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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
13. Part 1, Section 13: Of Belief in a Future State
There must be, as indeed there is, after this, an uninterrupted eternal life, in which, without doubt, the good shall be rewarded, and the wicked inevitably punished.
1. It is well known, that the pious and virtuous in this life, not only do not always receive a proper reward, but that they are in general persecuted, and suffer all manner of afflictions; and that, on the contrary, the wicked, not unfrequently, end their days in every kind of worldly prosperity, while all this takes place according to the infinitely wise purposes of God. But as we said above, that the true worship of God cannot remain unrewarded; consequently, when this does not take place in the present life, equity requires that there should be another life, in which virtue shall receive her reward. And who is capable of supposing, that God created man so, as to suffer every kind of evil in this life, and then irretrievably perish? Even the Heathens themselves were not so blind as to imagine this; they could not bring themselves to think, that virtue could remain unrewarded. Hence, they held an opinion, that the souls of the virtuous were transported to a state of happiness in the Elysian Fields. The Holy Scriptures continually remind us of the future reward, thus, Phil. iii. 20, 21, “For our conversation is in heaven,” &c. And, “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.” Wisdom of Solomon, iii. 1. Farther, the present world is said not to be our dwelling-place, and life is called a pilgrimage, a journey, a race, &c. These considerations ought to comfort the virtuous man in distress, and cheer him amidst his greatest misfortunes, knowing that his virtue can never be forgotten; but shall in due time shine forth like the sun. Moreover, what a powerful motive we have to continue stedfast in the ways of piety, in that it shall be rewarded with eternal happiness in heaven! “For I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Rom. viii. 18.
2. According to the justice of God, rewards and punishments must at some period inevitably take place. But of these rewards, and of that punishment which will overtake sinners, we shall speak afterward, when we come to treat more particularly of a future life in the world to come.