The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-24

bluo' OiOuloub CALLS OuO du1hOl bhO
prophecies" AS late as the middle
ages the "Oracles" we're we'll known
and its author was ranked with Da
vid. When Thomas of Celano COM
posed the great "Hymn of the Judg
ment" he said:
"Dlesir dies lila
S1lvet seclum IN favia
Teste David cum ribylla,"
"The dreadful day OF wrath shall dis
solve the world into ashes, as David
and the sibyl testify"
The best scholars concede the Uni
versalism of the "Oracles." Says
Musardus, the Ordcles" teach "that
the damre shall be liberated after
they shall have endured Internal pun
ishments for many ages which
was an error of Origen." And Opso-
pnus adds, that the 'Oracles' teach
that the wicked suffering in hell
| (Gehenna) after certain period, and
through expiation of griefs, would
be released from punishments, wi ich
was the opinion of Odgen,' etc.
DR.. Westcott remarks of the Ora
cles:" "They stand alone as an at
tempt to embrace all history, even in
its details,in one great theocratic view,
and to regard the kingdoms of the
world as destined to form provinces
in future kingdom of God"
While the views of retribution are
not eleva ed, and represent the pun
ishment of the wicked as literal fire
and not moral discipline as Origen
taught, they clearly teach universal
salvation beyond all immortal latham
atos) suffering. A noted writer, DR..
W. j. Deane, declares The doctrine
of Universalism is brought forward
in more than one passage of this
piece" though elsewhere he misstates
inconsistency enough, the language of
the sibyl thus: God hearkening to
the prayers of the saints shall save
some from the pains of hell" He
mstranslates anthropois into "some"
instead of mankind, the meaning of
the word, in order to show that the
sibyl "does not, like Origen, believe in
universal salvation" And yet he is
forced to add This notion of the
salvation of any is opposed to the
sentiment elsewhere expressed. =.
where in picturing the torments of
hell the writer asserts that there is no
place for repentance or any mercy or
hope" But the terms he here alludes
to are just as much opposed to the
salvation of any from hell as of all
And he forgets that the acknowledged
Universalists of the early church en-
ployed similar terms concerning the
duration of punishment. The use
ny Iuo SlDyl VI GhO COI LIB oiS uiI 'hS
interminable fire (puros athanatos) as
by Oigen and others did not pre-
clude the idea of ultimate salvation.
Origen taught that the most stubborn
sins will be "extinguished" by the
eternal (e onian) fire." just as the
sbyl says the wicked perish in ''im
mortal" fire, and are subsequently
saved.
In line with Deane's strange con
Predictions may be mentioned an
other of the curiosities of criticism.
An English prose version of the
sibyl's Homeric hexameters was made
in 17l3 by Sir John Floyer. He
denies that the "Oracles" teach uni
versal salvation at all, but in order to
sustain his position he omits to trans
late one word, ard mistranslates an
other. He renders the entire passage
thus:-"The almighty and incorrup-
tible God shall grant this also to the
righteous when they shall pray to
him, that he will preserve them an
Haropois sosai, literally save man
kind) from the pernicious fire and
everlasting crashing of teeth; and
this will he do when he gathers the
faithful from the eternal fire. etc." 1t
is only by misunderstanding the words
denoting "save mankind" into deliver
them, that he makes his point.
Whereas the sibyl declares that the
just and the unjust pass through I'M
quenchable fire, and that all things,
even hades, are to be purified by the
divine fire. And after the unjust
have been released from Hades, they
are committed to Gehenna, and then,
at the desire of the righteous they
are to be removed thence to "a life
eternal for immortals." The wicked
''perish" and then are saved.
So fully did the Christians of the
first century recognize the "Oracles"
and appeal to them that they were
frequently styled the "Sibyllists."
CELSIUS, A. D. 138-17S applies the
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