born of these years of resistance to moral obligation to enable men the better to obey the voice of conscience? Have ages of impenitence, of doubting and denying retribution, of resisting and defying the divine tribunal, softened the hearts of the wicked into penitence, and awakened perception of the evil of sin and hatred of it as such, with genuine sorrow that the authority of God has been slighted and his goodness abused? If the sentence of all were alike just, then such second probation should be granted to Satan and his angels not less than to wicked men. The probability of repentance in one case is no greater than in the other, and in neither case is there the slightest likelihood of godly sorrow for sin. If they did not have light enough in the first instance, they should never have been sentenced. If they spurned all possible motive and light during their first probation, which was made up of as many probations as there were years or months, or even days and hours, then it is too much to hope that, with weakened moral natures and the habit of impenitence, they will avail themselves of any number of probations. Sin is choice and choice is character. The character is alike fixed and proven by the persistency of the evil choice. Each has gone to his own place, the place of his own deliberate choice.

Only one thing remains to be done, if the Almighty, for the sake of a weak and nerveless sentimentalism, would seek to purge the universe of the hell originally prepared for the Devil and his angels. If its penal fires cannot reform the wicked and produce godly sorrow for sin, or if their cessation during a period of a second probation cannot avail because a weakened moral sense no longer responds to the spectacle of a once crucified Redeemer, then, despairing of all hope of changing their moral natures, shall God proclaim a universal amnesty, regardless of the character of the wicked or of the consequences to the righteous? Perish the thought that destroys heaven even more than hell! It would turn heaven into pandemonium and in anticipation would topple every government of earth. This is the wild vision of anarchy! No, even then could not endless punishment be destroyed, as these wretched and self-condemned spirits,

whether angels or men, gazing upon whatever of happiness or purity is left in the universe, would severally cry,

"Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and Infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And, in the lowest deep, a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven."

E.R. Her drip.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GOD'S VERACITY THE BASIS OF CATHOLIC DOGMA AND BELIEF; THE DOGMA IN THIS CASE IS THAT THERE IS A HELL,

OR STATE OF ETERNAL CONDEMNATION.

The Latin "Infernus," with its Hebrew and Greek Equivalents, Denotes the Eternal Abode of Angels and Men Excluded from Heaven.-Sin the Cause of this Deprivation. The Penalty is Never-Ending, because the Subjects of it are Immortal.-All Penalties Proportioned to Demerit.—Angels Constituted in a State of Probation to Win or Lose the Higher Beatitude.-The Human Race Similarly Constituted.—The Kingdom of Heaven Forfeited by Original Sin.-Christ Reopens the Door of the Kingdom, with Probation for Each and All.-Such Probation Ends with this Earthly Life in the Body.—Original Sin, in the Case of Infants, the Cause of Exclusion from Heaven.-Rigid View of Original Sin.-Milder and More Common View.-Punishment of Actual Sin.-The Rigid View.-Milder Views of some Theologians.-Mitigation or Partial Condonation Advocated by some Theologians.-Views of the Greeks.-Theory of St. Gregory of Nyssa.-St. Augustine on the Good which Remains in the Reprobate.

By the Very Rev. AUGUSTINE F. HEWIT, D.D., Roman Catholic, Superior of the Paulist Institute, New York, Author of Problems of the Age, etc.

WHAT I propose in the present paper is, chiefly, to explain what is taught in the system of dogmatic theology derived from the Fathers and the great Latin schoolmen, respecting the essential dogma of Catholic faith, in regard to eternal punishment. This exposition will, however, lead to some consideration of various doctrinal commentaries upon the essential dogma, and of certain aspects of Greek theology.

The criterion by which dogmas of Catholic faith are determined is the clear and distinct teaching of the Church that the respective doctrines are revealed truths, and therefore to be firmly believed, by divine faith in the veracity of God.

The Catholic dogma is simply and strictly this, no less, and no