SIDE ISSUES ELIMINATED 201 



means condemnation/ and need not be taken in its 

 acquired and popular meaning of everlasting torment. 

 It is possible, so far as we know, that some of those who 

 are technically among the finally damned ^ receive 

 blessings suited to their capacity, and are happier than 

 they would be if forced into the kind of contact with 

 God that is promised to faithful Christians. I have in 

 mind the speculative view of ancient as well as later 

 writers that there is a middle state for the reward of 

 righteous heathen.^ The truth of this view cannot of 

 course be known to us in this world. 



The word "deserve" has several very distinct mean- 

 ings, and it was a failure to distinguish between them 

 that had much to do with making futile a large amount 

 of sixteenth-century controversy on the subject of 

 human merit. Permit me to mention two of the chief 

 meanings that might be intended by the word "deserve." 



(a) In the first place, in its strictest sense, it refers 

 to either personal guilt or merit on account of works. 

 A man deserves punishment for evil deeds and reward 



1 Condemnation, it may be understood, as in its present state 

 unfit for the attainment of its appointed destiny. 



2 The finally damned are, in the technical use of certain theolo- 

 gians, all those who miss the beatific vision, whether they are con- 

 signed to a state of misery or not. 



3 Patristic views are given by J. B. Mozley, Predestination, ch. iv. 

 pp. 1 1 7-1 23. St. Thomas in Sum. Theol., III. Suppl. Ixxi., main- 

 tains for unbaptized infants a natural beatification, in which there 

 is no sense of loss of the beatific vision. Cf. A. P. Forbes, Nicene 

 Creed, p. 305; E. B. Pusey, What is of Faith as to Everlasting Pun- 

 ishment, p. II. A valuable history of opinion as to the "Lot of 

 Those Dying in Original Sin " is given by Dr. P. J. Toner in The 

 Irish Theol. Quarterly for July, 1909, pp. 313-326. 



