• Introduction - To the American Reader
• Preface to the Fifth Edition
• Author's Preface
• CHAPTER 1. Future Punishment Is Eternal.
• CHAPTER 2. Eternal Death
• CHAPTER 3. Testimony Of The Old Testament.
• CHAPTER 4. Testimony Of The New Testament.
• CHAPTER 5. The Greek Of The New Testament.
• CHAPTER 6. The Primary Sense Of Terms Vindicated.
• CHAPTER 7. The Illustrations Of Scripture.
• CHAPTER 8. The Resurrection Of The Wicked.
• CHAPTER 9. The Divine Justice.
• CHAPTER 10. The Extinction Of Evil.
• CHAPTER 11. Examination Of Particular Texts.
• CHAPTER 12. Distinctions In Future Punishment.
• CHAPTER 13. Theories Of Punishment And Christian Missions.
• CHAPTER 14. Some Objections Answered.
• CHAPTER 15. The Apostolic Fathers. Clement Of Rome.
• CHAPTER 16. Justin Martyr.
• CHAPTER 17. Irenaeus, Martyr And Bishop Of Lyons.
• CHAPTER 18. Rise Of The Theory Of Eternal Life In Hell.
• CHAPTER 19. Tertullian.
• CHAPTER 20. Rise Of The Theory Of Universal Restoration Origen.
• CHAPTER 21. Conclusion.

The Duration And Nature Of Future Punishment

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By HENRY CONSTABLE, A.M.
Prebendary of Cork

Fifth Edition - 1875

Author's Preface

It is now some years since I first brought the question here discussed before Christian men. I have carefully, and solemnly, and in the spirit of prayer , weighed all the objections which are brought against my view, and have only seen how futile and worthless they are: while, ever, as I study God's Word and meditate on God's character, the doctrine of life in Christ comes before me in clearer light as indeed the Gospel, the good news which the Son of Man came into our world to proclaim. I am deeply thankful that God has put into my mind to vindicate His truth with whatever power I possess. The doctrine of life in Christ is the key to the interpretation of Scripture. Read in its light, the Bible is a new book. The perplexities, the doubts, the surmisings of God that would force their way, dark gloomy future, are all dispersed. This doctrine has made the Bible ten thousand times more precious to me than it was before: has made Christ more honoured, and the Great Father more loved.

I no longer wonder that there should be fierce and inveterate opposition to the propagation of this grand doctrine. It was the very first truth which Satan sought to obscure and obliterate by the introduction into the Christian church of a specious and false philosophy borrowed from Greece and Egypt. and first taught by himself to Eve in Eden. He will not so easily part with a philosophy which has enabled him to do his work so well. Views that cover God with the aspect of injustice, or alienate men's minds from Him, or lead tens of thousands to infidelity, or enable men to get rid altogether of the idea that sin is a fatal and destructive thing, will not be easily given up. The doctrine that the soul is the true man, and that the soul is gifted with an inalienable immortality, brought in a mutilated shape into theology from the philosophy of Plato, has led to all this. It has led to Augustine's exhibition of God as a being of revolting cruelty, and to the future of much of his world as displaying only the most intense and harrowing misery: it has led to Origen's excision of vengeance from among the divine attributes, thereby opening the way to unbridled sin: it has led to the Roman purgatory, with all its attendant errors, as a refuge from what was felt to be too great a punishment to be inflicted by God upon ordinary offenders: it has raised against Scripture and the God of the Bible the derisive taunt and outcry of infidelity: it has caused the hearts of believers to mourn over a conduct on the part of God which they could not justify. Altogether, no dogma whatever can be named which has been productive of one half the evil consequences that the dogma of man's inalienable immortality has produced. This is what we have gained by introducing into our theology under another name and under a specious disguise the old Manichaean heresy of the eternity of evil. I have no hesitation in saying that the eternity of evil as taught by the school of Augustine is a far fouler slander upon the character of God than this same error as it was propounded by the Persian Manes. Manes supposed evil to be an eternal and essential part of the constitution of the universe: the school of Augustine represents God as the perpetuator of evil by bestowing immortality upon the evil-doer. We cannot wonder that all the craft of the arch-deceiver should be put forth to maintain such a doctrine as this. Nor are men at all ready to part with long-established opinions. The triumph of the doctrine of life in Christ will produce a revolution in theology. The standard works alike of the reformed and Roman churches are in great measure based upon the idea of the inalienable immortality of man. The interpretation of Scripture takes it as its starting point. When this comes to be acknowledged as a mere human conceit, many admired commentaries, treatises, sermons, confessions of faith, will be seen to have been based in great measure upon a foundation of sand.

But the truth will shine out the clearer for all this. To the truth we are ready to sacrifice a whole hecacomb of human writings; and the truth is spreading far and wide. In Great Britain it is spreading, slowly but surely against prejudice and authority. In the United States it is spreading much more rapidly. From the Atlantic to the Pacific sea-board of the Great Republic, men of acute mind, who will not submit to the bidding of others no better able to judge than themselves, are examining the great question.

I have little doubt of the result. I look forward at no distant day to see the Christian mind shake of the false theology founded on a mutilated philosophy, and wonder that it could ever have submitted to it for a year or a day.

In the second edition of my work I called upon those who were opposed to my view to answer my arguments. That challenge has not yet been taken up. For whatever reason, men of leading position ignore the subject. It is not that it is unimportant. It is not that it has escaped their notice. I believe it to be because they begin to feel that the old arguments for what are called orthodox opinions do not possess the force they were once thought to have, and they have no others to supply their place.

I now repeat my invitation to the scholars and theologians of England and America. Let them answer me calmly, fairly, and fully, if they can. I now tell the teachers and preachers of the Gospel in these countries, the instructors of their young men for the office of the ministry, that their time-honoured system is brought to the bar of public judgment. We who reject it are no longer to be classed among obscure heretics or scoffing infidels. We believe in God, and in God's Son, and in God's Word, and must be answered if we are to be put down. Misrepresentation, and lofty declamation borrowed from heathen sources, will not be enough.

In the present edition of my work I have carefully re-written every chapter of the earlier editions, and added materially to many of them. I have also introduced several new chapters. My references to the opinions of the early Fathers are also much fuller, and will, I think, be found not uninteresting or unimportant. I have also given very many references to ancient and modem books, which will be of use.

I would here draw the attention of my readers to another work of mine, recently published, on "Hades, or The Intermediate State of Man"•The great question of the nature of man, which lies at the foundation of this whole matter, will be there found to be fully discussed. The proper understanding of this, as related to us by our Maker, will be found of the greatest use for the more immediate object of the present work.

HENRY CONSTABLE.