eternal hell,, how could they thus possibly squander away their short lives in sin, and pay for a fleeting pleasure by an eternity of pain? No; you may say what you please; it is clear that in those people there is a want of lively faith.
Now the prosperity of the wicked and the trials of the just confirm us in the belief that there must be a future life. Now if I had not the express and infallible word of God to assure me that there is another life after this, that the soul shall not die with the body; if I had not the divine promises of a reward hereafter for the good works of the just, nor the divine threats of a punishment for the sins of the wicked; if all men were to rise up against me, and cry me down, I would still brave them all and maintain the same truth, and an all-sufficient reason for my doing that would be that I see the good suffer and the wicked rejoice in this life. I have no wish to dispute with infidels, idolaters, or atheists; I believe and am infallibly certain from what heaven and earth place before my eyes, that there is one God, and since He is one, I am certain that He is a just Lord. Hear now how I am convinced of the truth in question from the unequal lot of the just and the wicked.
For the good must be rewarded, and the wicked punished: since that is not done here, it must be done hereafter. First: it is certain that the wicked man commits many sins and that the just man does many good actions in his life. Good works merit a reward, and bad ones punishment even in worldly justice, as we know by experience. God could not be God if He were not just; He could not be just if He allowed sin always to go unpunished, if He allowed supernatural good works to go always unrewarded. Now many sinners live in prosperity and joys, in riches and abundance, a fact of which we complain, so that they are evidently not punished here below for their sins. On the other hand, a fact which we deplore., many good people live in sorrow and suffering, in poverty and distress, so that they are not rewarded for their good works here below; therefore there must necessarily be after this life another life in which the former shall be punished and the latter rewarded.
Besides, as the good works of the wicked are rewarded here, and the sins of the just punihsed, the former must expect punishment, the
Again, it is certain that no sinner is so utterly reprobate as not to do some good act now and then. If his wickedness consists in brutal lust, he is at least careful not to violate justice; if it consists in injustice, he lives soberly and chastely; if in cursing, swearing, or drunkenness, he is not ambitious or self-conceited, Whatever maybe his vice, he says an Our Father now and then, he sometimes hears Mass, he observes the fasts of the Church, gives alms, and so on. Mark now the designs of God. Although after the first mortal sin all the sinner’s former good works, no