Dist. 47, Art. 2, Q. 4
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/47/q/bon-sent-IV-d47-a2-q4
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### Article II. *On the fire of the conflagration.*
### Question IV. *On the order of this fire in relation to the things that will take place at the judgement.*

Fourthly there is asked about the order of that fire in relation to the things that will take place at the judgement, and it is asked whether that fire precedes the judgement or follows it. And that it precedes seems so:

1. By the authority of the Psalm: *A fire shall go before him* etc.

2. Likewise, in the last chapter of Isaiah: *The Lord will come in fire*; but the coming is before the judgement: therefore the fire also will go before the judgement.

3. Likewise, it seems so *by reason*: because that fire will purge the elect, as is said in the third chapter of Malachi: *He shall sit refining and cleansing the silver*; but at the judgement it is necessary that all the elect be presented to the judge purged and cleansed: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. Augustine, in the twentieth book *On the City of God*, at the end, set out the order of those things which will be at the judgement, and says that "the conflagration will be after the judgement."

2. Likewise, Augustine says: "When the impious have been judged and sent into the eternal fire, the figure of this world will perish by the conflagration of worldly fires."

3. Likewise, it is agreed that, according to what is said in the fourth chapter of the first letter to the Thessalonians, the Lord will find many living: *Then we who are alive* etc.: therefore it is agreed that the fire of the conflagration, since it consumes everything, will not go before.

4. Likewise, the fire of the conflagration is ordered to the renewal, in such a way that by purging it renews; but the renewal follows the judgement, as is clear from the twenty-first chapter of the Apocalypse: therefore etc.

### Conclusion

> *One fire, or one effect of the same fire, will precede the judgement and will purge the elect; but another will follow and will purge the world and at last will torment the damned.*

**I respond:** To this some have wished to answer by distinguishing *judgement*, saying that there is a judgement *of definition*, and that one will precede the fire, because the sentence against the wicked will be given before the fire comes; and there is a judgement *of execution*, and that one follows the fire, because the reprobate will be enveloped by that fire and led down to hell. — But this answer cannot stand, because Augustine says that "when the impious have been judged and sent into the eternal fire, the figure of this world will perish by the conflagration of worldly fires."

Others answer by distinguishing *a twofold effect of this fire*, namely *to purge* and *to renew*: by reason of *the purging* it precedes, by reason of *the renewal* it follows. And according to this they resolve the arguments for the opposite sides. — But neither does this seem able to stand, because the fire *by purging renews*; hence these effects are conjoined and undivided; and therefore, even if *in nature* they stand in an order, nevertheless *in time* they are together.

And therefore it can be said, as the Gloss says upon that text of the third chapter of Malachi: *He shall purify the sons of Levi*: "We read that two fires are to come: one, which will purge the elect and will precede the judgement; the other, which will torment the reprobate." According to this Gloss it must be said that, whether two fires be spoken of as regards *substance*, or two by reason of two *effects*, the fire that is to be at the judgement must be said to be for *the purgation of the elect*, because each one's work must be tested and purged in fire, so that they may be presented wholly cleansed in the sight of God; and this fire will precede the face of the judge, and while purging its friends, *it will set aflame its enemies round about*. There is also a fire to come for *the purgation of the world* and its renewal; and this one, as he says, will follow the judgement, and will burn up the face of the world and will purge, and finally will torment the reprobate. — Therefore the arguments proving that some fire will precede the judgement are to be granted.

But as to what is objected, that none precedes, because the Lord will find many living; it must be said that that fire will be for the purgation of the elect, not for their consuming; and therefore, just as the three boys in the furnace of burning fire were preserved unharmed by divine power, so it will happen in that fire which will purge them.

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