123 



has prepared for the devil and his angels," 

 (Matt. 25:41) indicating that eternal fire was not 

 originally prepared for man. but for him who 

 beguiled man and caused him to offend.*' 

 Adv-Hser,, 4. 28, 1.— 5. 27. 2.—:]. 23. 3. 



( )n the nature of penal fires Minucius Felix 

 A. D. 300, gives the following: " There (in hell) 

 the intelligent fire burns the limbs and restores 

 them, feeds on them and nourishes them: * * * 

 * * so that penal fire is not fed by the waste of 

 those who burn, but is nourished by the unex- 

 hausted eating away of their bodies. But that 

 t hey who know not God are deservedly tormented 

 as impious, as unrighteous persons, no one, 

 except a profane man, hesitates to believe, since 

 it is no less wicked to be ignorant of than to 

 •offend the Parent of all. and the Lord of all." 

 Octavius, 35. 



Tertullian (A. D. 1 50-21 G) gives expression to 

 a crude and morbid delight which he fancied 

 would characterize the saved, when he said: " At 

 that greatest of all spectacles, the last and eternal 

 judgment, how shall I admire, how laugh, how 

 rejoice, how exult, when I behold so many proud 

 uionarchs groaning in the lowest abyss of dark- 

 ness; so many magistrates liquefying in fiercer 

 flames than they ever kindled against the Chris- 

 tians; so many sage philosophers blushing in 

 red-hot fires with their deluded pupils; so many 



