HELL PUNISHMENTS, Nature of. — The term Hell {llolle), as stated above, originally denoted the "jiether world," tlie "place of departed spirits." It came to be almost exclusively applied at a later period to the " place of torment" for the wicked. The scholas- tic divines distinguished between tlie Limbus, or place of the souls of departed spirits, and Hell, properly so called, where the dannicd suffer their punishment (Aqui- nas, Summce Supjilem. qu. (j'j).
The nature of the j)unishments of hell has been very variously luiderstood in different times. In the early Church the fire of heU was generally considered as a real, material fire. So Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Cyprian. Origen, liowever, " believed the misery of the wicked to consist in separation from God, the remorse of conscience, etc. {De Princ. ii, 10, 0pp. i, 102). The eternal tire is neither material nor kindled by another person, but the combustibles are our sins themselves, of which conscience reminds us : thus the fire of hell resembles the lire of passions in this world. The separation between the soul and God may be compared witli the pain which we suffer when all the members of the bodj' are torn out of their joints. By 'outer darkness' Origen does not so much understand a place devoid of light as a state of comi)k'te ignorance; he thus appears to adopt the idea of black bodies only by way of accommodation to pojuilar Hdlinus. Itshoidd also be borne in mind that ( )rit;eii iiiiauined that the design of all these punishments was to heal or to cor- rect, and thus finally to restore the sinner to the favor of God" (Hagenbach, Histon/ of Doctrines, § 78).
From tlie latter part of the 3d centur*' onward to the rise of scholasticism, the punishments of hell were gen- erally described by material images, and, indeed, were considered, to a large extent, as material piuiishments. Gregory of Nazianzus (f 389?) supposed the punish- ment of the damned to consist essentially in their sepa- ration from God, and in the consciousness of their own moral debasement {Oraf. xvi, 9, p. 306 : Tote ^« juf ra tHjv dWwv fSdaavoQ, fiaXXov ci irpo rHiv dWwv r'o ciTreppifpSraL Sfofi, (cat »/ tv r(,J avvfiSnTi alax^vr] TTfpac oiiK tyoiKTa). Basil, on the contrary-, gives a more vivid description of that punishment (Ilomil. in Psa. xxiii. 0pp. i, 151, and elsewhere). Chrj-sostom represents the torments of the damned in a variety of horrid pictures (in Theod. lapsnm, i, c. 6, 0pp. iv, 560, 561). Neverthe- less, in other places (e. g., in his Ep. ad Pom. horn, xxxi, 0pp. X, 396 ) he justly observes that it is of more impor- tance to know how to escape hell than to know where it is and what is its nature. Gregorj^ of Nyssa (Orat. Ca- tech. 40 ) endeavors to divest the idea of hell of all that is sensuous (the fire of hell is not to be looked upon as a material tire, nor is the worm which never dies an i-iri- yfioi' ^ijni'o)'). Augustine imagines that separation from God is in the first instance to be regarded as the death and punishment of tlie damned (^Be morih. eccles. cuth.
c. 11) ; but he leaves it to his readers to choose between the more sensuous or the more spiritual mode of percep- tion. It is, he says, at all events, better to think of both {De civit. Dei, xxi, 9, 10).
From the 8th to the 16th centuries the tendency was to regard the punishments of hell more as physical and material than as moral and spiritual ; in the doctruie of the C'hurch the two sorts of punishment were comliincd. Aquinas treats of the punishments of hell under the title Paita Damnalorum {Summca Suppl. qu. 97), and teach- es, 1. that the damned will suffer other punishments be- sides that of fire ; 2. that the " undying worm" is re- morse of conscience ; 3. tliat the " darkness" of hell is physical darkness, only so much light being admitted as will allow the lost to see and apprehend the punishments of the place ; that, as both body and soul are to be piui- ished, the fire of hell will be a material fire. Augus- tine's view, he says, is to be considered rather as a pass- ing opinion than as a decision (loquitur opinando et non determinando). The fire, accordmg to Aqumas, is of the same nature as our ordinary fire, though " with different properties;" and -the place of punishment, though not certainly known, is probably under the earth. Others of the schoolmen, however (especially the Mystics), made the suffering of hell to consist rather in separation from God, and in the consequent consciousness of sin, and of unavailing repentance, than in material penalties.
The Eeformation made little change in the doctrine as to the nature of future punishment. The substance of the Reformed doctrine is given in the Westminster Confession, chap, xxxiii, as follows: ''The wicked, who know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shaU be cast into eternal torments, and be punished \vith everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;" and in the Lurt/er Catechism, quest. 29, " What are the piunishments of sin in the world to come 1 A . The pmiishments of sin in the world to come are everlasthig separation from the com- fortable presence of God, and most grievous torments in soul and body, without intermission, in hell-fire forever." In general, both Protestant and Eoman CathoUc theo- logians agree in making that punishment to consist (1) of tJie pana damni, penalty of loss or deprivation, sep- aration from God, and hence loss of all possible sources of enjoyment (Matt, vi, 21 ; xxii, 13 ; xxv, 41 ; compare WgsX&x, Sermons, ii, 148), of which loss the damned will be fiUh' conscious ; (2) of the imna sensus, penalty of sense or feeling, as the natural consequence of sin. "These pmiishments are inevitable, and comiected as closely and inseparably with sm as any effect with its cause. From the consciousness of being guilty of sui arise regret, sorrow, and remorse of conscience, and it is these inwai-d pangs which are the most grievous and tormenting. The conscience of man is a stern accuser, which cannot be refuted or bribed, and the more its voice is disregarded or suppressed here upon earth, the more loudly will it speak hereafter. Add to this that tlie propensity to sin, the passions and evil desires which in this world occupy the human heart, are caiTied along into the next. For it cannot be supposed that they will be suddenly eradicated as by a miracle, and this is not promised. But these desires and propensities can no longer find satisfaction in the future world, where man will be placed in an entirely different situation, and sur- rounded by a circle of objects entirely new, hence they will become the more inflamed. From the verj- nature of the case, it is plain, therefore, that the state of such a man hereafter must necessarily be miserable. Shame, regret, remorse, hopelessness, and absolute despair, are the natiu-al, inevitable, and extremely dreadful conse- quences of the sins committed in this Ufc." (3) Be- sides these natural penalties of sin, there will also be positive penalties inflicted by divine justice. The New Testament speaks far more distinctly and frequently of these positive punishments tlian of the natural ones, and especially of the " undying worm," and of " the etemal fire." The general tendency of modem theologj- is to