- THE CITY OF GOD - THE OMNIPOTENCE OF THE CREATOR - BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO -
- Against those who are of opinion that the punishment neither of the devil nor of wicked men shall be eternal - P A G E 6 -
First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognise why the Church has not been able to tolerate the idea that promises cleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most severe and protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued with the spirit of the Old and New Testament did not grudge to angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by suffering but rather they perceived that they could not invalidate nor evacuate the divine sentence which the Lord predicted that He would pronounce in the judgement, saying, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." - Matthew xxv. 41 - For here it is evident that the devil and his angels shall burn in everlasting fire. And there is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, "The devil their deceiver was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and the false prophet. And they shall be tormented day and night for ever." - Revelation xx. 10 - In the former passage "everlasting" is used, in the latter "for ever" and by these words Sacred Scripture is wont to mean nothing else than endless duration. And therefore no other reason, no reason more obvious and just, can be found for holding it as the fixed and immovable belief of the truest piety, that the devil and his angels shall never return to the justice and life of the saints, than that Scripture, which deceives no man, says that God spared them not, and that they were condemned beforehand by Him and cast into prisons of darkness in hell - 2 Peter ii. 4 - being reserved to the judgement of the last day, when eternal fire shall receive them, in which they shall be tormented world without end. And if this be so, how can it be believed that all men or even some, shall be withdrawn from the endurance of punishment after some time has been spent in it? How can this be believed without enervating our faith in the eternal punishment of the devils? For if all or some of those to whom it shall be said, "Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" - Matthew xxv. 41 - are not to be always in that fire, then what reason is there for believing that the devil and his angels shall always be there? Or is perhaps the sentence of God which is to be pronounced on wicked men and angels alike, to be true in the case of the angels, false in that of men? Plainly it will be so if the conjectures of men are to weigh more than the word of God. But because this is absurd, they who desire to be rid of eternal punishment ought to abstain from arguing against God, and rather, while yet there is opportunity, obey the divine commands.
Then what a fond fancy is it to suppose that eternal punishment means long-continued punishment, while eternal life means life without end, since Christ in the very same passage spoke of both in similar terms in one and the same sentence, "These shall go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life! - Matthew xxv. 46 - If both destinies are "eternal," then we must either understand both as long-continued but as last terminating, or both as endless. For they are correlative - on the one hand, punishment eternal, on the other hand, life eternal. And to say in one and the same sense life eternal shall be endless, punishment eternal shall come to an end, is the height of absurdity. Wherefore, as the eternal life of the saints shall be endless, so too the eternal punishment of those who are doomed to it shall have no end.
- Against those who fancy that in the judgement of God all the accused will be spared in virtue of the prayers of the saints -
And this reasoning is equally conclusive against those who, in their own interest but under the guise of a greater tenderness of spirit, attempt to invalidate the words of God and who assert that these words are not true, not because men shall suffer those things which are threatened by God, but because they deserve to suffer them. For God, they say, will yield them to the prayers of His saints, who will then the more earnestly pray for their enemies, as they shall be more perfect in holiness and whose prayer will be the more efficacious and the more worthy of God's ear because now purged from all sin whatsoever. Why then, if in that perfected holiness their prayers be so pure and all-availing will they not use them on behalf of the angels for whom eternal fire is prepared, that God may mitigate His sentence and alter it and extricate them from that fire? Or will there, perhaps, be more one hardy enough to affirm that even the holy angels will make common cause with holy men (then become the equals of God's angels) and will intercede for the guilty, both men and angels that mercy may spare them the punishment which truth has pronounced them to deserve? But this has been asserted by no one sound in the faith nor will be. Otherwise there is no reason why the Church should not even now pray for the devil and his angels, since God her Master has ordered her to pray for her enemies. The reason, then, which prevents the Church from now praying for the wicked angels whom she knows to be her enemies, is the identical reason which shall prevent her, however, perfected in holiness, from praying at the last judgment for those men who are to be punished in eternal fire. At present, she prays for her enemies among men because they have yet opportunity for fruitful repentance. For what does she especially beg for them but that "God would grant them repentance," as the apostle says, "that they may return to soberness out of the snare of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will?" - 2 Timothy 2:25-26 -
But if the Church were certified who those are, who, though they are still abiding in this life are yet predestined to go with the devil into eternal fire, then for them she could no more pray than for him. But since she has this certainty regarding no man, she prays for all her enemies who yet live in this world; and yet she is not heard in behalf of all. But she is heard in the case of those only who though they oppose the Church, are yet predestined to become her son through her intercession. But if any retain an impenitent heart until death and are not converted from enemies into sons, does the Church continue to pray for them, for the spirits, that is, of such persons deceased? And why does she cease to pray for them, unless because the man who was not translated into Christ's kingdom while he was in the body, is now judged to be of Satan's following?
It is then, I say the same reason which prevents the Church at anytime from praying for the wicked angels which prevents her from praying hereafter for those men who are to be punished in eternal fire; and this also is the reason why though she prays even for the wicked so long as they live, she yet does not even in this world pray for the unbelieving and godless who are dead. For some of the dead, indeed, the prayer of the Church or pious individuals is heard; but it is for those who, having been regenerated in Christ, did not spend their life so wickedly that they can be judged unworthy of such compassion, nor so well that they can be considered to have no need of it. As also, after the resurrection, there will be some of the dead to whom, after they have endured the pains proper to the spirits of the dead, mercy shall be accorded and acquittal from the punishment of eternal life. For were there not some whose sins, though not remitted in this life, shall be remitted in that which is to come, it could not be truly said, "They shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in that which is to come." - Matthew 12:32 - But when the Judge of quick and dead has said, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," and to those on the other side, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels," and "These shall go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into eternal life" - Matthew 25:34, 41, 46 - it were excessively presumptuous to say that the punishment of any of those who God has said shall go away into eternal punishment shall not be eternal and so bring either despair or doubt upon the corresponding promise of life eternal.
Let no man then so understand the words of the Palmist, "Shall God forget to be gracious? shall He shut up His anger His tender mercies?" - Psalms 1xxvii. 9 - as if the sentence of God were true of good men, false of bad men or more true of good men and wicked angels but false of bad men. For the Psalmist's words refer to the vessels of mercy and the children of the promise of whom the prophet himself was one; for when he said, "Shall God forget to be gracious? shall He shut up His anger His tender mercies?" and then immediately subjoins." And I said, Now I begin: this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High" - Psalms 1xxvii. 10 - he manifestly explained what he meant by the words, "Shall He shut up in His anger His tender mercies?" For God's anger is this mortal life in which man is made like to vanity and his days pass as a shadow. - Psalms cxliv. 4 - Yet in this anger God does not forget to be gracious, causing His sun to shine and His rain to descend on the just and the unjust; - Matthew v. 45 - and thus He does not in His anger cut short His tender mercies and especially in what the Psalmist speaks of in the words, "Now I begin: this change is from the right hand of the Most High;" for He changes for the better the vessels of mercy, even while they are still in this most wretched life which is God's anger and even while His anger is manifesting itself in this miserable corruption; for "in His anger He does not shut up His tender mercies." And since the truth of this divine canticle is quite satisfied by this application of it, there is no need to give it a reference to that place in which those who do not belong to the city of God are punished in eternal fire. But if any persist in extending its application to the torments of the wicked, let them at least understand it so that the anger of God which has threatened the wicked with eternal punishment, shall abide but shall be mixed with mercy to the extend of alleviating the torments which might justly be inflicted; so that the wicked shall neither wholly escape, nor only for a time endure these threatened pains but shall be less severe and more endurable than they deserve. Thus the anger of God shall continue and at the same time He will not in this anger shut up His tender mercies. But even this hypothesis I am not to be supposed to affirm because I do not positively oppose it." - It is the theory which Chrysostom adopts -
As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth in such passages as these: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire:" and "These shall go away into eternal punishment;" - Matthew xxv. 41, 46 - and "They shall be tormented for ever and ever; " - Revelation xx. 10 - and "Their worm shall not die and their fire shall not quenched" - Isaiah 1xvi. 24 - such persons, I say, are most emphatically and abundantly refuted, not by me so much as by the divine Scripture itself. For the men of Nineveh repented in this life and therefore their repentant was fruitful, inasmuch as they sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in tears that it might afterwards be reaped in joy. And yet who will deny that God's prediction was fulfilled in their case, if at least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in anger but also in compassion? For sinners are destroyed in two ways - either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are punished for their sins or like the Ninevites, the men's sins are destroy by repentance. God's prediction, therefore, was fulfilled - the wicked Nineveh was overthrown and a good Nineveh built up. For its wall and houses remained standing; the city was overthrown in its depraved manners. And thus, though the prophet was provoked that the destruction which the inhabitants dreaded because of his prediction, it did not take place, yet that which God's foreknowledge had predicted, it did take place, for He is foretold the destruction knew how it should be fulfilled in a less calamitous sense.
But that these perversely compassionate persons may see what is the purport of these words, "How great is the abundance of Thy sweetness, Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee" - Psalms xxxi. 19 - let them read what follows: "And Thou hast perfected it for them that hope in Thee." For what means, "Thou hast hidden it for them that fear Thee," "Thou hast perfected it for them that hope in Thee" unless this, that to those who through fear of punishment seek to establish their own righteousness by the law, the righteousness of God.............
- WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY -
Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!
If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function, so the body grows until it has built itself up, in love. - Ephesians 4:15-16 -
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