But men read, "He that believeth not" (the gospel) "shall be damned," [6] and they have been taught to believe that they are damned to all eternity--that they are consigned forever to the flames of hell. The so-called early fathers of the church, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Cyprian, all taught that the fire of hell is a real, material flame; and that the wicked were punished in it eternally. Augustine in the fifth century stated the same doctrine with great emphasis and argued against those who sought to modify it. [7] Thomas Aquinas of the mediaeval school of theologians, rising head and shoulders above divines of his day, teaches in his _Summa Theologia,_ that the fire of hell is of the same nature as ordinary fire, though with different properties; that the place of punishment though not definitely known is probably under the earth. He also taught that there was no redemption for those once damned, their punishment is to be eternal. Coming to more modern times, we read in the Westminster Confession of Faith--adopted in the seventeenth century by the Puritan party in England--the following on the subject: "The wicked who know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into eternal torment and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." [8] Question twenty-nine of the larger catechism and the answer to it are as follows: "What are the punishments of sin in the world to come?" "_Ans._ The punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God, and most grievous torment in soul and body, without intermission, in hell fire forever." The Westminster confession and the larger catechism are still the standards of the Presbyterian churches. Indeed the above expresses the orthodox Christian faith, from the second and third centuries until the present time. One would think that right conceptions of the attributes of justice and mercy as they exist in God's character would lead men to the rejection of the horrible dogma of eternal punishment as taught by orthodox Christianity. But if that be not sufficient then the scriptures themselves refute it, as will appear in the following paragraphs: From a remark made in the writings of the Apostle Peter, [9] we learn that after Messiah was put to death in the flesh "He went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometime" [aforetime] "were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."