50. xviii. 5. and the fire is not quenched; that evil men cannot escape the judgment of hell; that the angels shall Mat. xxiii. cast them into a furnace of fire; that they shall de- 33. xii. 42, part into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 8. xxv. 41. his angels. He likewise says that God hath power, Luk. xii. after he hath killed, to cast into hell; and that he is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Thus also Mat. x. 28. in his parables the tares are gathered to be burnt; Mat. xiii. and the rich man is described as tormented in the Luk. xvi. flames of hell. This is the judgment, or condem- 23, 24. nation, the everlasting condemnation, the everlasting Mar. iii. 29. punishment, which he elsewhere speaks of; and which Mat. xxv. he opposes to the resurrection of life, and to life ever- Jo. v. 29, lasting. 30. 46. 24. Mat. xxv. The idea of material fire is conveyed in most of 46. these passages. Gehennai, the word which we render hell, is derived from Gi Hinnom, the Hebrew words which denote the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews burnt their sons and their Jer. vii. 31. xxiii. 10. 44. daughters in the fire. This place Josiah defiled. 2 Kin. The filth and carcases cast into it were first a prey to worms, and then to fire. It was the general re- Mar. ix. ceptacle of polluting substances from the city; and a 1s. Ixvi. 24. continual fire was kept in it to consume them: in allusion to which, everlasting burnings are called by Is. xxxiii. the Chaldee paraphrast the Gehenna of everlasting firek. But archbishop Tillotson says, "The scripture loves to make use of sensible representations to set forth to w, "Adns is the word here; which answers to sw, the grave, the future invisible state: from to ask, because it is insatiable. h Κρίσις, John v. 24. 29; κρίμα, Matt. xxiii. 14; Mark xii. 40; Luke xx. 47. i réevva is the original word in all the passages quoted, except k See Bishop Lowth's most 1 Serm. on Luke xvi. 19, 20. vol. i. Serm. lxxii. fol. 14. us the happiness and misery of the next life; partly by way of condescension to our understandings, and partly to work more powerfully on our affections. For while we are in the body, and immersed in sense, we are most apt to be moved by such descriptions of things as are sensible; and therefore the torments of wicked men in hell are usually in scripture described to us by one of the quickest and sharpest pains that human nature is ordinarily acquainted with, namely, by the pain of burning. But we cannot from these and the Luk.xvi.24. like expressions certainly determine that this is the true and proper pain of hell: all that we can infer from these descriptions is this, that the sufferings of wicked men in the other world shall be very terrible, and as great, and probably greater, than can possibly be described to us by any thing that we are now acquainted with. These forms of speech seem to be calculated and accommodated to our capacities, and not so much intended to express to us the proper and real torments of hell, as to convey to us in a more sensible and affecting manner the sense of what the scripture says in general, that 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Dr. Clarke also asserts m, that "the exact nature and manner of the future punishment of the wicked, any further than is in general necessary to deter us from sin, is not distinctly revealed to us." Whatever sentiments thinking men, intimately acquainted with the scriptures, entertain on this subject; whether that God will for ever inflict a positive punishment on the wicked; or that, after a punishment exactly proportioned to their offences, he will annihilate them; or that a privation of being by fire will be the m Serm. xiv. on the goodness of God, p. 91. fol. mode of everlasting destruction, with which he will 2Thess.i.g. punish them; revelation is express, that their punishment will be dreadful, and coeval with their exist ence. I must further observe a plain implication in our Lord's language, that the degree of future rewards and punishments will be adapted to our respective merits or demerits; and add to what has been already suggested on this point", that for some it is prepared to sit on our Lord's right and left hand in his glorious kingdom, and that some will receive more abundant con- Mat. xxiii. demnation. SECT. VI. What our Lord teaches of good and evil spirits. 14, and p.p. Luk. xi. 2. Mar. viii. Luk. ix. 26. 36. WE learn from our Lord's discourses that the hea- Mat. xxvi. venly angels are a numerous host; that they do God's 53. vi. 1o. will in heaven; that they are raised above the imper- Mat. xxii. fect condition of humanity, and are holy, glorious, and 30.XXV.31. immortal beings; that they are acquainted with many 38. of God's counsels, though not with all; that they are xx. 36. occasionally ministering spirits to mankind, both in Mat. xxiv. this life and the next; that at the last day our Lord Mar. xiii. shall come to judgment, and all the holy angels with Mat. xviii. him; that he shall send them forth, and they shall Luk.xvi.22. sever the wicked from among the just; and that in Mat. xxv. their presence he will confess those who boldly confess him before men, and deny those who timidly deny Luk.xii.8,9. him. 32. IO. 31. xiii. 41, 49. 4I. Our Lord speaks of evil angels and their head in Mat. xxv. the following terms: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." He addresses his tempter by the appellation Mat. iv. 10. of Satan; and the history of the temptation exhibits Luk. iv. 8. this apostate spirit under his proper character, as the n Page 6. o Matt. xx. 23, and parallel places. 19. This Mat. xiii. enemy of all righteousness. The evil one, Satan, and the devil, are used by him as equivalent terms. Luk.viii.12. wicked being is called Satan', because he is the grand adversary of God and goodness; and he is called the devil, because he is their grand calumniator. Our Lord further says, that the unbelieving and wicked Jews were of their father the devil, and willingly executed his desires; who was a manslayer from the beginning, as he seduced our first parents into the commission of a crime which subjected them to death; Gen. iii. 4. and who abode not in the truth, but deceived by lies the progenitors of the human race', and was indeed the original framer of falsehoods. In another place Mat. xiii. evil men are styled by our Lord children of the evil one; his imitators, and partakers of his malignity. Mat. xii. 26. Christ also represents Satan as erecting a kingdom opposite to God's kingdom of righteousness; as a strong man armed, who guardeth his palace, but as overcome, disarmed, and spoiled by one stronger than he'; as the enemy who sowed tares among the good seed; and as taking away the word sown in the hearts of men, lest they should believe and be saved. He repeatedly calls 38. Luk. xi. 18. Mat. xiii. 25, 39. Mar. iv. 15. and p. p. p In Hebrew so signifies ad- word by erißovλos, and in seven- q Gen. iii. 5; he brought a ch. i. 9, 10, 1I: ch. ii. 5. And in the bold language of the Apocalypse he is represented as the accuser of the brethren, as having accused faithful Christians before God day and night: ch. xii. 10. It seems probable that he acted this part towards his fellow-angels in heaven. r And probably the apostate angels. s See that very remarkable passage, John viii. 44. t Luke xi. 21, 22. and parallel places. 2. vi. 12. 13. xxii. 53. 18. 31. him the prince of this world; and describes this ruler See Eph. ii. in the hearts of wicked men as coming to inflict on Jo. xiv. 30. him heavy evils, but finding in him no sin to strengthen See Luk. iv. his power over him; as cast out of his dominion in Jo. xii. 31. the hearts of men; as judged and condemned to suffer Jo. xvi. 11. loss, by having his kingdom of idolatry and vice contracted. When the seventy returned, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us through thy name," he thus figuratively expressed the rapid propagation of his gospel, which tended to establish a kingdom of Luk. x. 17, righteousness; "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." He thus addressed the apostles, when they were in danger of defection from him: "Behold, Satan Luk. xxii. hath desired you, to sift you as wheat;" to shake and overcome your constancy through fear of the Jewish rulers. Many learned men" have thought that our Lord used the popular language of the times, when he represented the woman who had been bowed together for eighteen years as bound by Satan, and when he Luk.xiii. 16. addressed those who are called demoniacs in the Gospels as really under the power of impure and evil spirits. In some places there is an ambiguity in our Lord's manner of expressing himself, as it is transmitted down to us; and it is difficult to determine whether evil, or he who is eminently called the evil one, ought to be understood: as when he says that, in common discourse, whatever is more than plain affirmation or denial cometh of evil; when he teaches us to pray that God would deliver us from evily; and when he intercedes with his Father that he would keep the apostles from evil. u See on this subject, Joseph Mede, Disc. vi; Dr. Mead, Medica Sacra; Sykes; Lardner; and a late very able treatise by Mr. Farmer. * Matt. v. 37, ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ. z John xvii. 15, ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ. |