h utter determination is a moral impossibility,
that no will of man could finally defy and resist the love of GOD. If
that be so, well! But on the assumption that it is not impossible, the
inference which has been drawn is inevitable.

But there are others who in life have never heard of Christ, the millions
of heathen in all ages and all lands since the world began, of whom it
may truly be said that they never had a chance of salvation. To these
may be added many who have indeed fallen in with Christianity, but with a
Christianity of such a sort, presented to them in such a way, in such a
form, and under such circumstances as almost naturally to create in their
minds a really honest doubt and distrust of it. What shall be said of
these honest unbelievers, and, scarcely through their own fault, blind?
As to these, let us ask whether the doctrine of the Intermediate State
can help to give us some better hope.

In the text, {72} we are told that Christ was put to death upon the Cross
in the flesh, but was quickened in His human Spirit, that is to say, that
after His human Spirit left His Body it was still quick or alive. We
know, from the Gospel of S. Luke, whither His human Spirit went. It went
to Paradise. S. Peter now tells us what His Spirit did there. He tells
us that it preached unto other spirits, and he names the spirits of those
who for 120 years, while Noah was building the ark, were disobedient.
They had rejected Noah, "the preacher of righteousness" {73} as S. Peter
calls him; and now a greater Preacher went to preach to them. Further,
we are told, that they were "in prison." The word should rather be
rendered "in safe keeping," that is to say, still waiting, under GOD'S
care, for this visit of Christ's human Spirit, when He should preach to
them. Why the spirits of these men, who lived before the flood, are
singled out for special mention, is a question that does not really bear
upon the point which we have in hand. And we had better keep to that
point, and not be tempted to digress. What then follows from this? Two
things are clear,--first, that from as far back as the days before the
flood, that is to say, from the very beginning of human life on earth,
souls in the Intermediate State had been waiting in safe keeping all
these many thousand years; and, secondly, that the disembodied soul of
our Lord Jesus Christ visited them there and preached to them. Assuming
that these souls had repented,