126 



doctrine, such an one shall go into inextinguish- 

 able fire (ek to Trvpaa fieorov)." 



The Pastor of Hernias was a book of great 

 repute about 100 or 150 A. D., and was thought 

 by Irenaeus and Origen to be quite equal with 

 the Scriptures. The Pastor, bk. III. Similitude 

 IV. reads : " That future era shall be summer 

 to the just, but desolation to the transgressor. 

 And they shall be burned therefore, because they 

 have sinned, and did not choose repentance of 

 their sins (comburentur, quia * * * peccatarum 

 suorum non egerunt poenitentiam). ,, 



Similitude YI. ch. 11, says : "Those which you 

 see have torn themselves away from God forever 

 (in perpetuum). Among them there is no return 

 through repentance." Similitude VIII. ch. 7, 

 says : " And as many as do not repent at all, 

 but abide in their deed, will utterly perish." 



The Ante-Xicene Fathers, from 100 A. D. to 

 the time of the Council of Xice, A. D 325, or, 

 embracing with the Apostolic Fathers the whole 

 of the first Patristic period, make mention of 

 eternal punishment in most decisive terms. 



Polycarp, one of the greatest of early bishops,, 

 and the one whom St. John addresses in the 

 Apocalypse as the "Angel of the church at 

 Smyrna:" who was contemporary with St. John, 

 and suffered martyrdom in 166 A. D., is well 

 worthy a place and hearing on this question. 



