Chapter 62

¹ Now when these things had come to pass, the Scripture says: “And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the midst of the furnace, and they walked about in the midst of the flame, praising God and blessing the Lord.”

² So then the bonds which the king had put on them the fire at once consumed, but it did not touch their garments and their trousers, so that in this too the magnificent work of God might be shown.

³ For since the garments were wrapped about the bodies of the young men, these also were sanctified together with them and were not destroyed by the fire, but were honored together with them through their testimony.—

⁴ Let the heresiarchs who deny their own resurrection tell me how they say there is no resurrection of the flesh, when corruptible garments and sandals made from dead animals were not destroyed by the fire because they were wrapped about a holy body. How shall not flesh too, though corruptible, wrapped about a holy soul, itself also be sanctified together with it and be transformed into incorruption?

⁵ For if things that are by nature corruptible did not receive corruption, how shall that which did not become corruptible by nature, but was put to death through disobedience, not rise again when it is made alive once more by the power of God?

⁶ So that in every way the Scripture persuades us to believe in God with the whole heart, in the very manner in which those men too, having believed, were saved whole out of the furnace of fire together with their clothing and trousers.

⁷ For if the fire did not then overpower those men, how can the eternal fire have mastery over the saints who likewise believe in God?