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• Sin ; . ' '¦ ' - - '¦ * * " S the great end of Christianity , is A to realize the blessings of an immortal life to mankind , so the great means by which it aims to accomplish
this end , is the gradual establish men t of " the kingdom of God and his righ ^ teousness ; " in other words ,, the prom otion of true religion and virtue , and the removal of their opposites , more
especially by modifying and ultimately effecting the extinction of all those dominations to which they owe their chief support . To effect these objects the doctrine , miracles and example of Christ were immediately directed .
Whatever blessings may be in reserve for our race , when they shall have attained to very exalted degrees of intellect and virtue , in a state quite removed from this earth and world , the immediate object of our Lord ' s efforts was evidently to introduce righteousness and consequent felicity into it . The whole
of his prayer , John xvii ., is occupied with the steps by which this object was to be accomplished , as the form of prayer which he has left for our use contains the express petition , that the kingdom of God may come , and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven .
Much good and evil would attend the progress of his gospel , leading to the establishment of his kingdom , and the successive alterations and final removal of other governments . This good and tril , including a variety of circumstances , formed the frequent subjects of his predictions , and as the Jews , whom he addressed , were chiefly
interested in the particulars of the introduction of his gospel into the world , and the consequences of its acknowledgment or rejection to those of their own generation , his prophetic declarations have often a pointed relation to these topics . The dreadful calamities which befel the Jewish nation in
cons equence of their incredulity and wickedness were foretold by him , sometimes in plain , :, aifcd sometimes in ngurative terms ; the latter appear to Jj&ve been in same instances mistaken for predictions , concerning the punishment of all wicked men in . a future
5 ?™ - There are other prophecies of Christ , which appear to relate to the calamities of Jthe subjects ofc Antichrist m these later ages ^ xmd which bein g « ttpjfcssed ~ by similar symbolsm&y
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reasonably , admit of an interjiretatiitfh < upon similar principles . . J ; : ^ > D The same or similar expressions &re
used in the Scriptures to denote ; virar and other temporal calamities , ' wfeicSi are supposed to relate ta tl * e HuffeHi ^ s of a . future state . * ¦¦ ' FJhmtfigiJdfa quenchable and eternal fipejtfnd 1 'the undying worm * which * are seme of $ &fe
strongest phrases that are , or mdeeSl can be employed to express punishment , plainly indicate in some p ^ sages the violence , miseries and ; ilestruction attendant on warfare ; an * 3 Pit is reasonable to employ these plain passages in interpreting others ^ Vhere the sense is more obscure or uneeirt&itt .
and to conclude that the purport-of such phrases is the same , or similar in all cases , in which they are usfc& > in prophetic language to denote divine judgments , and where it does not appear from the context , or from other
considerations , that they require a different interpretation . The term Gehenna in the Gospels is generally ui * - derstood to signify the place- —and the fire of Gehenna the state or condition of the punishment of the wicked
beyond the grave ; as is the furnace of fire in the parable of the tares , arid the everlasting fire ' , or everlasting punishment , Matt . xxv . 41 , 46 . I submit the following remarks on the two former of these passages : " Gehenna" observes Dr .
Campbell , " is originally a compound of two Hebrew words ge hinnom , the valley of Hinnom , a place near Jerusalem , of which we first read in the book of Joshua xv . 8 . The place was also called Tophet , 2 Kings xxiii . 10 . ?> We read , Jer . xix . 6—8 , " Behold the
d ^ ys come , saith Jehovah , that this place shall no more be called Tophet , nor the valley of the son of Hinnom , but the valley of slaughter ; and I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place , and I will cause them to fall by the sword before
their enemies , and I will mak £ this city desolate and a hissing / ' &e . / Immediately after the apostrophe to the Pharisees , Matt , xxiii . 33 , Hcrvv ^ c&h ye escape the judgment of < 3 ehertii& ?* follows from v , ers r 34—38 j a like &x * plicit prediction of temporalcalamjfti ^ to come upon that gdhdrifticfhf * . ¦ 'ii' > * ,. ¦ > i " - :: r , ; --i h * See Isaiah lxvi , ' l ± W 6 y ^ 4 Y ^ Jtide ^
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Passages of Scripture supposed to relate to I ^ ture ^ Puhhhment . 2 ^ 3
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, vou xv . 2 n
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1820, page 273, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2488/page/17/
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