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I propose, with such ability as God may grant me, to discuss in this
book more thoroughly the nature of the punishment which shall be
assigned to the devil and all his retainers, when the two cities, the
one of God, the other of the devil, shall have reached their proper
ends through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Judge of quick and dead.
And I have adopted this order, and preferred to speak, first of the
punishment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the
saints, because the body partakes of either destiny; and it seems to
be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting torments than that
they continue to exist without any pain in everlasting felicity.
Consequently, when I shall have demonstrated that that punishment
ought not to be incredible, this will materially aid me in proving that
which is much more credible, viz., the immortality of the bodies of
the saints which are delivered from all pain. Neither is this order
out of harmony with the divine writings, in which sometimes, indeed,
the blessedness of the good is placed first, as in the words, "They
that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have
done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment;" but sometimes also
last, as, "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they
shall gather out of His kingdom all things which offend, and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth, Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of His Father;" and that, "These shall go away into
eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." And though
we have not room to cite instances, any one who examines the prophets
will find that they adopt now the one arrangement and now the other.
My own reason for following the latter order I have given.
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