Universalism asserted : on the authority of reason, the Fathers, & Holy Scripture

Preface

The question of questions to which an answer is attempted in the following pages, is essentially this, can Evil triumph finally over Good ? If we answer affirmatively with the popular creed, we are practically falling into Dualism ; if we reply negatively, we are teaching Universalism. Such are the issues really involved. The more often and the more clearly this is stated as the turning point of the entire controversy about the larger hope, the better for those who write,- and for these whoread. The Calvinist settled this question by, ,.in i fact, . affirming that if evil triumphs, it is because God so orders, i.e., because God decrees to evil an eternal existence ; thus saving or trying to save God's omnipotence, but at no less a cost than that of blackening His character, nay, of virtually making Him a partner in evil. But the popular creed saves neither the omnipotence of God, nor yet preserves His character. Sin, the one thing most utterly hateful in His sight, He tolerates for ever and ever, poisoning and defiling His works, and defying His power — satisfied, if in this brief life he cannot' have obedien^e-and righteousness — satisfied with endless disobedience and sin hereafter ! He appears before all creation as trying to dislodge sin. only to fail ; as sending His Divine Son to save all men in order that He may return rejected, baffled, vanquished. And so the curtain falls on the great drama of creation and redemption, presenting such a picture as this — a baffled Saviour, a victorious Devil, a ruined creation, sin triumphant — and so to continue for ever— a heaven wholly base (p. 42), a hell wholly miserable. Strong as these iv.

PREFACE.

words are, they are not strong enough, for the horrors and the contradictions of the popular creed alike defy description. / And these horrors are taught, these contradictions are believed in the face of the plainest teaching of God's two revelations, His primary revelation to our moral sense, His written revelation in Holy Scripture. Of the former and its teachings, it is needless to speak here ; of the latter I have spoken at some length, and have tried to shew that from its first page to its last the Bible is the story of one who is our Father — one whose ' wrath,' and ' fire,' and ' judgement,' are at once most real, and yet one and all are the expressions of that essential Love which He is— One who being Almighty is sending His Son to assured victory, to reconcile to Himself, all things, 4 whatsoever and wheresoever they be.' I know how eagerly men strive to save the popular creed by various modifications, by diminishing the number of the lost, by softening their torments, by asserting their annihilation, &c. What are all these but so many tacit confessions that men everywhere feel it impossible to maintain the creed still generally professed? What are they but in fact so many vain attempts to disguise the awful fact of God's defeat, to hide if it may be the victory of the Evil One ? For so long as sin lingers in a single heart, so long as a single child of the Great Parent perishes eternally, whether annihilated, or sent to Hell, so long is the Cross a failure, and the Devil ctSoccS practically -victor.

In deference to the wishes of friends, I have taken advantage of issuing a new edition to change the title of this volume, for one expressing more clearly its purpose. I may, perhaps, add that the present edition has been, not alone most carefully revised, but very considerably enlarged, and, indeed, in some parts wholly re-written, especially those dealing with the patristic evidence.

FATHERS AND EARLY WRITERS QUOTED.

PAGE.

Anselm . . 109

Archelaus. 82

Arnobius 103

Athanasius 178

Athanasius (?) 80

Athenagoras 85

Chrysostom 80 178

Clemens (Romanus) . . . . . .78

Clement (of Alexandria) . . 82 85 102 103 204

Cyprian .80

Cyril (of Alexandria) 81 dorotheus . 81

DURANDUS i . 109

Gregory (Thaumaturgus) 87

205 216 220 225 231 248

„ (of Nazianzus) 80 89

(The Great) 79

Erigena J. Scotus 109

Hermas . 103

Hilary 1 (The Deacon). See Ambrosiaster.

FATHERS AND EARLY WRITERS QUOTED.

Page.

Justin Martyr 103

„ Apostles 100

„ Armenian ..... 99

„ Chrysostom . . . . . 99

?J Ethiopic 100

James 100

Malabar 99

„ Maruthas . . . . . 99

Nicodemus (Gospel of) . . . . 79 80

Rufinus 87 92

Tertullian 204

Theodore (of Mopsnestia^ .... 94

Titus (of Bostra) . . \ ' . . . . 89

Sibylline Oracles 86

Victorinus F. Marius 87

ERRATA

Page 78. For "Clement" read "Clemens."

„ 80. The treatise Be unci. Christ, belongs to a later age than S. Cyprian.

,, „ The passage quoted from Be myst. Pasch.

is from S. Ambrose and not from Ambrosiaster, to whom the passage assigned to S. Ambrose on p. 81 belongs. Of the two passages assigned to S. Gregory the last is not his.

„ 109. For "Durandas" read "Durandus."

„ 238. Add the following after the words "mercy to everyone:" — "Thus, too, light falls on the remarkable words of Scripture, ' The law entered that the offence might abound,' and so the law is ' our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ' "

,, 253. Omit " in third and fourth lines.

" THE QUESTION STATED."

Chapter 1. The Question Stated

" Shall notthe judge of all the earth do right." — Gax. xviii. 25.

What am I but the creature Thou hast made ?

What have I but the blessings Thou hast lent ?

What hope I but Thy mercy and Thy love ? * *

Thou wilt not hold in scorn the child who dares

Look up to Thee, the Father. * * * O. W. Holmes.

1, The following pages are written under the pressure of a deep conviction, that the views generally held, as to the future punishment of the ungodly, wholly fail to satisfy the plain statements of Holy Scripture. The popular creed has maintained itself on a Scriptural basis solely, I believe, by hardening into dogma mere figures of oriental imagery ; by mistranslations and misconceptions of the sense of the original (to which our Authorised Version largely contributes) ; and finally, by completely ignoring a vast body of evidence in favour of the salvation of all men, furnished, as will be shewn, by very numerous passages of the New Testament, no less than by the great principles that pervade the teaching of all Revelation. Again, I write, because persuaded, that however loudly asserted

THE QUESTION STATED. S and widely held, the popular belief is at best a Tradition — is not an Article of Faith in the Catholic Church — is taught in no Creed — is accepted by no General Council, nay is distinctly opposed to the views of not a few of the holiest and wisest Fathers of the Church, in primitive times ; who, in so teaching, expressed the belief of very many, if not the majority, of Christians in their days.

2. Further, I write, because deeply and painfully convinced of the very serious mischief which has been, and is being produced by the views generally held. They in fact tend, as nothing else ever has, to cause, I had almost said, to justify, the scepticism now so widely spread; they effect this because they so utterly conflict with any conception we can form of common justice and equity.

3. Therefore of mercy I shall say little in these pages : it is enough to appeal, when speaking of moral considerations, to that sense of Right and Wrong which is God's voice speaking within us. Indeed, among the many misconceptions with which all higher views of the Gospel are assailed, few are more unfounded, than that which asserts, that thus God's justice is forgotten in the prominence assigned to His mercy. This objection merely shews a complete misapprehension of the views here advocated. •For these views do in fact appeal to, and by this appeal recognise, first of all, the justice of God.

THE QUESTION STATED.

It is precisely the sense of natural equity which God has planted within us, that the popular belief in endless torment most deeply wounds.

4. And these considerations are in fact a complete answer to some other objections often heard. " Why disturb men's minds," it is said, " why unsettle their faith, why not let well alone ?" By all means, I reply, let well alone, but never let ill alone. Men's minds are already disturbed: it is because they are already disturbed, that we would calm them, and would restore the doubters to faith, by pointing them to a larger hope, to a truer Christianity. A graver objection arises, but like the former wholly without foundation in fact. It is said, " By this larger hope you, in fact, either weaken "or wholly remove all belief in future punish- " ment. You explain away the guilt of sin." The very opposite is surely the truth, for you establish future punishment, and with it that sense of the reality of sin (to which conscience testifies) on a firm basis, only when you teach a plan of retribution, which is itself reasonable and credible. A penalty which to our reason and moral sense seems shocking, and monstrous, loses all force as a threat. It has ever been thus in the case of human punishments. And so in the case of Hell. Outwardly believed it has ceased to touch the conscience or greatly to influence the life of Christians. To the mass of men it has become a name and little more (not

THE QUESTION STATED.

seldom a jest).; to the sceptic it lias furnished the choicest of his weapons; to the man of science a mark for loathing and scorn : while, alas, to many a sad and drooping heart, who longs to follow Christ more closely, it is the chief woe and burden of life. But the conscience, when no longer wounded by extravagant dogmas, is most ready to acquiesce in any measure of retribution (how sharp soever it be) which yet does not shock the moral sense, and conflict with its deepest convictions. And so the larger hope most fully recognises at once the guilt of sin, and the need of fitting retribution : nay, it may be claimed for it, that it alone places both on a firm and solid basis, by bringing them into harmony with the verdict of reason, of conscience, and of Holy Scripture.

5. It is better now for clearness sake, to define that popular view of future punishment, of which I shall often speak. It is briefly this : That God will after death pass on the ungodly a sentence of endless pain, of endless torments; that from this suffering there is no hope of escape; that of this torment there is no possible alleviation. That when your imagination has called up a series of ages, in apparently endless succession, all these ages of pain and of agony, undergone by the lost, have diminished theii cap of suffering by not so much as one single drop ; their pain is then no nearer ending than before. Those who hold this terrible doctrine to be a part

THE QUESTION STATED.

of the " glad tidings of great joy " to men from their Father in Heaven, differ indeed as to the number of the finally lost : some make them to be a majority of mankind, some a minority. Now it may be gravely questioned whether there can be any doubt at all from their point of view on this head. I 1 'or the texts on which they rely seem, to most minds, if they teach the popular creed at all, to teach, just as clearly, that the lost shall be the majority of men. " Many are called "but few are chosen." " Fear not little flock." " Narrow is the way that leadeth to life and few " there be that find it." " With most of them, " God was not well pleased." Indeed, it seems perfectly clear that the popular view requires us to believe in the final loss of the vast majority of our race. For it is only the truly converted in this life (as it asserts) who reach Heaven ; and it is beyond all fair question, that of professing Christians only a small portion are truly converted; to say nothing of the myriads and myriads of those who have died in Paganism. But even waiving this point, the objections to the popular creed are in no way really lightened by our belief, as to the relative numbers of the lost and the saved. The real difficulty consists in the infliction of any such penalty, and not in the number who are doomed to it. Nor need we forget how inconceivably vast must be that number, on the most lenient hypothesis. Take the lowest estimate ; and when you remember the innumerable mvriads of our race who have passed away — those now living — and those yet unborn — it becomes clear that the number of the lost must be something in its vastness defying all calculation ; and of these, all, be it remembered, children of the great Parent — all made in His image — all redeemed by the life blood of His dear Sox ; and all shut up for ever and ever (words, of whose awful meaning, no man has, or can have, the very faintest conception) in blackness of darkness, in despair, and in the company of devils.

6. Let me next shew what this Hell of the popular creed really means, so far as human words can dimly convey its horrors, and for this purpose I subjoin the following extracts — one from a Roman Catholic divine, one from Dr. Pusf.y, and one from Mr. Spurgeon. " Little " child, if you go to Hell there will be a devil " at your side to strike you. He will go on " striking you every minute for ever and ever " without stopping. The first stroke will make " your body as bad as the body of Job, " covered, from head to foot, with sores and " ulcers. The second stroke will make your " body twice as bad as the body of Job. The " third stroke will make your body three times " as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke " will make your body four times as bad as the "body of Job. How, then, will your body be " after the devil has been striking it every " moment for a hundred million of years without

THE QUESTION STATED.

" stopping. " Perhaps at this moment, seven " o'clock in the evening, a child is just going " into Hell. To-morrow evening, at seven " o'clock, go and knock at the gates of Hell and " ask what the child is doing. The devils will " go and look. They will come back again and " say, the child is burning. Go in a week and " ask what the child is doing ; you will get the " same answer, it is burning. Go in a year and " ask, the same answer comes — it is burning. "Go in a million of years and ask the same " question ; the answer is just the same — it is " burning. So if you go for ever and ever, "you will always get the same answer it is " burning in the fire." — The Sight of Hell, Rev. J. Furniss, C.S.S.R. "Gather in one, in your " mind, an assembly of all those men or " women, from whom, whether in history or in "fiction, your memory most shrinks, gather in " mind all that is most loathsome, most revolt- " ing * * * conceive the fierce fiery eyes of " hate, spite, frenzied rage, ever fixed on thee, " looking thee through and through with hate " * * * * hear those yells of blaspheming, " concentrated hate as they echo along the lurid " vault of Hell ; every one hating every one " * * * Yet a fixedness in that state in " which the hardened malignant sinner dies, " involves, without any further retribution of " God, this endless misery." — Sermon by the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. " " When thou diest " thy soul will be tormented alone ; that will

THE QUESTION STATED.

.9

''be a Hell for it : but at the Day of Judgment " thy body will join thy soul, and then Thou " wilt have twin Hells, thy soul sweating drops " of blood, and thy body suffused with agony. "In fire, exactly like that we have on earth, " thy body will lie, asbestos like, for ever " unconsumed, all thy veins roads for the feet of " pain to travel on, every nerve a string, on " which the Devil shall for ever play his dia- " bolical tune of Hell's unutterable lament." — Sermon on the Resurrection of the Dead, by Rev. C. H. Spurgeox. Awful as are these quotations, I must repeat, that they give no adequate idea at all of the horrors of Hell ; for that which is the very sting of its terrors — their unendingness — is beyond our power really to conceive, even approximately : so totally incommensurable are the ideas of time and of eternity.

7. But it will be said, we no longer believe in a material Hell — no longer teach a lake of real fire. I might well ask, on your theory of interpreting Scripture, what right have you so to teach? But let me rather welcome this change of creed, so far as it is a sign of an awakening moral sense. Yet, this plea, in mitigation of the horror your doctrines inspire, cannot be admitted ; for when you offer for acceptance a spiritual, rather than a material flame, who is there that cannot see that the real difficulty is the same, whether you suppose man's body burned or his spirit tortured ? It may be even maintained, fairly, that a Hell which torments the higher part, is rather an aggravated than a mitigated penalty.

8. Merely to state this doctrine in any form, is to refute it for very many minds. So deeply does it wound, what is best and holiest in us ; indeed, as I shall try to show further on, it is, for all practical purposes, found incredible, even by those who honestly profess to believe it. This terrible difficulty, felt and acknowledged in all ages, has been largely met for the Roman Catholic, by the doctrine of Purgatory, which became developed as the belief in endless torment, gradually supplanted that earlier and better faith, which alone finds expression in the two really Catholic and Ancient Creeds, faith in Everlasting Life. How immense must have been the relief thus afforded, is evident, when we remember that the least sorrow, however imperfect, the very slightest desire for reconciliation with God, though deferred to the last moment of existence, was believed to free the dying sinner from the pains of Hell, no matter how aggravated his sins may have been. Among the Reformed Communions this difficulty was met, no doubt, by a silent incredulity — often unconscious — vet ever increasing, on the part of the great majority ; indeed, some divines, have at all times, both in England and on the Continent, openly avowed their disbelief in endless torments. This growing incredulity has found, in our day, open expression, in a remarkable theory, that of Conditional

THE QUESTION STATED.

Immortality (itself a revival of an earlier belief). This doctrine, briefly stated, teaches that man is naturally mortal, that only in Jesus Christ is immortality conferred on the righteous — that the ungodly shall be judged, and after due punishment, annihilated.

9. Of this dogma I shall at once say, that, while it degrades man, it fails to vindicate God. A writer, whose words I am glad to adopt, speaks of it as " that most wretched and cowardly of all " theories, which supposes the soul to be natur- " ally mortal, and that God will resuscitate the " wicked to torment them for a time and then " finally extinguish them. I can see no ground "for this view in Scripture but in mistaken "interpretations, and it does not meet the real " difficulty at all, for it supposes that evil has in " such cases finally triumphed, and that God " had no resource but to punish and extinguish " it : which is essentially the very difficulty felt " by the sceptical mind. I have called it cowardly, " for it surrenders the true nobility of man, his " natural immortality, in a panic at an objection, " and like all cowardice, fails in securing safety." — Donellan Lectures, p. 31, Rev. Dr. Quarry. Besides, this theory has evidently the character of a makeshift, an afterthought. The conscience has been shocked by the popular creed, and has taken refuge in the first shelter that offered. Men have seen death and destruction repeatedly denounced in the Bible as the sinner's doom, and

THE QUESTION STATED.

they conclude, contrary to the whole spirit of Holy Scripture, that death, in its pages, implies annihilation. But this view is, in the case of the Old Testament, quite unfounded ; for earthly destruction is all that the expressions, there relied on, really teach; and in the case of the New Testament is completely inadequate : because, there, death and destruction have a far wider significance, and one far deeper. Nay, as I hope to point out, there is in New Testament usage a deep spiritual connection between death and life ; death becomes the path to, and the condition of, life.

10. Another view adopted by a number, probably extremely large, and increasing, differs altogether from that last stated. Those who hold it have had their eyes opened to the fact, that the New Testament contains very many long neglected texts which teach the salvation of all men. They have also learned enough to have their faith gravely shaken in the popular interpretation of the texts usually quoted in proof of endless pain. The theory of conditional immortality fails to satisfy such men. They see that it is altogether unsuccessful in meeting the real difficulty of the popular creed, i.e., the triumph of evil over good, of Satan over the Saviour of man, and therefore over God. They perceive, too, the narrow and arbitrary basis on which it rests in appealing to Holy Scripture. And so they decline to entertain it as any solu-

THE QUESTION STATED.

IB tion of the question, and say, " We are not able " to accept any theory definitely of the future of " man, because we do not see that anything has "been clearly revealed. Enough has been dis- " closed to shew to us that God is love, and we u are content to believe, that happen what will, " all will ultimately be shewn to be the result of " love divine."

11. It is impossible to avoid sympathy with much of this view at first sight, but only then; for when closely examined it is seen to be open to the charge of grave ambiguity or far worse. It may mean that in the future God will act as a loving human parent would, and then I reply, this is precisely the larger hope. Again, it may mean a very different and very dangerous thing. It may mean that at the last my ideas of right and wrong will undergo a complete change — that the things which I now pronounce with the fullest conviction to be cruel and vile will at that day seem to me righteous and just, and that thus God will be fully justified though He inflict endless torment. But take this statement to pieces and see what it really means. It means, in effect, practical Atheism. It means blank Agnosticism. This is easily shewn. For what this view really tells me is that my deepest moral convictions are wholly worthless, because that which they declare to be cruel and revolting, is right and holy, and will so appear at the last. But if this be so, then I have lost mv sole measure of ris;ht and wrono-.

THE QUESTION STATE!).

What is truth or goodness, I know not. Religion, therefore, is impossible. Conscience ceases to be a reliable guide. Revelation is a mere blank, for all revelation pre- supposes the trustworthiness of that moral sense to which it is addressed. Thus the above plea, plausible as it seems, is wholly ambiguous, and does in fact lead either to the larger hope or to mere unbelief.

12. In opposition to both these theories stand the views here advocated, which have been always held by some in the Catholic Church, nay, which represent, I believe, most nearly its primitive teaching. These views are, I know, now widely held by the learned, the devout, and the thoughtful in our own and in other Communions. Briefly stated, they amount to this : — That we have ample warrant, alike from reason — from the observed facts and analogies of human life — from our best and truest moral instincts — and from Holy Scripture itself, to entertain a firm hope that God our Father's design and purpose is, and has ever been, to save every child of Adam's race.

Chapter II. "the Popular Greed Wholly Untenable."

* ' These questions * * educated men and women of all classes ' 4 and denominations, are asking, and will ask more and more till ' ' they receive an answer. And if we of the clergy cannot give " them an answer, which accords with their conscience and reason " * * then evil times will come, both for the clergy and the "Christian religion, for many a year henceforth." — Canon Kingsley — Water of Life.

" The answer which the popular theology has been tendering for "centuries past will not be accepted much longer * * I disclaim "any desire to uphold that theology which I have never aided in ' : propagating." — Rev. Dr. Littledale — Contemporary Review.

The next step will be to state, more in detail the various considerations that render it impossible to accept the popular view of future punishment. My first appeal shall be to that primary revelation of Himself, which God has implanted in the heart and conscience of man. I am merely expressing the deepest and most mature, though often unspoken, convictions of millions of earnest Christian men and women, when I assert, that to reconcile the popular creed, or any similar belief in Hell, with the most elementary ideas of justice, equity, and goodness (not even to mention mercy), is wholly and absolutely impossible. Thus this belief destroys the only ground on which it is possible to erect any religion at all, for it sets aside the primary convictions of the moral sense ; and thus paralyses that, by which alone we are capable of religion. If God be not good, just, and true, in the human acceptation of these terms, then the whole basis of revelation vanishes. For if God be not good in our human sense of the w T ord, I have no guarantee that He is true in our sense of truth. If what is called goodness in God in the Bible, should prove to be that which we call badness in man, then how can I be assured that, what is called truth in God, may not really be that which in man is called falsehood? Thus no valid communication — no revelation — from God to man is possible ; for no reliance can, on this view, be placed on His veracity.

"We dare not," says the Bishop of London, " Let go the truth, that the holiness, the good- " ness, the justice, the righteousness, which the " eternal moral law imposes on us as a supreme " command, are identical in essential substance" "in our minds and in His." — Bampt. Led. " We dare not?" Why? Precisely because, if we do, the foundations of religion collapse — perishing as the moral order perishes. Mere Scepticism is our sole refuge. We have lost our standard of right and wrong and are wandering in a pathless desert, creedless, homeless, hopeless, mocked all the while by phantoms of virtues

WHOLLY U XT EX ABLE.

that are probably vices, and of vices that are probably virtues. For let me repeat that if goodness in becoming infinite turns into evil — if infinite love may be consistent with what we call cruelty — then, for aught we know truth may turn into falsehood, justice into flagrant wrong, light into darkness. Yes, Ave dare not let go the truth that in our moral nature we have a true revelation of the divine mind, i.e., that the ideas of right and wrong are in their essence the same in our minds and in God's — that they are true universally ; as true beyond the grave as here and now. But if so, then that which so flatly contradicts all our deepest moral convictions, as does the dogma of endless sin and pain fa dogma which, however softened, no imaginable hypothesis can reconcile with either justice or mercy) must be absolutely false, and in teaching it we are but libelling God.

" All the attempts yet made," says a stern moralist, " to reconcile this doctrine " with divine justice and mercy, are calcu- " la ted to make us blush alike for the human " heart that can strive to justify such a creed, " and for the human intellect that can delude " itself into a belief that it has succeeded in such "justification." No less emphatic is the testimony of one who, far beyond others, seemed in his daily life to have caught the spirit of Jesus Christ. " Nothing," says the late Gen. Gordon,