ARGUMENT.
OF THE END RESERVED FOR THE CITY OF THE DEVIL, NAMELY, THE ETERNALPUNISHMENT OF THE DAMNED; AND OF THE ARGUMENTS WHICH UNBELIEF BRINGS AGAINSTIT.
CHAP.1.--OF THE ORDER OF THE DISCUSSION, WHICH REQUIRES THAT WE FIRST SPEAK OF THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE LOSTIN COMPANY WITH THE DEVIL, AND THEN OF THE ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS.
I PROPOSE, with such ability as God may grant me, to discuss in this book more thoroughly the nature of the punishment which shall be assigned to the devil and all his retainers, when the two cities, the one of God, the other of the devil, shall have reached their proper ends through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Judge of quick and dead.And I have adopted this order, and preferred to speak, first of the punishment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the saints, because the body partakes of either destiny;and it seems to be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting torments than that they continue to exist without any pain in everlasting felicity.
Consequently, when I shall have demonstrated that that punishment ought not to be incredible, this will materially aid me in proving that which is much more credible, viz., the immortality of the bodies of the saints which are delivered from all pain.Neither is this order out of harmony with the divine writings, in which sometimes, indeed, the blessedness of the good is placed first, as in the words, "They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment;"(1) but sometimes also last, as, "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things which offend, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of His Father;"(2) and that, "These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal."(3) And though we have not room to cite instances, any one who examines the prophets will find that they adopt now the one arrangement and now the other.My own reason for following the latter order I have given.
CHAP.2.--WHETHER IT IS POSSIBLE FOR BODIESTO LAST FOR EVER IN BURNING FIRE.
What, then, can I adduce to convince those who refuse to believe that human bodies, animated and living, can not only survive death, but also last in the torments of everlasting fires? They will not allow us to refer this simply to the power of the Almighty, but demand that we persuade them by some example.If, then, we reply to them, that there are animals which certainly are corruptible, because they are mortal, and which yet live in the midst of flames; and likewise, that in springs of water so hot that no one can put his hand in it with impunity a species of worm is found, which not only lives there, but cannot live elsewhere; they either refuse to believe these facts unless we can show them, or, if we are in circumstances to prove them by ocular demonstration or by adequate testimony, they contend, with the same scepticism, that these facts are not examples of what we seek to prove, inasmuch as these animals do not live for ever, and besides, they live in that blaze of heat without pain, the element of fire being congenial to their nature, and causing it to thrive and not to suffer,--just as if it were not more incredible that it should thrive than that it should suffer in such circumstances.It is strange that anything should suffer in fire and yet live, but stranger that it should live in fire and not suffer.If, then, the latter be believed, why not also the former?
CHAP.3.--WHETHER BODILY SUFFERING NECESSARILYTERMINATES IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH.
But, say they, there is no body which can suffer and cannot also die.
How do we know this? For who can say with certainty that the devils do not suffer in their bodies, when they own that they are grievously tormented?
And if it is replied that there is no earthly body--that is to say, no solid and perceptible body, or, in one word, no flesh--which can suffer and cannot die, is not this to tell us only what men have gathered from experience and their bodily senses? For they indeed have no acquaintance with any flesh but thai which is mortal; and this is their whole argument, that what they have had no experience of they judge quite impossible.For we cannot call it reasoning to make pain a presumption of death, while, in fact, it is rather a sign of life.For though it be a question whether that which suffers can continue to live for ever, yet it is certain that everything which suffers pain does live, and that pain can exist only in a living subject.It is necessary, therefore, that he who is pained be living, not necessary that pain kill him; for every pain does not kill even those mortal bodies of ours which are destined to die.And that any pain kills them is caused by the circumstance that the soul is so connected with the body that it succumbs to great pain and withdraws; for the structure of our members and vital parts is so infirm that it cannot bear up against that violence which causes great or extreme agony.But in the life to come this connection of soul and body is of such a kind, that as it is dissolved by no lapse of time, so neither is it burst asunder by any pain.And so, although it be true that in this world there is no flesh which can suffer pain and yet cannot die, yet in the world to come there shall be flesh such as now there is not, as there will also be death such as now there is not.For death will not be abolished, but will be eternal, since the soul will neither be able to enjoy God and live, nor to die and escape the pains of the body.The first death drives the soul from the body against her will: the second death holds the soul in the body against her will.
The two have this in common, that the soul suffers against her will what her own body inflicts.
