and philosophy into all grotesque and fantastic shapes.

We have an account of the life of St. Paul as given us by Luke and by himself, and we have thirteen letters written by him, either to the churches or to individuals. These writings have fared poorly in the hands of the sects, and they are so jumbled together in our English version, without reference to dates and incidents, that it is hardly possible in this form to get at the system of doctrine which they contain. But in the late work of Conybeare and Howson, we have all that can be desired in a commentary upon St. Paul. Over the gulf of eighteen hundred years he is brought near to us amid all his surroundings, not as a dry dialectician, but as a great man, greatly and supernaturally endowed, whose deeds and words did more to change the aspect of the world, than those of any other man since the ascension of the Lord Jesus. His writings contain a system of Pneumatology, whose outlines we think cannot be mistaken. This bears with special significance upon our main topic, and we shall aim, therefore, to bring forth the outlines in as bright relief as possible.

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CHAPTER II.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.

THE words heaven and hell, as they are used in popular speech, describe the complete ultimations of good and evil. The essential idea of heaven, as it falls into the common mind, is a condition of sinless purity and peace. No evil can be admitted there. Its last remnant must have been purged away from us before we can enter the blest abodes, else we should bring in a disturbing element among its harmonies.

"There from the past no gloom is shed

Upon the present hour."

Hell, on the other hand, is the abode of evil, and only evil. Nothing good can enter there. It is the state of souls in which all good has been perverted or destroyed. This we suppose to be the generally received doctrine of heaven and hell, opposite states of unmingled good or unmingled evil, and not like the present state, in which good and evil are inwoven together.

We have no fault to find with this view, though perhaps we might state our conception in a somewhat different form. There are degrees of goodness, natural, spiritual, and Divine. There are degrees of evil, from the mildest to the most malignant; but the popular philosophy, which makes good and evil essential opposites, and heaven and hell the state of each in their entire separation and antagonism, we have no disposition to controvert, for we think it so far mainly true.

Closely connected with this same view of heaven and hell, we find a prevailing opinion that every individual at death goes immediately to the one or the other. You have no standingplace between the two, after you lose your foothold upon the earth. You rise immediately to the heavenly peaks of light, or else you sink into the pit of despair. This we suppose to be the prevailing belief of Protestant communities, and it furnishes the ground of popular appeal from Protestant pulpits.

It would seem to follow, if people were accustomed to put two ideas together, that every one while on the earth must become entirely good or entirely bad. Death is not a moral change, but a physical one. It is also momentary. If, therefore, just beyond that point, all persons are fit only for an abode of perfect purity or of unmingled evil, they must be found, when just on the

hither side, saints entirely regenerated, or else consummate fiends. But people holding the faith above described, especially on their deathbeds, are most sincere in disclaiming entire regeneration. They confess the remnants of evil that are in them, and expect only to be saved by an imputed righteousness, while their souls are yet foul with sin. But will you not take your souls along with you into heaven, and if so, will there not be a great deal of foulness there, the imputed righteousness notwithstanding?

In theological matters, however, people generally practise very little constructiveness; and if they put two ideas together, they do not mind whether they make a joint or not, so as to give theology a chance to rise and walk. They seem to imagine that God takes care of the poor cripple by successive miracles, with such crutches as the school Doctors are able to supply, and that a symmetrical form, which is the natural development of part from part, is not to be expected; and so the opinions we have sketched above, incongruous as they are, prevail extensively in Protestant communities to the present day.

If the reader has not been accustomed to look much into ecclesiastical history, he may be surprised when we say, that this doctrine of instantaneous salvation or damnation at death is entirely modern; that it is one of the extremes of

Protestantism; that it is the offspring of the Lutheran Reformation; that it was invented as an accompaniment of Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone; that it is utterly repudiated by nine tenths of the Christian Church now, and that it was never heard of in those primitive churches which were founded by the Apostles themselves. The history of opinions on this subject is full of interest and instruction, and we will give it in as clear and succinct a summary as we can.

Let the reader, then, go back with us to the Apostolic churches, at the point of time when they first emerge fully into the light of history. The Apostolic labors closed with the first century. By the year 100 all the Apostles had done their work and gone to their rest, with the exception, perhaps, of John, who may have lived a little while after that date. Then follows a period of about seventy years, of which we have no very certain memorials. The writings of the Apostolic Fathers, so called, which have come down to us as belonging to this period, are some of them of doubtful genuineness, and none of them of much value as bearing on the history of opinions.

Passing over this period, therefore, to the last quarter of the second century, we come to the writings of the Christian Fathers, commencing with Justin and Irenæus, and extending downward, and reflecting with more or less fulness