CHAPTER IV. 



EARLY BELIEF OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



->. 



I AKEN together with all the cumulative 

 force of other evidence, we regard the con- 

 sonant voice of the Christian Church as argu- 

 mentative in sustaining the orthodox opinion. 



The end for which we take recourse to this 

 line of evidence is to establish the fact that the 

 Christian world, as such, believed and taught a 

 retribution of an endless conscious nature. 



The argument under the surface of the facts, 

 to be produced is authoritative. The following 

 criterion is applicable to the doctrine under 

 scrutiny, viz: that it " has been received and be- 

 lieved semper, ubique, et ab omnibus (always,, 

 everywhere, and by all. )" Not many heresies can 

 run the gauntlet of such a test. ''And that no 

 one may say what is said by those who are 

 deemed philosophers, that our assertions that the 

 wicked are punished in eternal fire are big words 

 and bugbears, and that we wish men to live vir- 

 tuously through fear, and not because such a life 

 is good and pleasant." 



"And Plato in like manner used to say that 



