{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognise why\r\nthe Church has not been able to tolerate the idea that promises\r\ncleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most severe\r\nand protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued\r\nwith the spirit of the Old and New Testament, did not grudge\r\nto angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the\r\nblessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by\r\nsuffering, but rather they perceived that they could not invalidate\r\nnor evacuate the divine sentence which the Lord\r\npredicted that He would pronounce in the judgment, saying,\r\n\"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared\r\nfor the devil and his angels.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_900_900\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_900_900\">[900]</a> For here it is evident that\r\nthe devil and his angels shall burn in everlasting fire. And\r\nthere is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, \"The devil\r\ntheir deceiver was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,\r\nwhere also are the beast and the false prophet. And they\r\nshall be tormented day and night for ever.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_901_901\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_901_901\">[901]</a> In the former\r\npassage \"everlasting\" is used, in the latter \"for ever;\" and\r\nby these words Scripture is wont to mean nothing else than\r\nendless duration. And therefore no other reason, no reason\r\nmore obvious and just, can be found for holding it as the fixed\r\nand immovable belief of the truest piety, that the devil and\r\nhis angels shall never return to the justice and life of the\r\nsaints, than that Scripture, which deceives no man, says that\r\nGod spared them not, and that they were condemned beforehand\r\nby Him, and cast into prisons of darkness in hell,<a id=\"FNanchor_902_902\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_902_902\">[902]</a> being\r\nreserved to the judgment of the last day, when eternal fire\r\nshall receive them, in which they shall be tormented world\r\nwithout end. And if this be so, how can it be believed that\r\nall men, or even some, shall be withdrawn from the endurance\r\nof punishment after some time has been spent in it? how can\r\nthis be believed without enervating our faith in the eternal\r\npunishment of the devils? For if all or some of those to\r\nwhom it shall be said, \"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_451\">[Pg 451]</a></span>\r\nfire, prepared for the devil and his angels,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_903_903\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_903_903\">[903]</a> are not to\r\nbe always in that fire, then what reason is there for believing\r\nthat the devil and his angels shall always be there? Or is\r\nperhaps the sentence of God, which is to be pronounced on\r\nwicked men and angels alike, to be true in the case of the\r\nangels, false in that of men? Plainly it will be so if the\r\nconjectures of men are to weigh more than the word of God.\r\nBut because this is absurd, they who desire to be rid of eternal\r\npunishment ought to abstain from arguing against God, and\r\nrather, while yet there is opportunity, obey the divine commands.\r\nThen what a fond fancy is it to suppose that eternal\r\npunishment means long-continued punishment, while eternal\r\nlife means life without end, since Christ in the very same\r\npassage spoke of both in similar terms in one and the same\r\nsentence, \"These shall go away into eternal punishment, but\r\nthe righteous into life eternal!\"<a id=\"FNanchor_904_904\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_904_904\">[904]</a> If both destinies are\r\n\"eternal,\" then we must either understand both as long-continued\r\nbut at last terminating, or both as endless. For they\r\nare correlative,—on the one hand, punishment eternal, on the\r\nother hand, life eternal. And to say in one and the same\r\nsense, life eternal shall be endless, punishment eternal shall\r\ncome to an end, is the height of absurdity. Wherefore, as\r\nthe eternal life of the saints shall be endless, so too the eternal\r\npunishment of those who are doomed to it shall have no end.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-715"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0bdefacd513524db1aa9195c57a72ef6fdb37773643be49f97940feb0a1215cf","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":25,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. xxv. 46","verse":46,"verse_end":46}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_904_904","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_904_904","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_904_904\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_904_904\"><span class=\"label\">[904]</span></a> Matt. xxv. 46.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_904_904","text_sha256":"fd60fedf087e2671683aefb9b12c7abf61c4475655bb8f4b618beff6c6910a67","verified":false,"work_id":null}