Verse 17. 'At the time when they shall be scattered, they shall perish.' 33. How great their terror, as judgment draws near. For those whom the anxiety of the present life sets in order, the loss of it scatters; and then also they perish outwardly, who inwardly had long since perished by neglecting eternal things. Of whom it is rightly added: 'And when they shall grow hot, they shall be loosed from their place.' For every wicked man, when he grows hot, is loosed from his place, because, drawing near to the judgment of the inmost strictness, when now through the knowledge of punishment he begins to seethe, he is separated from that delight of his own flesh to which he had long clung. For this is why it is said through the prophet against the reprobate: 'And vexation alone shall give understanding to the hearing' (Isaiah 28:19),
because, namely, they do not understand eternal things, except when they are already punished for temporal things without amendment. Then the mind seethes, and inflames itself with the fires of fruitless penitence; it fears to be led to punishment, it clings to the present life out of desire, yet it is loosed from its place, because, forsaking the delights of the flesh, its hardness is melted through torment. But since we have heard what all the wicked shall suffer in the time of their being torn away, let us now hear certain other things by which they are entangled in the span of their liberty. There follows: