no punishment for any of the wicked after death, but indiscriminate admission to heaven for all mankind, has so much of the quintessence of absurdity and impiety, that for 1700 years none were found adventurous and extravagant enough to espouse and publish it to the world-nor did it ever dare to show its head abroad until the pantheistical Theologues of Germany had, under the name of philosophical Christianity, set all reason and common sense at open defiance. Even the heretics of primitive times had more consistency than to blend heaven and hell together, or to mix apostates and devils with angels and saints in the kingdom of God. They opened heaven to both the righteous and the wicked; not of the heathen, but only of the Christian world.

Further, the doctrine of the Universalist, as far as it was taught by some heretics, was not only condemned by the primitive Christians, but the contrary doctrine of endless future punishment, was universally taught and held throughout the whole Christian world, from the very birth of Christianity. If this is a fact, it clearly shows that it is utterly impossible that the doctrine of the Universalist should be true. And that this is a fact none will deny who know any thing of the matter. But as multitudes who are well disposed err for want of information -as ignorance, prejudice, and sectarian bigotry, are always blind-as many will admit nothing that is not proved by a detail of arguments and facts submitted to their own judgment

and as the present point is of vital importance—we proceed to quote from the fathers some passages to prove that they taught the doctrine of endless future punishment.

St. Barnabas was the companion of Paul, the disciple of our Saviour, and probably one of the seventy whom he chose. In an epistle written after the year A. D. 70, he says, "Let us "strive to the utmost to keep God's commandments. For he "will judge the world without respect of persons; and every "one shall receive according to his works. If a man be good, "his righteousness will go before him; if wicked, the reward "of his wickedness shall follow him. Let us take heed, there"fore, lest we be shut out of the kingdom of the Lord:" for

*

"after the resurrection he will judge the "children of iniquity shall not be saved."

world."

"The

They shall be "destroyed by fire, because they have not repented of their "sins." "But the righteous shall possess the world to come; " and they shall be distinguished from the unrighteous by their happiness."

St. Clement, the fellow labourer of the Apostle Paul, and subsequently Bishop of Rome, has left two short epistles that have come down to our times. In these he says in substance, that the Lord will hereafter raise up to eternal life those who religiously serve him; and that if we do not fear God and lay aside our wicked works, we cannot be delivered from the wrath to come in a future world. He therefore exhorts the Corinthians to strive with all earnestness, that they may be found in the number of those who wait for Christ's coming to judgment; that by so doing, they may receive the reward he has promised to those that seek him, and act agreeably to his will. If we would be saved and receive eternal life, we must repent while we are in this world, and observe the commandments of the Lord. For we shall be raised up and brought to judgment hereafter, when God will reward every one according to his works. Those that have been righteous shall enter into his kingdom and receive the promises; but those that have not served him shall be miserable. And he says expressly, "If we do the will of Christ, we shall find rest; if we disobey "his commands, nothing shall deliver us from eternal punish"ment." "How can we hope to enter into the kingdom of "God, unless we shall be found to have done what is holy " and just?"

Ignatius was made Bishop of Antioch by the Apostle John. A few years after the death of St. John, he wrote the epistles that have come down to our times, and in them he says, "Let us either so fear the wrath to come, or so love the grace "of Christ, that it turn not to our condemnation, but that we "may live in holiness according to the truth, and that we may "be found in Christ Jesus unto eternal life." "Life and "death are set before us; and the faithful and the unbelievers

"shall each go to their proper place." "Be not deceived; "those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of "God." "He that by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith "of God, shall die-he shall depart into unquenchable fire.” Polycarp was made Bishop of Smyrna by the Apostle John; and in his epistle, written about A. D. 116, a few years after St. John's death, speaking of Christ, he says, "Who shall "come to be the judge of quick and dead-whose blood God "shall require of them that believe not in him. But he that "raised up Christ, shall raise us up likewise to glory, if we "walk according to his commandments, and abstain from all "unrighteousness." "For neither fornicators, nor effeminate, " &c. shall inherit the kingdom of God." "Let us then serve "him in fear and reverence, as the prophets who foretold the "coming of our Lord taught us." "For we must all stand "before the judgment-seat of Christ, and every one shall give "an account of himself." "And whoever perverts the oracles of the Lord, and says there shall be no judgment, is the first "born of Satan."

The above Polycarp suffered martyrdom about the year A. D. 147: and the Church of Smyrna, in giving an account of that martyrdom, says of martyrs in general:-" Supported "by the grace of Christ, they despised all the torments of the "world-by the sufferings of an hour, redeeming themselves "from everlasting punishment. Even the fire of these bar"barous executioners, seemed cold to them, whilst they hoped "thereby to escape that fire which is eternal and shall never

be extinguished." And one of Polycarp's answers to the Proconsul was :-" Thou threatenest me with fire which burns "for an hour, and so is extinguished; but knowest not the "fire of the future judgment, and of that eternal punishment, " which is reserved for the ungodly."

Some time before the death of Polycarp, Justin Martyr, a distinguished heathen philosopher, having been converted to

* See the preceding quotations in Archbishop Wake's translation of the Apostolic Fathers.

Christianity, and being at Rome during a time of severe persecution, wrote an apology in defence of the persecuted Christians. He calls himself a "disciple of the Apostles ;" and says to the emperor, the senate, and the people of Rome :

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"To lay before you, in short, what we expect, and what we "have learned from Christ, and what we teach the world, "take it as follows:-Plato and we are both alike agreed as "to a future judgment, but differ about the judges; Rhada"manthus and Minos are his judges, Christ ours. And more. "over we say, that the souls of the wicked being reunited to "the same bodies, shall be consigned over to eternal torments, "and not as Plato will have it, to the period of a thousand 66 years only; but if you will affirm this to be incredible or impossible, there is no help, but you must fall from error to "error, till the day of judgment convinces you we are in the "right." "We are the greatest promoters of peace, because "we teach that every one is stepping forward into everlasting "misery or happiness, according to his works; and if all men 66 were once fully possessed with a notion of these things, who "would make the bold adventure to embrace the pleasures ❝of sin for a season, with his eyes upon eternal fire at the "end of the enjoyment? Who would not strive all he could "to check himself upon the brink of ruin, and to adorn his "mind with such virtue, as might give him admission to the "good things of God, and secure him from everlasting vengeance?" Again, "But since all departed souls continue "in sensation, and everlasting fire is treasured up for the "unrighteous, let me advise you to look well about you, and

lay these things seriously to heart." Again, "When we "teach a general conflagration, what do we teach more than "the stoicks? When we assert departed souls to be in a "state of sensibility, and the wicked to be in torments, but "the good free from pain and in a blissful condition, we assert "no more than your poets and philosophers." Again, "We "teach that such only shall be crowned with a blessed im"mortality, who have imitated God in virtue, and those who "have lived wickedly, and not repented to the amendment

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"of their lives, we believe shall be punished in fire everlasting." He says also, in direct contradiction to the doctrine of the Universalist, that it is a "fundamental truth taught by the "prophets of the Old Testament, that there shall be punish"ments and rewards hereafter, rendered to every man ac"cording to the merits of his works."

Ireneus flourished about 40 years after Justin Martyr. He was the scholar of the above mentioned Polycarp, who was the disciple of the Apostle John. He was the great scourge of all the heretics of his day, whose errors and blasphemies he exposed and refuted. Speaking of a creed which, among other things, taught the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, he asserts what Tertullian a few years after him. likewise asserted, that "the Church dispersed throughout the "whole world, had received this faith from the Apostles and "their disciples." He asserts of a certain heretical notion"Christ Jesus shall judge the Valentinians for it, when he "shall come to judge the world." Again, "He shall come "to be the Saviour of those who are saved, and the judge of "those who are judged; sending into eternal fire the corrup"ters of the truth, and the despisers of his coming." Again, "He shall come from heaven to render a righteous judgment "unto all; he shall send into everlasting fire evil spirits, and "the angels which are fallen and apostatized, and all impious, "unrighteous, ungodly, and blasphemous men; but on the righteous, holy, and obedient observers of his command"ments, he shall confer life, immortality, and everlasting "glory."

A few years after Ireneus, about A. D. 200, wrote Tertullian. In his apology for Christians he says:-" To the ob"servers of his laws, God has destined rewards; and when "he comes to judgment at the last day, having raised all the "dead, that have been dead from the beginning of the world, "and restored to every man his body, and summoned the "whole world before him, to examine and render to all ac

u See Reeves' Apologies.

* King on the Creed.