Theorem V. The eternity of punishments is established by those testimonies in which every hope of some future redemption or liberation is taken away from the damned.

25. Demonstration. There can be no liberation from a punishment which the judge has willed to be bound and associated with a condition which cannot possibly be fulfilled. But God has willed the liberation of the damned from the punishments of hell to be bound and joined with a condition which cannot possibly be fulfilled.

What the condition is is described in more than one place. It is described in Matthew: Ἀμὴν λέγω σοι, οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθῃς ἐκεῖθεν, ἕως ἂν ἀποδῷς τὸν ἔσχατον κοδράντην. “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence until thou repay the last farthing.”¹

It is described in the same Evangelist: Καὶ ὀργισθεὶς ὁ κύριος αὐτοῦ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν τοῖς βασανισταῖς, ἕως οὗ ἀποδῷ πᾶν τὸ ὀφειλόμενον αὐτῷ. “And his lord, being angry, delivered him to the torturers until he should repay the whole debt.”²

It is described in Luke: Λέγω σοι, οὐ μὴ ἐξέλθῃς ἐκεῖθεν, ἕως οὗ καὶ τὸ ἔσχατον λεπτὸν ἀποδῷς. “I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence until thou repay even the last mite.”³

Therefore the condition attached to liberation is this: that those who are punished with the punishments of hell perfectly discharge the debt which subjects them to punishment and by which they are bound before God. But this is a condition which the reprobate cannot fulfill.

That they are unequal to fulfilling this condition is taught us by the analogy of faith, and is taught us by the words of Christ, in which it is expressly said that the wicked do not possess that from which they might pay the debt contracted.⁴ Therefore there can be no liberation of the reprobate. Therefore the punishments with which they are chastised are eternal.

26. Jerome both perceived and explained excellently the force of this argument: “He who once enters there will not be permitted to go out thereafter. Truth itself shows this in the Gospel, saying: ‘Be at agreement … thou shalt not go out from thence until thou pay the last farthing.’ Just as, where it is said, ‘He must reign until he put his enemies beneath his feet,’ it is understood that he will reign forever, because his enemies will always be beneath his feet; so also here the saying, ‘Thou shalt not go out until thou pay,’ can be understood to mean that he will never go out, because he will always be paying the last farthing while he suffers the everlasting punishments of earthly sins.”⁵

Jerome has regard, namely, to that force of the particle until, ἕως, עַד, by which not the terminus of time but its duration is signified, as in the Psalm: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, עַד־אָשִׁית, while I subject thine enemies to thee.”⁶ And in Genesis: “I will not forsake thee, עַד־אֲשֶׁר, until I shall have accomplished that which I have spoken to thee,” that is, “I will never forsake thee”;⁷ for the promises of God are eternal in Christ.⁸ Similarly in Matthew: “Joseph did not know Mary, ἕως οὗ, until she brought forth her firstborn son.”⁹ When Helvidius abused this testimony, he fell under the most grave censures of Jerome.

27. An argument not greatly different from that which we proposed can be gathered from what Christ says in the twelfth chapter of Matthew:¹⁰ that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ, οὔτε ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι¹¹, οὔτε ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι, “shall not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the future.”

But to what purpose is there mention of the future age? In order that it may be demonstrated that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is never forgiven, as if it were said that this crime is no more forgiven in this age than in the future age. This form of speech assumes as something ascertained that in the future age there remains no remission of sins.

These things can be illustrated from the parallel passage in Mark: Ὃς δ’ ἂν βλασφημήσῃ εἰς τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, οὐκ ἔχει ἄφεσιν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, ἀλλ’ ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου κρίσεως. “But he who shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath no forgiveness forever, but is guilty of an eternal offense.”¹² Therefore the phrase “neither in this age nor in the future” is equivalent to the other, “never, forever”; and when it is employed concerning the remission of sins, it is taken as known and ascertained that there is no place for remission in the other life.

But if the time of remission is bounded by this life, then the reprobate can promise themselves no remission of sins in the other life, and consequently no end of punishments.

28. Certainly no greater hope of remission can shine upon the damned than a hope of renewal and conversion. For while they persist in iniquity, no remission of sins is granted.

But the Scriptures do not allow any hope of repentance and renewal to be afforded to the damned. You ask whence this is evident. I answer that it is evident from several considerations.

It is evident, I. because every opportunity of effecting salvation is comprehended within the compass of this life, as Ecclesiastes testifies: “Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly, because neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in the underworld, whither thou hastenest.”¹³

29. It is evident, II. because by several and various forms of speech the Scriptures exhibit the damned as those who remain obstinate in sin and do not put on a better mind.

And indeed, with what colors do they depict the condition of the reprobate? With colors altogether black and terrifying. They call it the second death,¹⁴ opposed to life; they say that the reprobate dwell now in the exterior darkness,¹⁵ now in the gloom of darkness,¹⁶ and consequently lack light and lie beneath the dominion of sin, which is explained either through the power of death¹⁷ or through the power of darkness.¹⁸

They represent the damned as those who, by βρυγμῷ ὀδόντων, the gnashing of teeth,¹⁹ manifest a mind impatient under torment and an impotent anger against God.²⁰

In addition, the damned are those who are called by the Apostle σκεύη ὀργῆς, vessels of wrath, and σκεύη εἰς ἀτιμίαν, vessels unto dishonor,²¹ namely, unclean vessels, vessels useless to the Lord and fit for no good work, as is elicited from the description of the vessels unto honor which is contained in the Second Epistle to Timothy.²² Come now, who would combine repentance and renewal of mind with this state of death, darkness, gloom, desperation, divinely inflicted wrath, and dishonor?

If a conjecture can be made concerning the entire class of the damned from the devil and his angels, nothing is more certain than that all the damned, to the last one, have a most firmly fixed will in sin. The devil sins from the beginning; from the beginning he is a murderer, the father of lies, the accuser of the brethren, intent upon every occasion of destroying men, the ancient serpent, and one who employs no measure in laying snares.²³ Hence he is emphatically called ὁ πονηρός, the evil one.²⁴ This is the character of the father, and from it may be judged what is the character of his children, that is, of all the reprobate who have the devil as father and imitate the works of their father.²⁵

30. Finally, III. it is evident that no hope of repentance and renewal on the part of the damned can be conceived, because either the causes or the conditions necessary for renewal cannot be combined with the state of the damned.

The principal and more powerful cause of renewal is the love of God and the mercy with which he pursues men. But no place remains either for love or for mercy after divine long-suffering has been despised for so long,²⁶ after the door has been shut,²⁷ and after those whom the Son of God himself addresses as accursed²⁸ have been cast out and entirely excluded from the fellowship of God.

There follows the meritorious cause, which is contained in the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ. But the blood of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world does not wash those who, by that same Lamb, on his day, the day of judgment and wrath, are struck by the sentence of malediction.

Finally, in order that God, moved by his goodness and in consideration of the merits of Christ, may justify the impious, it is necessary that the impious man believe, hope, love, and, returning to his heart, be converted from his most evil ways. But thus far we have established that the reprobate are those who, even if they believe and tremble, do not on that account either love God or detest sin as would be fitting.

They are the reprobate concerning whom the Savior pronounced: “It would have been good for him if that man had not been born.”²⁹ Namely, they shall always remain vessels unto dishonor; for if they could be converted into vessels unto honor, it would have been worthwhile for them to have existed among men. For so great is the excellence of vessels unto honor, by whom the name of God is celebrated, that if anyone, after countless thousands of ages passed amid the most atrocious torments, were to be transferred to that dignity, it would certainly have been good for such a man to be born.