Joannes Hierosolymitanus, against whom Jerome wrote. We also condemn those who have thought that both devils and all the wicked shall at length be saved and have an end of their torments; for the Lord himself has absolutely set down that ‘Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched’ (Mark ix. 44).
Moreover, we condemn the Jewish dreams, that before the day of judgment there shall be a golden age in the earth, and that the godly shall possess the kingdoms of the world, their wicked enemies being trodden under foot; for the evangelical truth (Matt. xxiv. and xxv., Luke xxi.), and the apostolic doctrine (in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians ii., and in the Second Epistle to Timothy iii. and iv.) are found to teach far otherwise.
Furthermore, by his passion or death, and by all those things which he did and suffered for our sakes from the time of his coming in the flesh, our Lord reconciled his heavenly Father unto all the faithful (Rom. v. 10); purged their sin (Heb. i. 3); spoiled death, broke in sunder condemnation and hell; and by his resurrection from the dead brought again and restored life and immortality (Rom. iv. 25; 1 Cor. xv. 17; 2 Tim. i. 10). For he is our righteousness, life, and resurrection (John vi. 44); and, to be short, he is the fullness and perfection, the salvation and most abundant sufficiency, of all the faithful. For the apostle says, ‘So it pleaseth the Father that all fullness should dwell in him’ (Col. i. 19), and ‘In him ye are complete’ (Col. ii. 10).
For we teach and believe that this Jesus Christ our Lord is the only and eternal Saviour of mankind, yea, and of the whole world, in whom all are saved before the law, under the law, and in the time of the Gospel, and so many as shall yet be saved to the end of the world. For as the Lord himself, in the Gospel, says, ‘He that entereth not in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up the other way, he is a thief and a robber’ (John x. 1). ‘I am the door of the sheep’ (ver. 7). And also in another place of the same Gospel he says, ‘Abraham saw my day, and rejoiced’ (John viii. 56). And the Apostle Peter says, ‘Neither is there salvation in any other, but in Christ; for among men there is given no other name under heaven whereby they might be saved’ (Acts iv. 12). We believe, therefore, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as our fathers were. For Paul says, that ‘All our fathers did eat the same
