On this page
-
Text (1)
-
866 Miscellaneous Correspondence
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
• I Cor. Xv. 12—18. F See., Particularly...
indeed , been supposed in several passages * to predict as permanent a state of misery to the wicked in a future existence , as of happiness to the virtuous . Of these , one of the most remarkable is in the parabolic scenery of an awful judgment , Mattt . xxv . 41 , 46 . The
contrast , however , between eternal life and eternal fire is exceedingly strong ; the one clearly expressing that exemption from death which he promised to his followers , the other niter destruction . Such , evidently , was the . vengeance of eternal firey' suffered by the cities of Sodom and Gomonha , Jude 7 , and such is the evident meaning of this term in its emblematic as well as in its literal
sense in many other passages . There appears every reason to conclude that Jesus employed it in the same sense in which he frequently employed the terms perish or perishing . But are wicked men here represented as perishing
everlastingly ? This , 1 conceive , would be contrary to the purport of his revelation , which was iC to abolish death , and bring life and immortality to light J' to be i & a propitiation for the sins / ' not of some only , 6 l but of all mankind , " to make known that " as in Adam all die so in
Christ all will be made alive " and thus that as " they have borne the image of the earthy , so shall they bear the image of the
* Particular stress has been laid upon tine undying worm and the unquenched fire , Mark ix . 44 , 46 , 48 ; but as the language is evidently highly figurative , so by referring to Isaiah lxvi . 24 , from which it appears to be taken , it is clear
that destruction , with , perhaps , a long memorial of the fate predicted , are the ideas meant to be conveyed . As the passage in Isaiah relates to the effects of ji destructive war , so , it is probable , that J < esu . s had in this , as on many occasions , am eye to the calamities attendant ou the destruction of Jerusalem , and those with which the unbelieving Jews have since
• I Cor. Xv. 12—18. F See., Particularly...
heavenly" * Obscurity there is in the metaphorical forms of expression ; but as the distinction between the kingdom of heaven prepared for the virtuous , ver . 34 , and the everlasting fire prepared ? not for those who are addressed , but , for the devil and his angels , ver . 41 , must have an important meaning ; so I conceive that meaning to be , that , although sinners
must suffer the effects of their sins so losig as they are retained , yet that they will ultimately be rf < saved though so as by fire ; " for that the devil and his angels , the principles of moral and natural evil , will at length undergo an everlasting destruction . The idea certainly is intended to be conveyed that the paths of sin are the paths of destruction , and that such must be the inevitable
consequence of persevering transgression ; but it is the design of our most gracious Creator to * ' remove the stony heart" of the sinner , and replace it il with a heart of flesh , " to " subdue our sius , and to cast them isto the depths of ttie sea , " and eventually to destroy il the last enemy , death / " itself . p
been afflicted for so many ages . The condemnation of Gehenna , JVIatt . xxiii . 33 , being immediately followed by a distiuct prediction of the fate of Jerusalem with the illative , < s wherefore , " plainly shews that this was the fate intended by that phrase in this instance ; and it is probable that similar ideas are intended by similar phrases in other cases . In general , the permanent or everlasting destruction of whatever is hostile to the
purposes of the divine government seems designed by the use of such strong phrases in application to punishment ; but there are principles appertaining to our common humanity on which it is the great design of God , as communicated by his gospel ., to confer immortal blessings . * 2 Tim . i . 10 ; 1 John ii . 2 ; I Cor . xvo 22 , 49 .
866 Miscellaneous Correspondence
866 Miscellaneous Correspondence
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1830, page 866, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/mrp_02121830/page/66/
-