DISCOURSE XIII. 291 this objection pretends. Those who will look into their writings will find abundant evidence, that most of them talk of eternal punishment by fire in the very words and language of the New Testament, sod in direct opposition to this doctrine of temporal punishments in hell. I shall cite but two writers, one of which is the very earliest of the fathers, an acquaintance of St. Paul, and that is Clemens the Roman, who in the eighth section of his second epistle says thus : " Let us therefore repent whilst we are yet upon the earth : For we are as clay in the hand of the artificer. For as the pot- ter, if he make a vessel, and it he distorted in his hands, or bro- ken, again forms it a -new ; but if he path gone so far as to throw it into the furnace of fire, lie can no more bring any remedy to it: So we, whilst we are in this world, should repent with our whole heart for whatsoever evil we have done in the flesh; while we have yet the time of repentance, that we may be saved by the Lord. For after we shall have departed out of this world, we shall no longer he able either to confess our sins, or repent in the other." The English reader may find this in Archbishop Wake's Translation of the most Primitive Fathers. Justin Martyr, who is also one of the most early writers, in the eighth section of his " First Apology," tells us " that Plato teaches that Rhadamanthus and Minos punished the unrighteou,s who came before them ; and that we Christians say the same thing will be done, but it is by Christ ; when their bodies are joined with their souls, and they shall be punished with eternal punishment, and not for the period of a thousand yeitrs,only, as Plato said." This same writer also, in very many places of his works, talks of eternal punishment, and of punishment for an endless age, and eternal fire, with eternal sensation or pain. Irenaeus also after him, as well as Ignatius and Polycarp before him, speak of this fire which is not to be quenched, and of death and punishment, not temporal, but eternal. So that it is really an imposition upon unlearned readers to pretend, that the doctrine which denies the eternity of the punishments of hell, was the common sense of the primitive fathers, though it is granted that Origen and some others might he of this opinion. To conclude ; since the word has expressly assured us, that these punishments of sinful men shall be eternal, it is not for us to hearken to any other doctrines, and neglect what God has said, nor is it fit for us to dispute the wisdom and justice of di- vine conduct, nor to impeach his goodness. Let God be true; thougli every man be a liar ; ROM. iii. 4. let God be wise though every man be a fool ; let God be just and righteous in
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