: 'O son, remember that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil. Now he is comforted and you are tormented. In all this, between us and you, a great gulf has been set, that he who wishes to pass from here to you is not able, nor is it possible that anyone pass from there to here.' 1 Saint Fulgentius of Ruspe, On the Forgiveness of Sins, Book 2, Chap 14 1 Lk 16.25-26