Simple believers and the fire of punishment
From what has been said it is clear, to those who listen with more understanding, how one must answer also his words, “all the rest of the race will be roasted through, while they alone will survive.” It is no wonder if such ideas have been formed by those among us whom the Word calls “the foolish things of the world”, “the low-born”, “the despised” and “the things that are not” (1 Corinthians 1:27–28), those whom “through the foolishness of preaching God was pleased to save”, namely “those who believe” in him, “since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God” (1 Corinthians 1:21). They are not able to set out clearly the sense of the passages, nor have they been willing to give their time to searching the Scripture, although Jesus says, “Search the Scriptures” (John 5:39); and so they have formed such notions about the fire that God brings on and about what will happen to those who have sinned.
And perhaps, just as it suits children to be told certain things fitted to their infancy, so as to turn them, being very young children, toward what is better, so for those whom the Word has named the foolish things of the world, the low-born and the despised, the obvious understanding of the punishments is fitting, since they can take in no other way of turning back and of keeping away from their many evils than through fear and the imagining of the punishments.
The Word, then, says that only those will survive without a taste of the fire and the punishments who have been perfectly purified in their doctrines, their character and the ruling part of their soul. But those who are not such, who according to their deserts need the dispensation of punishment through fire, it says will be in these punishments for some end; an end which it befits God to bring upon those who were made “in his image” (Genesis 1:26–27) and have lived against the purpose of the nature that is “in his image.” This, too, is our answer to the words, “all the rest of the race will be roasted through, while they alone will survive.”
Greek
Ἐκ δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων τοῖς συνετώτερον ἀκούουσι δῆλον, πῶς ἀπαντητέον καὶ πρὸς τό· τὸ μὲν ἄλλο πᾶν ἐξοπτήσεσθαι γένος, αὐτοὺς δὲ μόνους διαμενεῖν. οὐ θαυμαστὸν δ᾿ εἰ τοιαῦτα νενόηκε „τὰ“ ἐν ἡμῖν ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου „μωρὰ τοῦ κόσμου“ ὀνομαζόμενα καὶ „ἀγενῆ“ καὶ „ἐξουδενωμένα“ καὶ „μὴ ὄντα,“ ἅτινα „διὰ τῆς μωρίας τοῦ κηρύγματος εὐδόκησεν ὁ θεὸς σῶσαι τοὺς πιστεύοντας αὐτῷ, ἐπεὶ μὴ ἐν τῇ σοφίᾳ τοῦ θεοῦ ἔγνω ὁ κόσμος διὰ τῆς σοφίας τὸν θεὸν,“ οὐ δυνάμενα διαρθρῶσαι τὰ κατὰ τοὺς τόπους οὐδὲ βουληθέντα σχολάσαι τῇ ἐρεύνῃ τῆς γραφῆς, καίτοι γε τοῦ Ἰησοῦ λέγοντος· „ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφὰς,“ καὶ τοιαῦτα ὑπείληφε περὶ τοῦ ἐπαγομένου πυρὸς ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ περὶ τῶν συμβησομένων τοῖς ἁμαρτήσασι. καὶ τάχα ὥσπερ τοῖς παισὶν ἁρμόζει τινὰ λέγεσθαι κατάλληλα τῇ νηπιότητι αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸ ὡς παῖδας κομιδῇ νηπίους ἐπιστρέφειν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον, οὕτως οἷς ὠνόμασεν ὁ λόγος μωροῖς τοῦ κόσμου καὶ ἀγενέσι καὶ ἐξουδενωμένοις ἡ πρόχειρος ἁρμόζει περὶ τῶν κολάσεων ἐκδοχὴ, οὐ χωροῦσιν ἄλλην ἢ τὴν διὰ φόβου καὶ φαντασίας τῶν κολάσεων ἐπιστροφὴν καὶ τῶν πολλῶν κακῶν ἀποχήν. ὁ λόγος οὖν μόνους μὲν ἀγεύστους τοῦ πυρὸς καὶ τῶν κολάσεών φησι διαμενεῖν τοὺς τὰ δόγματα καὶ τὰ ἤθη καὶ τὸ ἡγεμονικὸν ἄκρως κεκαθαρμένους· τοὺς δὲ μὴ τοιούτους, κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν χρῄζοντας τῆς διὰ πυρὸς κολάσεως οἰκονομίας, ἐν τούτοις ἐπί τινι τέλει φησὶν ἔσεσθαι, ὃ τῷ θεῷ ἁρμόζει ἐπάγειν τοῖς „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ αὐτοῦ πεποιημένοις καὶ παρὰ τὸ βούλημα τῆς „κατ᾿ εἰκόνα“ φύσεως βεβιωκόσι. καὶ ταῦτα δὲ πρὸς τό· τὸ μὲν ἄλλο πᾶν ἐξοπτήσεσθαι γένος, αὐτοὺς δὲ μόνους διαμενεῖν.