ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH. 347 draft of our Articles, in the reign of Edward VI., one was introduced, the XLII., which declared "That they also are worthy of condemnation who endeavour at this time to restore the dangerous opinion, that all men, be they never so ungodly, shall at length be saved, when they have suffered pain for their sins a certain time appointed by God's justice:" and it is true, as Mr. Maurice observes, that when the Articles came to be revised in the time of Queen Elizabeth, this Article, the XLII., was struck out. We allow the full force of the argument which Mr. Maurice founds upon it, that the members of the Church of England have perfect freedom on this subject. The doctrine of purgatory, viz., "That there is a purgatorial fire, in which the souls of the pious, having been tortured for a stated time, receive expiation," had been already condemned in the XXII. Article. The XLII. was, therefore, not aimed at this dogma of the Romish faith, and it is obvious that it had in view other opinions which were then prevalent, with reference, not to the pious, but to the wicked. We may admit, therefore, and it is an important admission, and one to which we are willing to allow full weight, that in the subsequent revision of our Articles in the time of Queen Elizabeth, the compilers of those Articles, while condemning the unscriptural and mischievous doctrine, that the pious undergo a purgatorial fire or expiatory punishment, thought it advisable not to include the doctrine of the endless punishment of the wicked amongst the essential Articles of our faith. But does this affect Scripture? While, therefore, acceding to this view that the point is left unsettled by our Articles, we entirely concur with the same writer, to whom we have just referred, in thinking that the omission was made by persons who probably were strong in the belief that the punishment of wicked men is endless. Many reasons might exist which would render it unadvisable for the framers of a rule of faith to enforce that opinion upon the Church at large. And indeed, in a matter of such awful moment, who would not instinctively shrink from assigning any absolute limit to the possibilities of God's mercy which He had not assigned? But, notwithstanding this silence on their part, all must agree that the warnings and threatenings which continually occur in the Scriptures on this subject, however little we may be able to realize their full import, or bring them within the range of exact definition, are fearfully significant. Scripture and reason, too, so far as it is within the province of reason, seem to point with an alarming certainty and clearness to the condition of the wicked after death as a state of torment, literal, endless, unalterable, everlasting; unalterable, that is, in kind, though it may not be so in degree. Reason, indeed, seems to point to the misery of the lost as of necessity continually increasing in degree and in intensity. Consider the progressive nature of man, for good or for evil. Man appears, so far as we can gather from our natural reason and experience, to have faculties improvable to an indefinite extent. The Sacred Writings, too, seem to point to a capacity in man for an indefinite advancement, a continually progressive approximation throughout eternity to the Divine nature. "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one,"* is the expression of our Lord Jesus in His last prayer on earth for His followers. And St. John, in his First General Epistle, writes to the faithful in these striking terms: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure."† Man cannot be stationary in his future any more than in his present state of being, but from his very nature must go onward. If, then, reason and Scripture alike point to a continually progressive development of the higher faculties of man, may there not be, must there not be, in the abodes of the lost, a like development of evil? Is there a less activity in the principle of evil than in the principle of good? And must we not suppose in the unseen world of lost spirits, a like progressive development of evil, a like progressive assimilation between the children of the Evil One, and the master whom they follow? And how solemn is the warning of the Preacher, “That there is no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." No! the change must be made here. "As the tree falleth, so shall it lie.” "The time is at hand." Then, "he that is unjust let him be unjust still, he that is filthy let him be filthy still, he that is righteous let him be righteous still, he that is holy let him be holy still."§ The authority of the early Church, alike with reason and Scripture, point to future punishments as endless. St. Athanasius comes to the conclusion that the punishment of the wicked can have no end, observing, with respect to *John xvii. 11. † 1 John iii. 2. Eccles. ? Rev. xxii. 11. Judas Iscariot, that if he were at last to reach heaven, even though it were after a term of punishment, it could hardly be said of him with truth, "Good were it for that man if he had never been born."* St. Augustine, too, speaks of future punishments, as enduring not for a hundred, or tens of thousands of years only, but throughout the endless ages of eternity.† He speaks also of these punishments as continuing without mitigation or abatement, and refers to the instance of the rich man who craved in vain even for a drop of water to cool his tongue. It is the general belief, not only of the early Church, but also of our most eminent divines since the Reformation. The concurrence of opinion on this subject, among writers in every age of the Church, is almost universal. Against this weight of testimony, what reliance can be placed on those few passages in the Old Testament in which such expressions as " for ever" and "everlasting" occur, where it is conceded they do not import endless duration? as in the Book of Exodus xxi. 6, Moses, speaking of the Hebrew servant whose ear has been bored by his master, says, "He shall serve him for ever." And in the same Book (xii. 14), in allusion to the Passover, "Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever;" and in v. 17, in reference to another ceremony under the Levitical law, "Ye shall observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever;" in all which and other like passages || the context shows that these expressions do not mean absolute eternity, and from the very nature of the ceremonies and things spoken of, they cannot have continuance beyond the period of man's present existence. So where Horace says of the unsatisfied man, "Serviet æternum qui parvo nesciet uti," ""the man who cannot be content with little will be ever a slave;" that is, obviously, all his life long, or as long as a slavish condition can have continuance. The termination of the state is co-extensive with the termination of his being. It is that continuance, as observed by St. Augustine, "cujus rei finis non constituitur," and is, therefore, endless, by lasting as long as the subject of which it is predicated, though * Mar. xiv. 21. + Intolerabiles poenas non centum annorum non millies mille, sed omnium sine fine seculorum. 9 Aug. 811. Sed tolerabiliorem quosdam excepturos damnationem in quorumdam comparatione legimus; alicujus vero mitigari eam qui est traditus pœnam, vel quilusdam intervallis habere aliquam pausam, quis audacter dixerit, quando quidem unam stillam dives ille non meruit? 8 Aug. 1235. See also Gen. xiii. 15; Gen. xvii. 8; Numb. xix. 10; Numb. xviii. 8; Lev. xvi. 34. VOL. XLI. A A not eternal. But how do these phrases tend to abridge the more extended scope and meaning of the like expressions when applied to the soul which has a never-ending existence?* Does it escape these modern speculators who, against such a chain of evidence, rely on mere subtleties and verbal criticisms, propounding vain theories and guesses as to future successive stages or phases of existence, after the manner of the Pythagorean transmigration of souls, that their argument goes directly to shake all belief in an eternity of happiness; and that the same identical forms of expression are applied to both states of existence, that of the righteous as well as that of the wicked? If we have no certainty that the one state is everlasting, what certainty have we as to the other? Whether, then, eternity be measurable or not by periods or stages, or whether it be indefinite, illimitable extension, we see nothing before us but endless duration; a duration or existence absolutely without change. Those who hold the contrary, do, in fact, impute to the Gracious Creator and Author of our being, that He could have given the sinner now, at once, some means of escape and deliverance, but that He would not do it. For endless burnings cannot surely atone for sin which was unatoned for by Christ; wherefore, then, should they be inflicted at all, if their duration is only for a time? Granted that God has provided a means whereby all men might be saved, it must, nevertheless, be in that way which He has provided. "There is no other name given under Heaven among men, whereby we must be saved." It is charging God foolishly, and impeaching His wisdom, and goodness, and love to say that He could have done more for us, but that He has not done it. Man was designed not for misery, but for happiness: his Maker endowed him originally with all that was necessary to ensure that happiness. When by his own wilful act of disobedience he fell, the prepared remedy was at hand. When the fulness of time was come, the decreed plan was developed and consummated. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” “He spared not his own Son, but freely gave him up for us all.” If, therefore, the sinner is lost, he is lost because he has rejected the offered mercy. It will not be God's will or decree which arbitrarily consigns him to endless torment, but his own wilful sin in despising the Saviour. No; there is a * 2 Thess. i. 9; Matt. xxv. 41-46; Heb. vi. 2; Isaiah xxxiii. 14; Jude vi. 7; Heb ix. 12; 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. FRENCH LITERATURE. 351 salvation full, sufficient, free, but it must be received on God's terms, not man's. And because thousands wilfully and obstinately refuse to accept it on God's terms, where lies the fault? Shall man blame God for this, or charge Him with being the Author of his ruin? Were he to do so, surely every created thing, whether animate or inanimate, whether angel or devil would whisper " Calvary!" Besides, is man the creature to bring forward this accusation? Man made a little lower than the angels, who were yet passed by in Christ's redemption work, while man's sinful nature was laid hold of? Surely he is the last to accuse God of harshness, or injustice, or tyranny. But the fact is this, so that souls are lost, it matters little to Satan how; so that they reject the offered salvation, he cares not why: and the sinner foolishly suffers himself to be thus blinded by the God of this world. But no objection, no argument, no sophistry will ultimately avail; for, so sure as God's Word is true, so surely shall the hard-hearted, impenitent sinner, who has rejected all offers, and despised all warning, hear the awful and never-to-be-recalled words, "Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." ART. VI.-French Minstrels and Trouvères. Bibliothéque Elzèirvienne de M. P. Jannet. WE are now beginning to understand that the works of Boileau, Racine, Voltaire, Rosseau, and Montesquieu, do not comprise the whole cycle of French literature; and although elegant extracts still continue to propose to us as models, and we may add, very justly so, the "repas ridicule," the "Monologue de la Mort d'Hippolyte," and the "Exordium of the Funeral Oration of the Queen of England," they add in from time to time, as new editions of them are required, scraps, fragments, paragraphs, and other tit-bits from authors, whose names, at the utmost, were, not many years ago, all that we knew about them. Children in boarding-schools, whilst "Pour un très grand nombre de personnes et de personnes instruites-la littérature Française se compose des ouvrages d'une vingtaine d'auteurs du dixseptiéme siècle et du dix-huitiéme; la poésie Française commence avec Boileau, le théâtre avec Corneille, le roman avec Le Sage."-M. Jannet. |