will try to make himself pass for the true Messias or redeemer of the world. Hence he will raise a more violent and bloody persecution against the church of Christ than any which it has yet had to sustain, and many will yield under his persecution. The Almighty, however, for the sake of his elect, will only suffer his reign to be of short duration. III. [4] We read in the old testament, that the patriarch Enoch and the prophet Elias were taken from amongst men without dying. These will again appear upon earth towards the end of the world to preach to the Jews, who will be converted by them, and to oppose Antichrist, by whom they will ultimately be put to death. Then will Antitichrist himself be immediately confounded by Jesus Christ, who will destroy him by the splendour of his presence. CHAPTER THE SEVENTEENTH. 1. General resurrection-II. Last coming of Jesus Christ and the general judgment. I. [1] The reign of Antichrist being terminated, an angel of heaven, at the command of God, will sound a trumpet, when, in an instant, the bodies of all the dead will arise from their graves and will be again united to their souls. The condition of the bodies of the just and of those of the reprobate will be very different. [2] Those of the just will arise beautiful and resplendent: they will become spiritualized, like the body of our Saviour after his resurrection, which entered into the room where his apostles were assembled without the door being opened: they will also be impassible, that is, incapable of suffering. [3] The bodies of the wicked, on the other hand, will be marked with sin and reprobation, which will render them hideous and frightful to behold. II. [4] On the day decreed for the general judg ment of the world, the sun and the moon will be darkened, the stars will fall from their places, all nature will be thrown into confusion, the heavens and the earth will be consumed by fire, [5] and all mankind being assembled together will bebold Jesus Christ descending in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty, accompanied by all the legions of angels. The cross will be borne before him in triumph, and he will sit down upon a throne to judge mankind. Then will the conduct of the Almighty towards his creatures be publicly justified: his mercy to the elect will be clearly manifested, and the justice of his dealings with sinners vindicated. After this he will send forth his angels, who will instantly separate the wicked from the just: the former they will arrange on his left hand, and the latter on his right. The separation being made, he will arise from his throne and pronounce upon these two companies their respective sentences. [6] To the just he will say: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning of the world; [7] and to the wicked, Go, ye cursed into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels. These two companies will then part from each other, never again to meet : the reprobate will be hurried by the devil and his angels into hell, to suffer both in soul and body everlasting torments, and the elect will be translated both body and soul to paradise, to enjoy with Jesus Christ and his angels, everlasting life. (a) CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH. 1. The happiness of the elect.II. The torments of the I. The apostle assures us, (b) that neither eye hath seen nor ear heard what God hath prepared for those who love him and serve him. Hence it is impossible to describe, in adequate terms, the happiness of the elect. [1] What we know is, that they will be exempt from evils and sufferings of every kind, and will possess all good; that that they will always see God and be constantly occupied in loving, adoring, and praising him; and that in consequence of this they will enjoy an inward peace and tranquillity, which nothing will ever be able to disturb. [2] Nevertheless there will be different degrees of glory and happiness amongst them. Those who during life loved and served God more faithfully than others, will be (a) Matt: xxv. 46. And these shall go into everlasting punishment; but the just, into life everlasting. (b) 1 Cor. xi. 9. proportionably elevated in their degree of glory. Thus, whilst all will be happy in the possession of the same object, some will possess it more fully and perfectly than others, and in this their various degrees of happiness will consist. II. [3] As the possession of God will constitute the chief felicity of the elect, so the eternal separation from him will be the principal torment of the damned. Besides this eternal loss of God, the sovereign good, they will be cast into a pool of fire, where they will be an eternal prey to merciless devils, and their consciences will be unceasingly knawed by the most bitter but useless repentance for having mispent the short time of this mortal life in sin, and thereby involved themselves in sufferings, which they will clearly see will never have an end. [4] In hell, however, the punishment of each one will be proportioned to his guilt. [5] What will be the state of infants that die without baptism is by no means certain. That they will be eternally deprived of the sight of God is the unanimous opinion of the holy fathers and divines; but, whether they will be sensible of their privation in this respect, or will suffer any of the other torments of the damned, is a point on which the church has decided nothing: the opinion of St. Augustine is that they will not. Here, then, we have a summary of the doctrine of the catholic church relative to what we are all obliged to believe, which concludes the first part of this treatise. The following part will treat of the evil which we are to avoid, and the good works which we must practice in order E |