holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." The same description is given Rev. xix. 3, when the people of heaven cry "Alleluia," and "the smoke (of the judged) rose up for ever and ever." In Rev. xx. 10, it is said "And the devil that deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." In other places future punishment is described under the figure of darkness. 2 Pet. ii. 17, "To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever." Jude 13, "To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." In 2 Thess. i. 7-9, it is said "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day."

But can a God of Love punish eternally? Christ says so, Matt. xii. 32, of one sin at least, viz. that against the Holy Ghost. "It shall not be forgiven him neither in this world, neither in the world to come," or as recorded Mark iii. 29, "But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath never (i. e. not for ever) forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation."

From this discussion of eternity and eternal things, we are brought to this

CONCLUSION.

We know nothing of eternity, save what we are told in Scripture. With our finite minds, we can not fully grasp or comprehend the abstract idea of eternity. The only idea of eternity that we thus grasp, is the endless repetition of certain lengths of duration, or periods of known time. This idea can be expressed or conveyed only by the repetition of the word used to define any fixed length of duration, or period of time.

Christ and his disciples, the inspired Evangelists and Apostles, invariably choose one and the same word, aicov, to describe any fixed length of time, and by the repetition of that word in the form of a phrase, or by giving it the adjective form, they universally speak of eternity and things eternal.

With this word, thus varied, they teach the eternity of the Godhead, in being, attributes and purposes; they express all the doxologies, which are intended to ascribe eternal praise, honor and glory to the Godhead; they teach the eternity of the state and rewards of the righteous, and they teach the eternity of the state and punishment of the wicked. What then we know of one we know of all the others. Whatever ground of confidence we have in those we desire and hope for, we have the same ground of certainty in those we dread and fear. Whatever doubt attaches to one attaches equally to the others. Whatever reason exists for limiting or explaining away the meaning of the word when applied to one thing, the same reason exists for limiting or explaining away its meaning when applied to all the others. The teaching of the New Testament concerning eternity is a unit, complete as a round ball, firm as a building on a rock, perfect as an arch, and we cannot take away a part, without causing all to crumble. We cannot make different what it makes the same without impeaching the veracity, the wisdom, and the fairness of Christ the divine teacher, and his inspired Evangelists and Apostles.

ART. IV. THE VATICAN COUNCIL.

By PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., Professor in the Union Theological Seminary, New York.

Documenta ad illustrandum Concilium Vaticanum anni 1870.

Gesammelt

und herausgegeben von Dr. JOHANN FRIEDRICH, Professor der Theologie in München. Nördlingen, 1871. 2 Parts, pp. 316 and 437. Sammlung der Actenstücke zum ersten Vaticanischen Concil mit einem Grundrisse der Geschichte desselben von EMIL FRIEDBERG, ordentl. Professor der Rechte an der Universität Leipzig. Tübingen, 1872. pp. 954. Geschichte und Kritik des Vaticanischen Concils von 1869 und 1870, von Lic. Theol. THEODOR FROMMANN, Privatdocent an der Universität Berlin. Gotha, 1873. pp. 529.

THE stenographic reports of the proceedings of the Vatican Council are locked up in the archives of the Vatican, and are not likely to see the light of day for some time to come. But in spite of the strict secrecy imposed upon the fathers of the Council, the main facts and speeches were made known by the enterprise or indiscretion of members and their friends of both parties. During the Council full reports were published by the editors of the Civiltà cattolica at Rome, and the Paris Univers of Veuillot, on the part of the Infallibilists, and in the Letters of Quirinus, on the part of the anti-Infallibilists or Old Catholics. After the Council, Professor Friedrich, a colleague of Dr. Döllinger, issued his Diary, and a collection of Documents, which furnish an inside view of this important event. And now we have two complete and impartial histories of the Vatican Council by Protestant scholars. Friedberg, Professor of ecclesiastical law at Leipzig, gives us a collection of all the important documents, with a sketch of the history of the Council from the beginning to its close. Frommann, Private Lecturer on Theology in the University of Berlin, has written a critical history of the Council on the basis of the official documents and private reports.

More than three hundred years after the close of the Council of Trent, Pius IX., who had proclaimed the new dogma of the Immaculate Conception, who in the presence of five hundred Bishops had celebrated the eighteenth centennial of the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and who was permitted to survive not only the golden wedding of his priesthood, but even

-alone among his more than two hundred and fifty predecessors—the silver wedding of his popedom (thus falsifying the tradition "non videbit annos Petri") resolved to convoke a new œcumenical council, which was to proclaim his own infallibility in all matters of faith and discipline, and thus to put the top-stone to the pyramid of the Roman hierarchy.

He first intimated his intention, June 26, 1867, in an Allocution to five hundred Bishops who were assembled at the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of St. Peter in Rome. The Bishops in a most humble and obsequious response, July 1, 1867, approved of his heroic courage, to employ, in his old age, an extreme measure for an extreme danger, and predicted a new splendor of the Church, and a new triumph of the kingdom of God. Whereupon the Pope announced to them that he would convene the Council under the special auspices of the Immaculate Virgin, who had crushed the serpent's head and was mighty to destroy alone all the heresies of the world.

The call was issued by an encyclical commencing “Æterni Patris Unigenitus Filius," in the 23rd year of his Pontificate, on the Feast of St. Peter and Paul, June 29, 1868. It created at once a universal commotion in the Christian world, and called forth a multitude of books and pamphlets even before the Council convened. The highest expectations were suspended by the Pope and his sympathizers on the coming event. What the Council of Trent had effected against the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, the Council of the Vatican was to accomplish against the more radical and dangerous foe of modern liberalism and rationalism, which threatened to undermine Romanism itself in its own strongholds. It was to crush the power of infidelity, and to settle all that belongs to the doctrine, worship and discipline of the Church, and the eternal salvation of souls. It was even hoped that the Council might become a feast of general reconciliation to divided Christendom; and hence the Greek schismatics and the Protestant heretics and other non-Catholics were invited by two special letters of the Pope (Sept. 8 and Sept. 13, 1868) to return, on this auspicious occasion, to "the only sheep-fold of Christ," for the salvation of their souls.

But the Eastern Patriarchs spurned the invitation as an insult to their time-honored rights and traditions, from which they

could not depart. The Protestant communions either ignored or respectfully declined it.

Thus the Vatican Council, like that of Trent, turned out to be simply a general Roman Council, and apparently put the prospect of a reunion of Christendom further off than ever before.

While these sanguine expectations of Pius IX. were doomed to disappointment, the chief object of the Council was attained in spite of the strong opposition of the minority of liberal Catholics. This object, which for reasons of propriety is omitted in the bull of convocation and other preliminary acts, but clearly stated by the organs of the ultramontane or Jesuitical party, was nothing less than the proclamation of the personal Infallibility of the Pope, as a binding article of the Roman Catholic faith for all time to come. Herein lies the whole importance of the Council; all the rest dwindles into insignificance and could never have justified its convocation.

After extensive and careful preparations, the first (and perhaps the last) Vatican Council was solemnly opened amid the sound of innumerable bells and the cannon of St. Angelo, but under frowning skies and a pouring rain, on the festival of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, Dec. 8, 1869, in the Basilica of the Vatican. It reached its height at the fourth public session, July 18, 1870, when the decree of Papal Infallibility was proclaimed. After this it dragged on a sickly existence till October 20, 1870, when it was adjourned till November 11, 1870, but afterward indefinitely postponed on account of the change in the political situation of Europe. For on the second of September the French Empire, which had been the main support of the temporal power of the Pope, collapsed with the surrender of Napoleon III. at the old Huguenot stronghold of Sedan to the Protestant King William of Prussia, and on the twentieth of September the Italian troops, in the name of King Victor Emanuel, took possession of Rome, as the future capital of united Italy. Whether the Council will ever be convened again to complete its vast labors, like the twice interrupted Council of Trent, remains to be seen. But in proclaiming the personal infallibility of the Pope, it made all future œcumenical Councils unnecessary for the definition of dogmas and the regulation of discipline, so that hereafter they will be