Preliminary Lemmas I–IV, with a Corollary

The Eternity of Punishments Vindicated by Biblical Testimonies

Lemma I

1. Duration without succession, and which lacks a beginning and an end, is the description of eternity taken in the proper and strict sense.

Lemma II

2. If a duration indeed lacks an end but not a beginning, and consequently is not wholly simultaneous but successive, there is had eternity not ἁπλῶς [simply], but κατά τι [in a certain respect], and employed in a broader signification.

Lemma III

3. Duration is of such a kind that it is distinguished only in notion and idea from the existence of the thing which endures and remains. Since, therefore, there is one God, whose existence excludes succession, beginning, and end, while all other things both begin and are subject to time, it follows that eternity properly so called¹ belongs to God alone, but that only eternity taken broadly² ought to be attributed to the rest.

Lemma IV

4. Eternity taken broadly is absolutely finite, and can be called infinite only improperly, since in truth it is indefinite. But only eternity taken broadly belongs to all creatures.³ Nothing, therefore, belongs to them which is not finite or indefinite.

Corollary

5. Hence an answer is given to the difficulty brought forward to assail the eternity of punishments, namely, that, if this were admitted, creatures would be subjected to infinite punishments. Those who dispute in this manner are playing with words and confound eternity called κυρίως [properly] with eternity taken broadly. Therefore the punishment attributed to the impious is finite or indefinite, not infinite.