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LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL; 



A REFUTATION 



THEORY OF ANNIHILATION. 



BY SAMUEL C. R^TLETT, D.D., 

PROFE6SOB IN CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINABT. 




PUBLISHED BY THE 

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

28 CORNHILL, BOSTON. 



no . 



Entered, accordiDg to Adt of Congress, in the year 1866, bjr 

Thx Ambri£an Tract Socibty, 

In the Clerk's Office of the Diatria Court of the Distria of Massachusetts. 



Boston: 
Geo. C. Rand & Avery, Stereotypers and Printers. 



PREFACE. 



This Yolume was prepared at the earnest solioitatkm of mai^ 
persons who fonnd no full and satisfactory reply to the spe- 
cious argaments of annihiladonists, and who were greatly trou- 
bled at their industrious e£R)rts to difibse the ejBbem. It was 
nearly completed more than two years since, and only lacked a. 
final reyision preparatory to publication. But a sudden and 
longKSontinued pressure of other duties has preyented that le- 
yision until the present time. Meanwhile, no considerable change 
has taken place in the aspect of tiie case, and no new treatise of 
any account has appeared. But the heresy has been laboriously 
disseminating itself. Its ablest advocate in this country trayels, 
about, selling his own books, and boasting of a larger number of 
adherents among educated men than we suppose the facts will 
warrant. But we do receive information from various quarters, 
that many simple-minded persons are led astray by Uie sophistiy. 
Among our Baptist brethren, we hear of some very considerable 
movements, as in Gratiot County, IMGch., where Uie sect has 
gained strength enough to attempt the building of a church. 
And, in the denomination to which the writer belongs, we have 
not forgotten the development at a recent council held in Port- 
land, Me. 

The spread of this error di£fers somewhat from that of Uni- 
versalism. The latter has never, in this country, made any con- 
siderable progress among devout persons. Individual cases may 
perhaps be mentioned of seemingly pious and spiritual men 
who have accepted the belief of universal salvation. But the 

irreatmass of its advocates have been those who have manifiasted 

* iii 



iv PREFACE. 

no religious life whatever. It is otherwise with the present sys- 
tem. We are told that it has, in many instances, ensnared men 
of unquestioned piety. 

The chief plausibility of the argument for annihilation lies 
upon the surface ; and its greatest force is felt by those who 
have never analyzed language so much as to reflect upon the 
idioms that constantly flow from their own lips, and that run 
through the word of God. To this class of men there is pre- 
sented a set of phrases, carefully detached from all other sub- 
jects and all other similar uses, and they are startled, as it were, 
into an entire misapprehension of the forms of speech familiar 
from their childhood ; just as a man, who for the first time looks 
through a powerful microscope, is confounded by the appearance 
of the insect that has been buzzing round him all day long.. To 
this class of men, most of the arguments for annihilation are ad- 
dressed ; and from them largely, we believe, are its adherents 
drawn. There are others, however, of more reading and men- 
tal culture ; and arguments have been written for them also, — 
arguments presented with much parade of learning, yet making 
no scruple to deny some of the plainest facts in the history of 
opinion, and to accumulate the most heterogeneous monstrosities 
and incompatible fiBdlacies in interpreting the word of God. 

It has been found necessary, in the present discussion, to at- 
tempt the somewhat difficult task of meeting the wants of two 
quite different classes, — to frame an argument intelligible to 
** plain people," and satisfactory to the more scholarly and crit- 
ical It is hoped that each class will be indulgent to the other. 
The writer would have preferred to retain the work still longer 
in his hands, for improvement in various respects. But the 
friends who have called for it are impatient of delay, and the 
want is thought to be pressing. His own labors are meanwhile 
imperatively demanded in other directions. He is willing, there- 
fore, to issue the work as it is, for the purpose of doing good, 
rather than to retain it for the sake of higher elaboration. Should 
any portions of the discussion seem to require further confirma- 
tion, modification, expansion, or abridgment, it may be done 
hereafter as experience shall dictate. 



PREFACE. V 

In the general correctness of his statements, and the entire 
soundness of his main positions, the writer has absolnte confi- 
dence. In the multiplicity of topics considered, however, he 
can not hope to have escaped some minor oversights not aflfectmg 
the validity of the argument. Any such blemishes will be 
cheerfully corrected on being pointed out. 

This volume is not written in reply to any one writer. As 
matter of fact, more allusions will be found to the writings of Mr. 
Xj, F. Hudson than of any other author ; for the reason that Mr. 
Hudson, having devoted the labor of years to the subject, has 
presented by far the most respectable work in advocacy of the 
doctrine of annihilation. His chief treatise, ** Debt and Grace," ! 
unquestionably combines a great amount of labor, and a very ' 
high degree of dexterity in the presentation. It has been cus- 
tomary for some evangelical writers to praise the fairness and 
candor of his discussion ; commendations which we can account 
for only on the supposition that the writers have never followed 
him, as we have done, through any considerable number of his 
quotations aod interpretations. We have made no attempt at a 
review and criticism of his procedures, except in a few instances 
where.it lay very directly in our way. To do so would require 
a larger volume than his own, and would change the character 
of the discussion. ^ 

We have commonly employed the term " annihilation " to 
designate the cessation of existence which these writers advocate. 
We are aware that many of them object to the term as not be- 
ing fully expressive of their mode of stating and arguing the 
case. We would only say that we can not be debarred the use 
of a convenient, indeed an indispensable, term, out of deferenoe 
to their preferences. We state their views and arguments fairly 
and fully; and it will be found, we trust, that the validity of 
our reasoning does not at all hinge upon the name by which we 
characterize the system. 

It will be observed that we do not devote any of our discus- 
sion to the natural evidence of immortality. The argument 
seemed to us sufficient without it. We have shown that the 
Scriptures actually and historically involve the doctrine. We 



Vi PREFACE. 

night, like others, have taken the ground that the Scriptures 
oould assume it as the belief of the race. For, as matter of 
facty the race have believed it. We certainly have testimony 
showing that the expectation of another life existed throughout 
the tribes of the Western Continent, from Greenland to Patagonia. 
African tribes, New-Zealanders, Feejees, Sandwich-Islanders, 
Kamtschadales, Philippine-Islanders, Papuans, Bomeans, Chi- 
nese, have held the belief in all parts of the world. It was the 
doctrine of the ancient Yedas and of the Egyptian monuments ; 
it lies embedded in the Greek and Roman mythologies ; it was 
held by Persian, Etruscan, Celt, Gaul, and Scandinavian. In 
modified forms, it is received by five hundred million Brahmin- 
ists and Buddhists to-day. The exceptions are apparently 
limited to two classes : First, perhaps, certain tribes too de- 
graded to have developed the full functions of humanity ; sec- 
ondly, certain individuals and sects in very advanced states of 
society, who have deliberately trained themselves as doubters, 
as the Epicureans of Greece and Bome, the Sadducees of Judea, 
the Bevolutionists of France, and the Annihilationists of Eng- 
land and America. 

How the human race have so universally attained this belief, 
thus shown to be natural, it is not important here to indicate 
We believe it to be not so much the result of speculative rear 
sonings as of a pressuA on the moral nature. Jast as Gt)d*s 
own existence is revealed practically to every man in that inner 
authority, that irrepressible law of right which saith, ** Thou shalt, 
and thou shalt not ; " so he intimates a future state practicallt/, 
by the irresistible apprehensions of a guilty conscience, by the 
yearnings for immortality which are restrained only by those 
fears, and which throb again in the holy, and by the natural 
sense of the necessity of another state to rectify the inequalities 
of this. These intuitive impressions, no doubt, are subse- 
quently re-enforced by arguments drawn from various sources. 
But the conviction is older than the arguments. 

Chicago, Jane, 1666. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

REFUTATION OF THE ARGUMENTS ADVANCED IN SUPPORT 
OF THE ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE DOCTBINE OF ANNIHILATION STATBB. 

The doctrine of eternal punishment generally admitted to be in the Bible. 
A few deniers, who are in threefold conflict with each other, — Universal- 
ists, Bestorationists, Annihilationists. The latter differ. The whole ques- 
tion one of fact and testimony. God the only witness, and the Scriptures 
his testimony. Annihilation appeals only subordinately to Scripture, and 
with a narrow range. It depends on a few perverted phrases 15 

CHAPTER n. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE BOBIPTUBE ABOXTMENT FOB 
ANNIHILATION. 

The Bible speaks in the idioms of the common people: figurative on all 
subjects. On one subject, annihilationism materiaUzes, Jacob Blain. 
The process of human speech: first, outward and physical. Spiritual 
phenomena symbolized by material. Examples from common life. Ma- 
terial interpretation contradicts the real meaning. Examples of Scripture 
phraseology; never misunderstood by common readers; fully recognized 
on all other subjects ; wrenched out of all analogy on this. The same pro- 
cess would find a material God, and did find an earthly Messianic kingdom 
in the Bible 23 

, CHAPTER m. 

THE BCBIPTUBE ABQUMENT FOB ANNIHILATION EXAMINED. — DEATH 
AND LIFE. 

The words " death " and " life " comprehensively describe the two destinies ; 
therefore are frequently, but not exclusively employed. Every such in* 

vii 



Viii CONTENTS. 

stance is quoted by annihUationists to prove extinction of the sinner. 1. 
But they do not even literally, and in the lower sense, signify the contin- 
nance or cessation of existence. 2. They also have in alWlanguages a 
higher or pregnant sense. Instances from common life, classical usage, 
and the Scriptures. All involve a common element of meaning; only the 
Scriptures propose a higher aim of Uving. 8. In the Scriptures, the terms 
denote spiritual conditions, with their a^'uncts and issues. The terms 
singularly appropriate and natural. Philo Judseus. The origin of the 
usage found in Gen. iii. The passage interprets itself. This mode of ut- 
terance runs through the Bible; life, eternal life, death, the second death. 
Indisputable instances considered : Luke xv. 24, 82 ; 1 Tim. v. 6 ; Matt 
viii. 22; Rev. iii, 1; Eph. ii. 1-6; Col. ii. 18 (modified use of Eph. iii. 8; 
Rom. vi. 1,11); John v. 24: iJohn iii. 14, 15 ; John vi. 47; Gal. ii. 19, 
20; John xi. 25, 26; viii. 51; 1 Tim. vi. 19; John iii. 86. Life begins at 
regeneration (Rom. vi. 4, 14; Eph. v. 14). Consists in the true knowledge 
of God (John xvii. 8). Scholarly commentators of all classes accept this 
interpretation. Life may be viewed in its beginning or its consummation, 
therefore under variant aspects. The whole usage sustained by the phrase 
** kingdom of heaven,*' in all respects. Analagous representations of a 
present sonship — a union to Christ or separation from him — health and 
disease — liberty and slavery. This usage of life and d^ath abundant 
in the Bible. The states are very often viewed in their consummation, 
as states of pre-eminent blessedness or woe. No objection that the words 
are used also in the lower sense of physical life and death. Sarcasms of 
Blain and Hudson superfluous. Their evasive assumptions, that " life " 
is made merely synonymous with happiness, and " death " merely the 
punishment of sin by sin. Chief method of evasion, prolepnt. Alleged 
instances examined, and the argument refuted. Hudson involves him- 
self in contradictions, and virtually yields the point. The case summed 
up 36 



CHAPTER IV. 

THB SCBIPTUBE ABOUMENT EXAMINED. — '' DESTBUOTION '' AND 
OTHEB TEBMS. 

AnnihUationists attempt to press several other words and phrases to their 
support. The attempt refuted in the following instances: destroy and de- 
struction; perish and perdition ; lose and lost; consume and devour; tear 
m pieces, break in pieces; grind to powder ; cut oflf; blot out; not be; 
be as nothing; be nought; end; burn; bum up; put under his feet. The 
futility of the annihilationist argument shown by numerous quotations 
from the mouth of Job, who, while uttering them, should have been ex- 
tinct more than twenty times over 92 



CONTENTS. ix 



CHAPTER V. 

rHB SCBIPTUBB ABGUMBNT EXAMIKBD. — THE RESUBBECTION AND 
THE SECOND DEATH. 

Promises of a blessed resurrection perverted into promises of a " resurrec- 
tion state" (Johnvi. 39,40; Luke xx. 85; Phil. iii. 11). The fallacy 
refuted, and the tables turned. The fact of any resurrection for the 
wicked an ominous difficulty to annihilationists. Confession of Mr. Hud- 
son. Confusion among the advocates : some deny the fact. Hudson re- 
duces it to a minimum. An unsuccessful attempt to rise. The second 
death. Alleged literal sense. Hudson resorts to the Rabbins of later 
date, with no clear usage nor definite result. The New Testament capable 
of explaining itself. The phrase occurs four times, in one of which (Bev. 
xxi. 8), it is explained as " having their part " in the lake of fire; else- 
where described as a place of perpetual torment. This view sustained 
by Rev. XX. 14, 16. The latter passage discussed 117 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE BATIONAL ABGUMENT EXAMINED. 

The chief reliance of the system. Quotations firom Hudson and Hastings. 
Arguments from the nature of evil, and the nature of God. Evil alleged 
to be (1) not necessary in God^s universe, (2) frail in its own nature. 
Fallaciousness of the positions. The argument from God*s attributes 
answered negatively from our incompetency to decide for him ; and posi- 
tively from existing facts : sin is and has been here from the creation. 
Its eternal continuance involves no dilferent principle. Common misap- 
prehension refuted by Dr. Whately, — not the amount of evil, but its ex- 
istence, constitutes the difficulty. Its continuance for a time proves its 
continuance for eternity to be compatible with God's perfections, if suffi- 
cient reasons exist. Will the reasons cease V What are they? The pres- 
ent aspect of the case an overwhelming refutation. The triumph over sin. 
John Foster quoted, and refUted by himself. 129 



PART n. 

POSITIVE DISPROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF ANNIHILATION. 
CHAPTER I. 

BELIEF OF A FUTUBE EXISTENCE AMONO THE EABLIEB JEWS. 

The inquiry mportant. Belief of another state of existence familiar to the 
Jews from ancient times. 1. Their residence in Egypt must have 
made them conversant with it. It existed in Egypt. Proof not alone 



X CONTENTS. 

firom historic testimony, bat from the sarviying records,— papyms-rolls, 
mommy-cases, tombs. Wilkinson, Hansen, Lepsias, Roth. 2. The He- 
brew doctrine of the soal lays a foandation for it. The animating spirit 
everywhere distinguished from the earthly body. Quotations. 8. An- 
other sphere of existence early indicated in the translation of Enoch; 
the testimony repeated in the case of El^ah. 4. The patriarchs are gath- 
ered to their fathers. The meaning of the statement proved by incontro- 
vertible cases. Admitted by scholars of all schools. Baumgarten, Gerlach, 
Knobel, Delitzsch. 5. The present life was reckoned a pilgrimage. 6. 
The practice of invoking the dead required to be forbidden by law. A 
monarch violates the law of his kingdom. 7. Distinct refereijoes aie 
made to the other world as a scene of retribution. Clear instances. — Pa. 
xvi., xvii., Ixviii., xlix. ; Eccl. xii. 13, 14; Dan. xii. 2, 8, and others. 148 

CHAPTER n. 

BBLIBF OF ▲ FUTURE BXI8TENCE AMONG THE JEWS AT OHBIST'S 
COMING. 

The fact susceptible of clear proof by secular and sacred writers. Josephus 
on the Pharisees, Essenes, and Sadducees. His own remonstrance with 
his comrades, and other passages. The attempt to impeach the testimony 
of Josephus refuted at large. The testimony of Tacitus imperfectly given 
by Hudson. The testimony of Philo, very full and explicit. Paul's al- 
lusion to the Jewish doctrine (Acts xxiv. 15). Other implications in the 
New Testament of the general admission of a future existence for all 
(Luke XX. 27-88; Acts xxiii. 5-8; Matt. xxii. 28; John xi. 24). John 
the Baptist " risen " (Matt. xiv. 2) 168 

CHAPTER m. 

HBW TB8TAMBNT TEACHINGS. — IMMORTALITY. — IMMBDIATB 
DESTINT. 

The Saviour and his apostles, finding the doctrine of twofold retribution, 
were not called upon to announce the fact as a new teaching. Naturally 
dwelt on the characters to which these retributions should be assigned. 
Had no occasion to dilate on an abstract immortality, but only on a con- 
crete retribution. " The immortal soul: " cavil of Hastings and Hudson 
answered. The Scripture view and mode of speech; deals with the ac- 
tual fate of men hereafter. The Scriptures afl&rm the conscious existence 
of both classes after death, and prior to the resurrection. 1. The righteous 
(1) might e^joy celestial glories without the body (2 Oor. xii. 8); (2) 
would eiy'oy them if separated from the body (Phil. i. 21-24; 2 Cor. v. 
1-9); (8) and do enter on them at once after death (Luke xxiii. 42, 48). 
Perversions refhted (Acts vii. 66-60); (4) spirits of departed believers are 
with Gk)d (Heb. xii. 28; vi. 12; Rev. xiv. 18; vi. 9-11). 2. The wicked 



CONTENTS. xi 

pass immediately to their doom. Analogy from the fate of fallen angels. 
Specific indications (Acts i. 25; 1 Pet Hi. 1&-20; Luke xyi. 19-81). Ob- 
jections and evasions. Hudson, Hastings, Blain, Burnham, Storrs, 
Whately. 2 Pet. ii. 9 189 

CHAPTER IV. 

NSW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. — A BESUBBBGTIO^N AND A JUDGMENT 
FOB THE WICKED. 

Death leaves both classes of men in a state of existence and of conscious- 
ness. The Scriptures follow them further, to the judgment and the final 
retribution. The doctrine of a general judgment. Hinted at in the Old 
Testament; revealed in the New. The last day universal; the wicked 
will be present. The judgment preceded by the resurrection of the 
wicked as well as the good. Proofs. Cavils. The momentous signifi- 
cance of the resurrection. Embarrasses the annihilationists. Hastings 
admits the difficulty. Others deny the fact. Some evade. Hudson's res- 
urrection. 281 

CHAPTER V. 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. — ^SHABING THE DOOM OF SATAN. 

Companions in the doom of the wicked ; the fallen angels. Scriptures de- 
cisive. The doom of fallen angels is suffering, incessant and endless. 
Proof-texts. Replied of Dobney, Blain, Ellis and Bead, Hudson. Mar- 
velous interpretations, — ".dramatic *' annihilation. Satan's doom. Bruis- 
ing the serpent's head. The utterances of the Apocalypse sustained by 
the gospels. The abyss; deep; bottomless-pit; lake of fire. Besult. 249 

CHAPTER VI. 

HEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. — DIRECT DECLABATIONS. — FUTUBE 
PUNISHMENT CONSISTS IN SUFFERING. 

The question is not left to inference. The Scriptures unfold in detail the 
meaning of their own threats. Degrees of punishment involve the fact 
of conscious suffering. The difficulty felt. Reply of Dobney, Hastings, 
and others. Its insufficiency and inconsistency. The sufferings of the 
wicked vary like the joys of the righteous. The direct statements of the 
New Testament lay the whole emphasis of the punishment on the suffer- 
ing involved. Instances. Whatever the figure, the suffering is the main 
feature. " Outer darkness *' attended with " gnashing of teeth." The 
** furnace of fire ; " the " portion with hypocrites; " exclusion ttom the 
kingdom ; all coupled with the same description. " Tormeixt " in the lake 
of fire. Evasions. The unquenchable fire. Various evasions considered. 
Everlasting punishment. The words vacated of theif proper meaning by 
annihilationists. Their devices examined. Other passages 264 



xii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VU. 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACUINGS. — SUFFBBIMOS P&OTBACTEO AND 
ENDLESS. 

The ScriptureB teach not only soffering in the ftiture, but that suflfeiing 
protracted and endless. In various modes, 1. Passages which involye 
the representation without using the words *^ everlasting," etc. (Matt. v. 
25; xviii. 84, 86; xii. 81, 82). 2. Passages which employ the terms 
" eternal," etc. (Matt. iii. 12; Mark ix. 48-48; Matt. xxv. 41, 46; xvui. 8; 
Jude 7; 2The0. i. 9; Jude6; MarkUi. 29; Heb. vi. 1,2; Jude 18; 2 Pet 
ii. 17 ; Bev. xiv. 11 ; xix. 8 ; xx. 10). The terms discussed, and evasions 
refuted at length. Limited duration, eternity of effect, or finality, alleged 
instances of "finality" (Heb. v. 9; vi. 2; ix. 12; xiii, 20; Philem. 16; 
Rev. xiv. 6). 8. The suffering of the wicked coeval and co-eternal with 
the happiness of the righteous. Simultaneous with it (Luke xiii. 24-30; 
Matt viii. 11, 12; Bev. xxii. 14, 16; and other passages). Co-eternal 
(Matt xxv. 84-41,46; 2 Thess. i. 7-11) 298 

CHAPTER Vm. 

TENDENCIES AND AFFINITIES OF THF STSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 

Theories show their character in their influences and affinities. Time is 
requisite, and freedom from outer restraint. This system too young to 
have a history. But its tendencies already betray tfiemselves. 1. Bation- 
alism: a disposition to disparage and over-ride God's Word. Quotations 
firom Hudson, Ellis and Bead, Blain, Hastings, Bumham. 2. Sympathy 
with the Universalist and infidel, and concessions to them. Employing 
their modes of argument. Conceding the validity of their positions as 
against orthodoxy. Quotations. 8. Materialism: the denial of the spirit's 
existence. Storrs, Blain, Ellis and Bead, openly renounce the belief of 
any soul distinct from the body and its functions. Quotations. The fact 
deprecated by Hudson. 4. Gross sensualism. Conclusion 384 



APPENDIX. 

Note A. Extracts on Life and Death 369 

Note B. The meaning of Phil. i. 21-24 861 

Note 0. Hades ... 864 

Note D. Misinterpretation of Dan. xii. 2 866 

Note E. Perversion of Bev. xx. 10 868 

Note F: Unquenchable Fire 374 

Note G. The meaning of KohianQ 377 

Note H. Gehenna 381 

Note L The Book of Enoch on future punishment 888 



LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 



LIFE AND DEATH ETEENAL. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE DOCTRINE OF ANNIHILATION STATED. 

THE great mass of believers in the divine inspira- 
tion and authority of the Bible, in all ages, have 
understood that book plainly to assert the endless 
misery of the wicked. Open rejecters of the divine 
authority of the volume, men of scholarship and abil- 
ity, priding themselves upon accepting no man's state- 
ment at second hand, have also declared that doctrine 
to be among the things that " Jesus taught." * 

By the general admission of friend and foe, that 
doctrine is in the Scriptures. It is there, not as the 
central doctrine of the scheme of grace, nor as the 
vital truth on which depends the soul's regeneration 
and sanctification, but as the dark back-ground of that 
scheme of grace, — a solemn feature of God's govern- 
ment, and a fact of momentous import to the human 

* "I believe that Jesas Christ taught eternal torment: ... I do not 
aocept it on his authority." — Theodore Pabkbr*b *♦ Two Sermons," 
p. 14. 



16 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

race. Its aspect is confessedly terrific. The thought 
of it is appalling, and sometimes confounding, even to 
those who are safe from its power; while those who 
claim no such protection can not fail to look upon it 
with dread and aversion. If the fact could be set 
aside from God's government by the vote of his sin- 
ning subjects, it would at once be stricken out by an 
overwhelming majority. It is not surprising that the 
doctrine should be resisted ; that some should reject 
the volume that contains it; and that others, con« 
strained to receive the book, should labor hard to 
clear it of the doctrine. Accordingly, in the midst of 
this general agreement, there have arisen from time to 
time individuals and bodies of men who have denied 
that the doctrine of endless misery is in the word of 
God. 

But here appears a singular phenomenon : the op- 
posers can not agree among themselves. They are at 
irreconcilable odds. They say, " The Bible does not 
teach that the destiny of the wicked is endless suffer- 
ing." We ask them, " What, then, does it declare to be 
their future destiny ?" And the first and largest body 
of them answer, " SuflFering, we know not how pro- 
tracted and severe, but final restoration to holiness 
and happiness.'* Another portion boldly say, " No pun- 
ishment at all hereafter ; but all men at death enter on 
a state of happiness." And here comes a third section, 
who, with equal boldness and positiveness, aver that 
Gk)d'8 word teaches neither the future sufifering and 
recovery, nor the immediate blessedness, of the wicked, 
but their complete extinction. Antagonism could not 
be more total than it is between the advocates of final 



THE DOCTRINE OF ANNimLATlON STATED. 17 

Restoration, of extreme Universalism, and of Annihi- 
lation. The fact is significant: the great body of 
interpreters, friend and foe, agreeing as to the clear 
teaching of- the Bible on this subject ; a minority 
denying, but propounding instead three separate doc- 
trines, as contradictory to each other as to that which 
they deny ! 

The present discussion concerns only the third of 
these three errors, — the theory which teaches the anni- 
hilation of the impenitent wicked. The fundamental 
doctrine common to the advocates of the theory is this: 
The death with which God threatened sin, and which 
actually became the doom of the sinful race, was ab- 
solute extinction of being. Only believers in Christ 
are delivered from this doom ; and immortality is 
the "eternal life" which was promised to his fol- 
lowers. 

In the subordinate doctrines, the advocates of anni- 
hilation are not agreed. Most of their writers hold 
that this extinction of being takes place when the 
body dies ; the soul or spirit being nothing more 
than the life of the man. Thus says Jacob Blain, 
" The Bible plainly tells us that men and beasts are 
made of the same material, 'dust;' and that both 
have the ' same breath ; ' and that they both die alike, 
— but, mark, a resurrection is not told for both." 
Again : " The existence of a soul or spirit as an entity 
within us is only inferred from a few uncertain texts, 
which can be explained another way ; while numerous 
plain texts and the sense of the Bible are against it."* 
Thomas Bead lays down as one of his main positions, 

* Death, not Life, pp. 39, 42. 



18 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

** The corporeal being and mortality of the soul, and 
the nature of the spirit of man; which spirit, not 
being a living entity, is neither mortal nor immortal;" 
and afiBrms, that " no conscious spirit or soul survives 
the death of man." * George Storrs, in discussing the 
question, "Does the Bible teach that the creature, 
man which the Lord God formed of the dust of the 
ground, has a superadded entity called the soul ? " 
says, " We take the negative; " f ^^^ again : " I regard 
the phrase ' immaterial,' as one which properly belongs 
to the things which are not ; a sound without sense or 
meaning ; a mere cloak to hide the nakedness of the 
theory of an immortal soul in man." J Zenas Camp- 
bell declares that "no Scripture or philosophy has 
ever yet been shown to prove the mind any thing more 
than an attribute of the living, organized dust ; and if 
so, it must cease with the life of the body." § Thus 
the whole being becomes extinct at death. At the 
resurrection, God re-organizes the body, and endows it 
with its former active and thinking powers : the right- 
eous then live on for ever ; and the wicked are again 
blotted out of existence, — which is the second death. 
Some of the writers speak doubtfully about the resur- 
rection of the wicked, or even deny it. 

H. L. Hastings not only holds to the resurrection of 
the wicked, but intimates that their complete extinc- 
tion may occupy a protracted and unknown period 
thereafter. || 

* Bible vs. Tradition, pp. 18, 121. 

\ Discussion between Prof. H. Mattison and George Storrs, p. 4. 

X Six Sermons, by George Storrs, p. 29. 

§ The Age of Gospel Light. 

y Retributiou, or The Doom of the Ungodly, pp. 77, 163. 



THE DOCTRINE OF ANNIHILATION STATED 19 

0. F. Hudson teaches that the sentence is executed 
in two installments, — the dissolution of the body first, 
then the extinction of the soul at the time of resur- 
rection. Rejecting the- extreme materialism of his 
coadjutors, he holds that the soul may require the 
body as the necessary means of its activity. An inter- 
mediate state or " detention " receives all souls on 
parting from the body, — a state of inaction, which, at 
its close, may seem to have been but momentary, and 
to which, in the case of the righteous, he applies the 
phrase "fallen asleep" in Christ; from which, at the 
resurrection, the just are called forth to be clothed 
with a glorified body, and to enter on immortal activ- 
ity ; and from which, like a damaged seed that ex- 
hausts its vitality and perishes in the act of germina- 
tion, the unjust start up at the voice of God to become 
extinct in the very act.* 

The whole question thus at issue is a question of 
fact. The only valid testimony concerning it must be 
the declaration of Him who holds the destiny of the 
soul in his hands. For as no being on earth can pre- 
tend to have witnessed events that lie still in the fu- 
ture, so none can testify what they shall be, except 
Him on whose sole decision they depend. Nor can 
any man, from his general estimate of God's character, 
affirm what definite thing God will do. It would 
require a knowledge of God's whole being, resources, 
views, intentions, of his entire plan of government, 
with all its necessities and peculiarities, more thor- 
oughly exhaustive than one man ever yet possessed 
concerning a fellow-nian, his equal. To declare cou- 

* Debt and Grace, pp. 263-4. 



20 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

fidently what God will do with the finally impenitent, 
aside from his own declaration, is to put ourselves in 
the place of God. In the absence of all communi- 
cations from him, the judgments of our reason and 
the anticipations of our moral nature would be enti- 
tled to some respect, more or less. Reason has ex- 
pressed her apprehensions of a coming retribution. 
But to give positive-testimony as to the facts or meth- 
ods of the case is beyond her province ; much more, 
to speak in opposition to God's testimony. 

We repeat it, God is the only competent witness on 
this subject. If therefore we accept the Scriptures as 
the word of God, and if the Scriptures have spoken on 
this subject, it is in the highest degree reprehensible 
to draw our decisive views on this subject from any 
other source, or to override their fair testimony by any 
other considerations. Against sound testimony mere 
speculations are never of any account : against the 
testimony of God they are preposterous. 

Our appeal, then, is to the Scriptures. The advo- 
cates of annihilation profess to make this appeal, but 
often in such a way as to show that the decisive con- 
sideration lies elsewhere. Thus Mr. Hudson, who has 
written far the most elaborate treatise in defense of 
the doctrine, in a volume of four hundred and seventy 
pages devotes but sixty-seven to the scriptural argu- 
ment, which lies embedded in a great mass of other 
matter, and seems to form but a limited part of his 
reliance. Stimulated, however, by the remark of a re- 
viewer who called attention to this circumstance, the 
same writer subsequently published a separate volume 
of Scripture arguments " to meet the convenience of 



THE DOCTiUNE OF ANNIHILATION STATED. 21 

tiiose who rely ^ for their views of future life^ upon their 
reading and interpretation of the Scriptures. '^^ In 
the preface, from which we quote, he also adds, that 
he " doubts if an exclusively scriptural argument will 
prove satisfactory to very many, however clearly it 
may appear to be made out." * This is a confession 
indeed. The treatises of Blain and others, though in 
form more scriptural, are sprinkled with remarks 
which indicate that certain rational considerations are 
allowed great weight in determining the question. 
These considerations will receive some attention in the 
course of this discussion. But the first business is to 
examine the testimony of the Scriptures. 

Now, all the plausibility there is in the scriptural ar- 
gument for annihilation consists of two main features: 
first, the constant restriction of the phrase " eternal 
life," with its opposite, " death," to denote simply con- 
tinued existence and cessation of existence respectively, 
in violation alike of the common use and the clear 
Scripture use of the words ; and, secondly, the attempt 
to confine certain other expressions, setting forth the 
punitive anger of God in vivid and terrific material 
imagery, down to the lowest sensual aspect of those 
figurative expressions. Among these phrases are the 
following : to be destroyed or lost, to perish, to be 
devoured, to be consumed, slain, cut off*, torn in pieces, 
broken to pieces, dashed in pieces, crushed, ground to 
powder, burned, or burned up, cut in sunder, to be as 
nothing, to be as ashes, to be put away as dross ; per- 
dition, end, corruption. All these diverse, and, if lit- 
erally taken, conflicting modes of representation are 

• Christ our Life, preface, p. 3. 



22 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

cited as couveying the one meaning of annihilation. 
These several modes of expression will be examined 
in due time. Meanwhile it becomes necessary to say 
something concerning the genuine methods of repre- 
sentation employed in the Scriptures, and concerning 
the radical fallacy with which those representations 
are treated by the advocates of annihilation. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE FUNDAMENTAL VICE OP THE SCRIPTUBB ABGUMENT 
FOB ANNIHO-ATION. 

THE Scriptures everywhere speak in the language 
of the people. They never employ metaphysical 
terms , but constantly set forth the most thoroughly 
spiritual facts by means of such sense images as the 
common people always use and understand. It is a 
book not for the metaphysicians, but for the millions. 
Its language and idioms throughout are conformed to 
those of the multitude. As it is the imiversal custom to 
speak of men as elevated, cast down, sunk, overthrown, 
wounded, stung, cut to the heart, broken, broken 
down, broken up, devoured, consumed, eaten up, shat- 
tered, crushed, and the like, to denote purely spiritual 
phenomena, which leave the entire being of the man 
unimpaired ; precisely so the Scriptures speak in the 
language of men. Abundant expressions of this gen- 
eral nature are found extending through the Old and 
New Testaments. Indeed, it is mostly by such figura- 
tive expressions, — and that too, as will presently be 
shown, from the necessity of the case, — that all the 
leading truths concerning God's dealings and man's 
destiny are communicated. They are employed, not 
alone respecting the destiny of the wicked, but con- 
cerning the enjoyments of the righteous, and all the 
other themes of the word of God. 

28 



24 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

Now, the grand mistake of the system under dis- 
cussion is, that its advocates single out one topic from 
the whole mass of themes, and violate here the whole 
usage of the Bible to maintain their tenet. Men who 
see in a moment the folly of understanding literally 
the statement that David's soul "thirsteth," "panteth," 
" melteth," and is " poured out," or that the righteous 
are to attend a great wedding-feast, where they shall 
eat and drink, and recline in Abraham's bosom, lay 
aside all the settled laws of speech when they reach 
this one subject, — the future destiny of the wicked. 
Terms that are plainly metaphorical, or terms that are 
used in a secondary or pregnant sense, they insist on 
forcing down to a narrow and sensuous meaning, which 
is inconsistent alike with the general tenor of Scrip- 
ture phraseology, and with the use of these very phrases 
in other passages. On this one subject, the future des- 
tiny of the wicked, they persistently degrade all phrase- 
ology to a gross, material meaning. If a term has both a 
lower and a higher signification, in this connection they 
insist upon the lower. If a term significant of spiritual 
facts had a sensuous origin, — as nearly all such terms 
have had, — they maintain that the sensuous meaning 
must still cling to it. If a figure of speech vividly 
presenting the vehemence of God's vengeance, and the 
intensity of its impression, be drawn — as from the 
nature of the case it must be — from objects and 
scenes in which intensity of action produces disorgani- 
zation, the system seizes on that mere material and in- 
cidental feature, the disorganization, and refuses to 
see all the deeper significance of the description. It 
takes nothing but the husk. No language, much less 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT, 25 

an oriental tongue, will bear such treatment. It is 
simply a materializing of human speech ; rather it 
takes away the life, and leaves but the carcass. 

A notable, though somewhat extreme illustration of 
this process appears in the argument of Mr. Blain in 
regard to the nature of the spirit, or soul. He finds 
that the Hebrew and Greek words meaning spirit (one 
of which he invariably misspells) have an original 
meaning of " breath,'' that the Greek word " soul," 
sometimes means life ; and on this basis, in defiance 
of the insuperable evidence to the contrary, and with 
a heavy rebuke of our " careless translators," and the 
" folly of our popular expositions," he boldly maintains 
that the Bible declares the spirit to be but the breath, 
and the soul but the life, of the body.* The argument, 
of course, is precisely the same as if one should maintain, 
that, because the English words " spirit " and " soul " 
are derived from words signifying to breathe and to 
blow, therefore the whole body of English theologians 
believe the soul, or spirit, to be but the breath ; and 
that, when the heart is spoken of as the fountain of 
sin and the seat of holiness, we mean to refer those 
qualities to that physical organ in the human body 
which carries on the circulation of the blood. 

It may be well to glance at the process of human 
speech in all such subjects. The primary reference of 
all, or nearly all, language seems to have been outward 
and physical. Outward observation is the earliest and 
most universal exercise of the human faculties. Ma- 
terial things require first to be named, and material 
acts to be described. Accordingly, the basis of all 

* Death, not Life, pp. 27-42. 



26 ^tP^ ^^^ DEATH ETERNAL. 

speech is sensuous, and its primary meaning external 
and concrete. Intellectual and spiritual existences, 
facts, and transactions, more slowly attract the atten- 
tion, and are with more diflSculty apprehended and de- 
scribed. In thinking of them, men are accustomed 
to aid their thoughts by viewing them under the anal- 
ogies of the material things so much more familiar to 
them. Under such analogies, they represent them to 
others. Thus it has come to pass that the terms which 
now undeniably designate spiritual phenomena, are 
words originally of physical origin and use, transferred 
to a secondary and higher meaning. Sometimes they 
have entirely lost their primary reference ; sometimes 
they retain it in connection with the other and higher 
meanings. So, also, the longer forms of statement, 
whereby mental states, emotions, acts, and results are 
set forth, are almost of necessity analogical. It is pe- 
culiarly so in the more concrete and simple languages, 
and in addresses of a popular cast. Indeed it would 
puzzle a metaphysician to describe a state of high men- 
tal emotion in any other way. His statements, when 
analyzed, would prove to be a series of physical meta- 
phors, while yet he is speaking of mental phenomena. 

Thus, to perceive, was, by origin, to take through ; 
to conceive, to take together ; to imagine, to have an 
image ; to apprehend, to lay hold of; to reflect, to turn 
back ; to excite, to summon forth ; to provoke, to call 
forth. So with a multitude of words of Latin origin. 
In the Saxon usage, a man of hot blood is a passionate 
man ; a man of good blood is of good descent, or an- 
cestry ; a man of nerve is a firm man. Heart stands 
continually for aflection or feeling, and brain for intel- 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT, 27 

lect. Stiff-necked is obstinate. To be keen, sharp, 
dull, heavy, to have a long head, a thick skin, a 
heavy hand, a sharp tongue, a foul mouth, are desig- 
nations of intellectual and moral traits, though the 
form of speech has a purely physical aspect. A man 
is broken down with sorrow, crushed with calamity, 
lacerated with grief, rent with anguish, melted with 
emotion, when every faculty of mind and body is sound 
and whole. He is prostrated with fear, is irretrievably 
fallen, is ruined, not in body but in soul, when yet 
the substance and all the powers of his soul remain 
untouched. He is eaten up by ftvarice, racked with 
anxiety, devoured by ambition, consumed with lust, 
sunk in vice, drowned in sorrow, burned up with fierce 
and evil passions, — and that, too, when his being and 
all its essential functions are so far from extinct, that 
tbey are in a state of the most intense activity. 

These last-mentioned phrases illustrate, to one who 
has through all his life heard and used such common idi- 
oms of speech without ever having carefully examined 
ihem, several important principles : First, that the use 
of strongly sensuous es;pressions concerning immaterial 
facts and phenomena is in no danger of misleading 
the common mind, but is the necessary mode of setting 
forth those subjects in their intensity. Second, that 
an assertion couched in figurative language is just as 
real and substantial as one made in more literal terms, 
only more significant. Third, that a low and material 
construction of such phrases gives a result in direct 
contradiction to their real and well-understood mean- 
ing. Fourth, that, from the very nature of material 
objects, no vivid comparison or illustration can be 



28 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

drawn from them to spiritual things, without involving 
some incidental element that could be pressed into 
direct opposition to the true intent of the comparison 
as a whole. Now, it would be idle to explain to any 
man, that, in the phrases above cited, the words 
" crushed,'* " ruined," " consumed," " devoured," 
" eaten up," " drowned," do not imply extinction. It 
would be ridiculous to argue that they do ; and yet 
this is precisely the kind of reasoning with which annir 
hilationism encounters the Bible. The words do not 
even imply suspension of functions, but the greatest 
activity. 

The gross fallacy of dealing thus with the language 
of the Scriptures becomes still more apparent when we 
look more closely at their peculiar style of speech. 
The language of the Old Testament, both in its indi- 
vidual terms and more extended forms of expression, 
is remarkably concrete and sensuous. Intellectual and 
moral qualities, acts, and results are constantly repre- 
sented in physical modes. Prom a vast multitude of 
instances consider the following, many of them lost in 
the translation. The common word for anger prima- 
rily means nostrils ; fierce anger was a burning ; fer- 
vent prayer, a heat ; pains, writhings ; possession 
(sometimes), a measuring-line ; honor, weight ; afflic- 
tions, straits ; prosperity, a large place ; a man's con- 
duct, his way or path ; his presence, his face ; right 
conduct, straight paths ; innocency, clean hands ; pride, 
a high look. The word signifying to transgress means 
primarily to miss the mark ; to bless or pray, to kneel; 
to worship, to prostrate one's self; to mourn, to smite 
[the breast] ; to exult, to move in a circle or dance ; 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT. 29 

to swear, to seven one's self, or use the sacred number ; 
to begin, to perforate or open ; to favor or delight in, to 
curve towards ; to listen, to make sharp [the ears] ; 
to flatter, to make smooth [the tongue] ; to slander 
(in one instance at least), to walk with or upon the 
tongue. To spy out a land was to travel over* it, or 
to dig through it. To exact usury was to bite, then to 
vex. Ardent desire was a thirsting or panting of the 
soul ; vehement affection, a yearning of the bowels. 
Oppression of the poor (Isa. iii. 15) is literally to 
grind, or still more literally to beat small, their faces 
or persons. When David prays (Ps. li. 2), " Wash 
me thoroughly from mine iniquity," he uses a word 
which is understood to have originally signified to 
trample with the feet in washing. A strictly literal 
translation of the phrase (Dan. vi. 24), " those men 
which had accused Daniel," would be, " who ate the 
pieces of Daniel." When men were utterly dismayed 
and dispirited (Josh. vii. 6 ; ii. 11), their " hearts melt- 
ed, and became as water." If the children of Israel 
are exhorted to be pure and obedient, they are (Deut. 
X. 16) to " circumcise the foreskin of their heart, and be 
no more stiff-necked." It was prophesied (Num. xxiv. 
8) that Israel should " eat up the nations his enemies, 
and break [literally,^ craunch] their bones." David cel- 
ebrates the completeness of his triumph, when he was 
delivered " out of the hand of all his enemies, and out 
of the hand of Saul" (2 Sam. xxii. 1), by the strong 
figure (ver. 43), " Then did I beat them as small as 
the dust of the earth ; I did stamp them as the mire of 
the street, and did spread them abroad." When the 
wicked persecute the righteous (Ps. xiv. 4), they 



30 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

" eat up my people as they eat bread." In Mic. iii. 2, 
3, the oppression of evil rulers is described with star- 
tling minuteness of imagery : "Who pluck oflf their skin 
from oflF them, and their flesh from off their bones ; who 
also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from 
off them ; and they break their bones, and chop them 
in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh within the cal- 
dron." To be terrified or dismayed is commonly ex- 
pressed (Job vii. 14 ; Josh. i. 9, &c.) by a word which 
literally means and is elsewhere translated (Isa. ix. 4 ; 
Jer. li. 56) to be broken, or, more fully, to be broken 
in pieces. 

The dealings of God are described in a similar way. 
Calamities are his plagues, literally blows ; he swal- 
lows up the wall of Jerusalem (Lam. ii. 8) ; he makes 
his arrows drunk with blood, and his sword devours 
flesh (Deut. xxxii. 42) ; and Jeremiah says of him, 
" He hath broken my bones," " He hath pulled me in 
pieces," " Thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied " (Lam. 
iii. 4, 11, 43). 

The meaning of these and a great multitude of sim- 
ilar expressions is perfectly clear. To adhere to the 
primary meaning of the words and phrases is not 
alone utterly to miss the real meaning of the writer, 
but, in some instances, to convert the whole into an ab- 
surdity. Thus, Daniel was alive and well after his 
enemies had eaten his pieces. The Israelites certainly 
were not cannibals. The inhabitants of Canaan had 
not received the slightest physical hurt, only a terrible 
alarm, when their hearts melted, and there did not re- 
main any more spirit [so the original, Josh. ii. 11] in 
any man. Jeremiah and his fellows were still alivq to 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT. Z\ 

make their complaint, though part of their lamenta- 
tion was, tliat they were pulled in pieces and slain, and 
even (Lam. iii. 63) that " they have cut off my life in 
the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me." God's mak- 
ing his arrows drunk with blood, and devouring flesh 
with his sword, and his swallowing up the wall of Je- 
rusalem, no man presses further than to express a fear- 
ful vengeance stich as those acts vividly set forth. Nor 
do such expressions indicate a single and transient ac- 
tion, but often a prolonged course of punishment. 

Here comes to view, then, the principle underlying 
the Scripture representations even of transactions the 
most spiritual, including alike men's innermost experi- 
ences, and God's relations and proceedings towards 
men. They are all set forth by such material phe- 
nomena as are well known and powerfully impressive ; 
but only certain aspects of those phenomena are had in 
view, to the entire exclusion of certain others which 
may be, in fact, connected with them. As the most 
vivid image of firmness, stability, and shelter, God is 
called " a rock ; " although a perverse ingenuity might 
torture out of the same image the meaning of indiffer- 
ence and insensibility. His vigilance, and power to 
protect his friends and defeat his foes, are strongly set 
forth, when it is said, " The Lord is a man of war ; " 
but all other, even the more common qualities of an 
actual human warrior of those days, are excluded from 
the thought. He bestows upon his friends a fearless 
strength when he " exalts their horn like the horn of 
an unicorn : " with that one trait all resemblance ends. 
Sometimes God is compared to the " fierce lion " (Job 
iv. 10; Isa. xxxi. 4), and is described as tearing in 



32 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

pieces (Lam. iii. 10, 11), breaking the bones (Isa. 
xxxviii. 13), devouring his prey, and rending the 
caul of their heart (Hos. xiii. 7, 8) ; but here, assur- 
edly, the irresistibleness and terribleness of his punish- 
ments are the qualities in view, while, of course, the 
bloodthirstiness and cruelty of the actual beast of prey, 
and its bodily laceration of its victim, are wholly out 
of the question. Sometimes the terror of his anger is 
denoted by the tempest, the lightning, and the fire 
(Ps. xviii. 7-17). Its awfully overwhelming power is 
represented by the wind driving the chaflF before it 
(Ps. i. 4), or the flame sweeping through the stubble 
(Mai. iv. 1). The completeness of his victory is sym- 
bolized in various ways : he is the warrior, setting his 
foot on the neck of his enemies (Ps. ex. 1), or ruling 
with a rod of iron (Ps. ii. 9). He is the vintager, 
treading down the people in the wine-press of wrath, 
and trampling them in his fury, the blood staining all 
his raiment (Isa. Ixiii.); yea, the " blood came out of the 
wine-press even unto the horses' bridles, by the space 
of a thousand and six hundred furlongs '^ (Rev. xiv. 
20). He is the stone grinding them to powder (Matt, 
xxi. 44). "He shall swallow them up in his wrath, 
and the fire shall devour them'* (Ps. xxi. 9), — two 
incompatible processes combined in one image of ter- 
ror. His enemies are brought to naught ; they are 
nothing ; they are put away as dross ; they consume 
into smoke ; they are trodden down, and' are as ashes 
under his feet ; the remembrance of them is cut oflF 
fjpom the earth ; their ''place shall not be.'' 

Now, any one who casts his eye over these collected 
representations should see, even without any detailed 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT. 33 

exposition, that the one common element in them all 
is the simple idea of a terrific overthrow and punish- 
ment, overwhelming, resistless. That one fact stands 
out perfectly distinct through all these varied symbols ; 
and that alone. Press the imagery down to any lower 
pointy and you make the representations incompatible 
with each other ; some of them absurd, and some of 
them intolerable. What shall we say of the stream of 
blood bridle-deep, and two hundred miles long ? Dare 
we assign it any more definite idea than that of a ter- 
rible vengeance? but that one thought if fearfully 
sets forth. What shall we say of swallowing, pulling 
in pieces, and rending the caul of the heart? Dare 
we press it further than to mean an overthrow and 
punishment as helpless and complete as when a torn 
victim is undergoing this dismemberment by some re- 
sistless beast of prey ? Putting them away as dross, 
treading them down, driving them as chaflF, even cut- 
ting oflF the remembrance of them, cutting off their 
place, are no images of annihilation ; but these and all 
the others are obvious and striking representations of 
helpless, hopeless overthrow. 

The principle thus brought to view is the selection 
of the most striking facts of the outward world to rep- 
resent spiritual transactions, and the fixing of the 
mind upon some one prominent aspect of the material 
image to the exclusion of all its other bearings ; and 
that, too, while the material image rigidly pressed in 
all its possible bearings, and especially its lower ones, 
would contradict the real meaning of the writer. And 
let it be noted, that, from the nature of the case, it is 
impossible to select any material symbol in which such 



84 MFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

intense action as is here represented shall not be inci- 
dentally attended with disorganizatioh. No compari- 
son can hold except in certain respects; much less 
can anj perfect analogy be found between things sen- 
sual and things spiritual. The sacred writers could 
not select any material symbols of Qod's anger and its 
effects, which should be free from the incidental fea- 
ture of transientness and perishableness. 

Now, here the annihilationist steps in, and insists, in 
every instance, on passing by the clear and striking 
point of the representation to fix only on this inciden- 
tal and unavoidable defect growing out of the nature 
of the case, and cuts down all these varied and im- 
pressive representations to a mere dissolution, or rather 
annihilation. He does it in dejumce of the whole usage 
of Scripture, which employs these and kindred terms, 
as we have seen and shall see further, concerning per- 
sons and bodies of men still extant, with every faculty 
of body and soul in full vigor. 

In precisely the same manner in which the annihila- 
tion argument is conducted, and with equal strength, 
an ingenious disputant might show that God is en- 
dowed with eyes, ears, arms, hands, feet, a nose, mouth, 
tongue, heart ; is armed with weapons, — sword, bow, 
spear, shield ; rides in a chariot ; travels from place to 
place ; possesses all the passions and modes of think- 
ing and acting of an exalted man ; has children ; lives 
in a splendid mansion ; and the like. 

On the same principle, the Pharisees looked for a 
warrior-Christ, coming with a splendid earthly retinue 
and pomp to crush out all himian oppressors and exalt 
the Jewish nation to the hight of earthly power. It 



FUNDAMENTAL VICE OF THE ARGUMENT, 85 

was the same spirit of gross and sensual interpretation, 
abandoning the spirit for the letter, the kernel for the 
husk. 

This principle of interpretation is a false one, — 
specious, perhaps, to those who look only on the sur- 
face of speech a9d only at this one theme in the 
Scriptures, but refuted by the conunonest usage of 
language, by the entire method of Scripture expression, 
and by tiie plain and frequent meaning of these very 
forms of speech. 

Having looked at the fallacy of the fundamental 
principle, we shall now proceed to consider the details. 



CHAPTER in. 

THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED: DEATH AND UPB. 

IF it can be shown that the doctrine of a future ex- 
istence was the received doctrine of the Israelitish 
nation, it would be proper to insist that all the phrase- 
ology quoted by annihilationists must be understood as 
modified or controlled by that supposition. But we 
are perfectly willing, for the present, to waive that 
important consideration, and to examine those phrases 
on the simple ground of Scripture usage. 

The chief stronghold of the system under exami- 
nation is founded upon the use of the words " death " 
and " life '* in the Scriptures. Mr. Hudson correctly 
remarks, that these are the terms most commonly used 
to represent the respective destinies of men. And for 
a good reason : they are brief, striking, and singularly 
comprehensive. Still they are not, by any means, the 
only modes of representation : but the destiny of the 
wicked is frequently described in very varied forms of 
speech, expressive of the deepest positive suflFering; 
and the future condition of the righteous is represented 
as one of comfort and joy. 

Now, every instance in which death is threatened 
to the sinner is quoted as proof of his annihilation. 
It is, says Mr. Blain, " extinction of being, soul, and 
body." Says Mr. Dobney, death is " a return to that 

36 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 3* 

state of blank nothingness from which the Almighty 
fiat had so recently called " our first parents ; while 
the promised life is " existence only," or, as he waver- 
ingly adds in parenthesis, "at all events, chiefly." 
Mr. Hudson has much to say of the necessity of hold- 
ing to the literal sense of these terms, although he 
noticeably refrains from saying, in so many words, that 
life is mere existence ; while yet, as we shall see, the 
meaning that his argument requires is not the literal 
sense of the terms. Meanwhile every passage in which 
death or dying is threatened to the sinner is quoted as 
proof of annihilation. Mr. Blain accumulates upwards 
of fifty texts from the Scriptures : Mr. Hudson pushes 
the matter further still, and adduces all the passages 
he finds among the early Christian fathers, containing 
these phrases, to prove that they held the doctrine of 
annihilation. And yet he is obliged' to admit that 
" these terms are sometimes used in a tropical sense ;" * 
and Mr. Dobney will not "deny that Uife' may 
sometimes be used in the sense alleged," that is, in a 
higher or pregnant sense.f 

But the attempt to prove the doctrine of annihilation 
from the threats of death to the sinner, and promises 
of eternal life to the believer, can not sustain an exami- 
nation. 

1. Death does not literally mean, nor does it include, 
extinction of being, cessation of existence, or even 
dissolution ; nor is life, in its lower sense, simply synon- 
ymous with existence. The distinction between the 
animate and inanimate is not between the existent and 

* Debt apd Grace, p. 172. 

t The Scripture Doctrine of Future Panishment, p. 168. 



38 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

the non-existent. Here are two trees: one is dead, 
and the other is alive, but they both are in existence, 
and both are trees. Death does not itself signify even 
decay or dissolution ; for the dead tree is still entire. 
A dead body is still a body, though dead. It is still 
in existence : it exists as a body, sometimes for two or 
three thousand years, — not a living body, still a body. 

It is therefore an egregious oversight to say or imply 
that the common or literal meaning of the word " death " 
is cessation of being. It does not of itself include, but 
is distinct from, the dissolution which usually follows 
physical death: and that dissolution, again, is not 
extinction, only a change of form ; for no matter is 
annihilated. Accordingly, none of the definitions of 
the word " death," as found in Webster's Dictionary, 
include annihilation ; while the primary meaning of 
the word, as there given, turns, not on the extinction 
of being, but on the cessation of certain fomctums. 
How thoroughly this harmonizes with and forms the 
basis of the scriptural use of the word " death," as de- 
scribing the effect of sin, will presently appear. Mean- 
while, let it be settled that ^^ death " does not literally 
and in its lowest use signify extinction of being, nor 
" life " simply its continuance. 

The Scripture itself shall be our witness on this 
point, even when speaking of subjects not endowed 
with immortality. " Thou fool ! that which thou sow- 
est is not quickened, except it die " (1 Cor. xv. 86). 
" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die^ 
it abideth alone ; but, ifU die, it bringeth forth much 
fruit " (John xii.«24). Is a grain of wheat annihilated 
in order to germinate ? or is there merely a change 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 39 

of condition and mode of action, while its existence 
and properties remain ? 

2. But, secondly, there is found, running through 
all languages, a higher, and what some lexicographers 
have called a pregnant, sense of these words, " life " 
and " death," whereby they denote not only the per- 
formance or cessation of certain functions, but also the 
healthful, harmonious, and happy performance of them, 
or the contrary. They respect the normal and com- 
plete discharge of those functions, especially in the 
higher faculties of animated beings. Life is then a 
state of healthful activity, and thus also of prosperity 
or true welfare. 

Indeed, we speak even of the life of something not 
properly animate to designate its force, spirit, or what- 
ever makes it sound, valuable, or adequate to its proper 
end. Dead capital is that which lies useless or un- 
productive. A lifeless poem is simply one which lacks 
the higher qualities of poetry. A speech falls dead 
when it fails to make the appropriate impression : or, 
on the other hand, the speaker's manner is full of ani- 
mation ; and his speech, of life. We speak of a live 
enterprise, or of lifeless yeast or wine. 

Still more conunon is the use of the words " live " 
and " life," to express a condition of welfare, prosper- 
ity, or enjoyment. 

Sometimes in the Old Testament these terms describe 
simple bodily health and activity. Thus in Josh. v. 8 : 
" When they had done circumcising all the people, 
ihey abode in their places in the camp till they 
were whole ; " in the Hebrew, '^ till they lived " or 
were alive. A vigorous woman was, in the Hebrew, 



40 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

a "living" woman (Exod.i. 19), and a valiant man was 
one who was " alive " (2 Sam. xxiii. 20). Decay of the 
generative power in the human system, as one of its 
most important functions, is described (in Rom. iv. 
19) as " the deadness of Sarah's womb,'' and Abra- 
ham's " body now dead." Ahaziah and Hezekiah both 
inquire, " Shall I recover" — literally, "shall I live '' — 
from this disease? (2 Kings i. 2 ; viii. 8.) 

The Hebrew used the same terms to express a more 
general welfare, whether of body, mind, or condition. 
Samson's refreshment after extreme thirst (Judg. xv. 
19), and Jacob's rallying from deep grief, are described 
by the same Hebrew word, as their " living," or com- 
ing to life, or, as the translators give it, " reviving ; " 
on the other hand, the extreme terror and mental dis- 
tress of Nabal (1 Sam. xxv. 37) is described by the 
words, " His heart died within him, and he became as a 
stone." The form of shouting wishes of joy and prosper- 
ity to the Hebrew monarchs (1 Sam. x. 24 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 
16) was, "Let the king live! " like the modern French 
cry, " Vive le roi ! " * When David repaired Jerusa- 
lem after its capture from the Jebusites (1 Chron. xi. 
8), he " made it alive." When the Psalmist prays that 
God would restore their former prosperity and happi- 
ness to his people, he prays (Ps. Ixxxv. 6), " Wilt thou 
not make us alive again, that thy people may rejoice in 
thee ? " Says Solomon, " Hope deferred maketh the 
heart sick ; but, when desire cometh, it is a tree of 
life," i.e. clearly, of joy and happiness. Similar is the 
passage, " A man's life consisteth not in the abundance 



* We need not continually repeat that we follow the original in these 
instances from the Old Testament. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 41 

of the things which he possesseth" (Luke xii. 15). A 
very striking instance occurs in 1 Thess. iii. 8 : " For 
now we live^ if ye stand fast in the Lord," — we are 
happy, blessed. The same radical conception of life 
as denoting, not simple existence, but. true functional 
activity, alone can explain such opposite phrases as 
"dead faith" (Jas. ii. 17, 20, 26) and " dead works " 
(Heb. vi. 1 ; ix. 14). The faith was dead because it 
put forth none of the true activities of gospel faith ; the 
works, because they contained within no such vital 
force. Neither of them had ever been alive : they had 
not died, though they were " dead." The words here 
designate condition rather than transaction. The land 
of Egypt is spoken of as "dying" (Gen. xlvii. 19), 
when, as explained in the same verse, it was " desolate ; " 
and Pharaoh names the terrible ruin which the locusts 
brought upon Egypt, as " this death " (Exod. x. 17). 

The Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament, 
furnish numerous other cases in which " life," clearly, 
and by the agreement of the best lexicographers and 
interpreters, signifies true functional action, welfare, 
prosperity, happmess, and the like ; and " death," its 
opposite. The above examples are sufficient. 

A similar usage occurs in our own habits of speech 
on serious subjects. We speak of men as being alive 
to every good enterprise and to every high considera- 
tion, or as dead to all better feelings and higher pur- 
poses, to all good, to their friends or family, to society 
or their country ; of a living death ; of a life worthy of 
the name ; of the diflFerence being living and exist- 
ing:— 

" That man may last, but never lives, 
Who much receives, yet nothing gives." 



42 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

But, should any one object that this is a theological 
phraseology, we send him to the Greek and Latin 
classics to find the same usage there. He may turn 
to Freund's, Andrews', or Leverett's Lexicon, and find 
that mro, to live, also means ^^ to live well, live at ease, 
enjoy life," with references to Cicero, Horace, Lucilius, 
Catullus, and Sallust. " Since you urge me to labor 
and ambition," says Cicero, " I will comply ; but when 
shall we live ? " Says Horace, " Master of himself, and 
joyously does that man pass his time, who can daily 
say, I have lived." Says the well-known inscription, 
" Dum vivimtLS^ vivamtts " — " While we live, let us 
live." Cicero, in his " Old Age," speaks of a " vita vita- 
lis.^^ It were as easy as it is unnecessary to accumulate 
instances of this kind. It hardly seems a metaphorical 
meaning of the words : * the lexicons well designate 
it as a "pregnant" meaning, — one which the words 
involve whenever they are applied, not to a mere or- 
ganism, but specifically to an intellectual and sentient 
being.f 

The same usage occurs in the Greek : Cow, " to live," 
has also the meaning " to be active, efficient," and the 
still higher meaning " to live prosperously and truly." J 

* Mr. Hudson in his later work is constrained to make the important ad- 
mission that words sometimes ** break beyond the limits of the letter. Bat 
when this lively sense becomes the ordinary sense, that is only a neio UUral 
or proper <efue" (Christ our Life, p. 66). He insists, however, that, in all 
cases, the primary sense htLsprimd facie evidence in its favor. But even 
this will depend wholly on the nature of the subject, and the conditions of 
the speech. Is there are any primd facie evidence that " perceive '* desig- 
nates, in any given case, recognition with the eye ? 

t A lower grade of meaning is common enough in the Latin writers in 
such phrases as "living dew," "Ifving water," "living rock," "dead 
laws," " dead applause," etc. 

t See Passow's Lexicon, under the word. 



THE SCEIPTURB ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 43 

Thus Socrates (Xenophon's Mem., iii. 8, 11) speaks of 
" whatever noblest things we have learned convention^ 
ally, whereby we know how to live," i.e. to live as we 
ought ; and still more distinctly Dio Cassius (69, 19) 
uses the expression, " having been alive so many years, 
but having lived (^oas) seven years." 

In truth,the word " life," instead of denoting simple 
existence, has for its very point and specialty to ex- 
press something more, — something superadded. Whcd 
that additional idea is, wiU depend upon the speaker^ 8 
view, permanerU or passing, of the real office, end^ and 
use of U/e. According to the elevation of his views, 
the word becomes more and more " pregnant." Such 
a process is an absolute necessity of human thought. 
Its lower planes of meaning are of freshness and pres- 
ervation, of the power of vegetable development ; 
then of sentient and conscious existence, activity, 
efficiency, and the like ; then of prosperity and enjoy- 
ment ; and, higher yet, of harmonious moral develop- 
ment, and fulfillment of the great moral aims of human 
existence. All this will depend on the point of view. 
It was therefore natural for the Egyptian midwives to 
describe the vigorous Hebrew women as " alive ; " for 
the populace to say, " Let the king live," when they 
wished him a prosperous reign ; for Cicero, oveiv 
whelmed with labor and care, to look forward to a 
happy leisure as " life ; " and for Socrates (Plato's Re- 
pub, vi. 495, c.) to describe those who renounced phi- 
losophical studies as leading no " true life." In all 
these instances, the word was used to denote something 
more than existence ; and that something varied with 



44 LIJfJB ^^D DEATH ETERNAL, 

the notion entertained of the proper condition and 
work of the human being. 

Equally natural was it for those taking a still higher 
view of the functions of a human being to designate 
the fulfillment of those higher functions as life. , 

3. Here we are brought naturally and directly to the 
common Scripture use of the terms "life" and "death." 

For the word of God contemplates and addresses 
man chiefly in a far higher light than that of Cicero or 
Socrates ; not simply as a being made to act, think, 
or receive pleasure, but as a moral, accountable being, 
made to " fear God and keep his commandments," and 
thus to live in holy and intimate union with his 
Maker. 

Now J that spiritual state in which man is living in in- 
timate union with God^ performing the true work of life^ 
a/nd reaping the blessed fruits^ in which all the func- 
tions of his being are harmoniously and happily ac- 
complished, the Scriptures abundantly and constantly 
name upe ; and its opposite condition they term death. 
The words describe the spiritual condition of the man 
in this world, and still more emphatically its completed 
results in another world. Sometimes the present, 
sometimes the future aspect of the case, is mor^ prom- 
inently in view; sometimes the total state is gathered 
up without special discrimination of its aspects. This 
use of the terms is a fact which no sophistry can 
evade. 

And let it be observed, also, that no single terms 
could be found, so appropriate in themselves, or so 
conformed to the whole scriptural conception of the 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 45 

chief end of man's being. The thought is complex : 
vital connection with the living God, spontaneous 
growth and action of an inner principle, harmonious 
development of the soul after the true law of its being, 
holiness, and resulting blessedness. All this can 
be summed up in no one term so fit as "life;" and 
its opposite, " death." They tell the tale of the high- 
est, truest use, and of the utmost perversion and abuse, 
— each in one word. Accordingly, it is noticeable 
that the New Testament never announces the whole 
condition and destiny of the good by such terms as 
happiness, blessedness, or felicity. Even Mr. Hudson 
calls attention to this fact : " It was enough for Christ 
and the apostles to talk about /i/e,"T-for the obvious 
reason that no term of less breadth and fullness could 
adequately set forth the complex good that Christ 
works in the soul.* The New-Testament view is well 
exhibited in Rom. ii. 7, where " glory, honor, immor- 
tality" [incorruption], are all given as the synonyms 

* Mr. Hudson does not seem to be aware that this admission is fatal to 
his theory that eternal life is, in Scripture, eternal existence, solely or chief- 
ly. For he holds that, in fact, that future state will be one of holy blessed- 
ness. But do the sacred writers, when they speak of that state, constantly 
ignore its grand characteristic and glory? Or is not the very constancy 
with which they employ the term " life," conclusive evidence that they com- 
prise therein the whole multiform well-being of the saint? 

A constant fallacy runs through Mr. Hudson's representation of the com- 
mon view. Thus: " He who was the * Resurrection and the Life * was dan- 
gerously literal in his style of speech, if he simply meant that he came to 
give happiness to immortal beings." Yet no sound evangelical writer 
teaches that Christ came simply to give happiness to immortal beings. 
This constant false assumption is one of the chief points of plausibility in 
Mr. Hudson*8 argument. The issue he makes is this. Does " life " eternal 
mean happmeas, or existence? We answer, in the Savior's use it involves 
both, and more also. No system but a low style of Universalism lays the 
chief stress of eternal life on the happiness alone. 



46 tlFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

of eternal life. Nothing but " life " in its most preg- 
nant meaning can express the divine idea of the work 
that goes on for ever in the regenerate heart. 

^^ Death," on the other hand, is that state of separa- 
tion from God, and from the beatific fruition of God, 
in which all the higher faculties of human nature are 
working falsely and discordantly ; in which the true 
end of living is discarded, and its true enjoyment lost ; 
and in which there is at last the complete extinction, 
not of the soul's being, but of its well-being. It sums 
up the whole penalty of sin ; the complex woe, begin- 
ning here, matured and perfected hereafter. 

Indeed, the very thought and phrase which annihi- 
lationists have pronounced absurd * — "a death that 
never ends" — is found expressed and expanded by a 
Jewish writer cotemporary with Paul. Says Philo 
Judadus of the first murderer's punishment, " What 
was it ? That he should live coMimuiUy dyings and 
that he should in a manner endure undying and never- 
ending death. • . . Consider how it is that death can 
be said to be never ending in this man's case. Since 
there are four different affections to which the soul is 
liable, two of them being conversant with evil, either 
present or expected, namely, sorrow and fear, it cuts 
up by the roots the pair of them which are conversant 
with good, in order that the man may never receive 
pleasure from any accident of fortune, nor ever feel a 
desire for any thing pleasant ; and it leaves him only 
those affections conversant about evil, — sorrow without 
any mixture of cheerfulness, and unmixed fear ; for 
the Scripture says that God laid a curse upon the fra- 

* See Stokbs* Six Sermons, p. 120, et seq. 



THB aCBlPTUBE ARQUMBNT EXAMINED. 47 

tricide, so that he should be continually groaning and 
trembling. Moreover, he put a mark upon him, that 
he might never be pitied by any one ; so that he might 
not die at once, but might, as I have said, pass all his 
time in dyings amid griefs and pains and incessant 
calamities." * 

The origin of this mode of speech is not difficult to 
decide upon. While physical death as the most terri- 
ble of natural events would be a ready symbol for the 
most feiurful woes to the spirit,! we beliove the actual 
connection to be historic, originating in the record of 
the fall and the curse : ^^ In the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die." That this included 
physical death, the Scriptures leave no room to doubt ; 
nor may we reasonably doubt that at once there passed 
upon the frame the mysterious change which was to 
bring it surely to the dust. But that this was not all 
the curse, nor its most immediate and perceptible 
effect, nor the chief stress of its terror, lies on the face 
of the record, and is found in Ctod's own unfolding of 
the sentence. 

What was the immediate result of the transgression ? 
The sense of guilt and shame, — " They saw that they 
were naked;" severance from Gk)d, terror, and recoil- 
ing from his presence, with total loss of the joys of 
intercourse with him, — " I heard thy voice in the gar- 
den, and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid 
myself." Then comes a further unfolding, in the sen- 
tence which announced to the woman pain and sorrow 

* Philo JudsBus, Rewards and Panishments, xii. 
t So light and darkness are naturally and almost inseparably associated 
witb the idea of spiritaal illamination and its opposite. 



48 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

and subjection, and to the man sorrow and wearisome 
discouraging toil, " till thou return unto the ground." 
The simple returning to dust, then, by the record's 
own showing, was not the whole penalty involved in 
the threat " Thou shalt surely die : " it was only an 
outward token and seal of a comprehensive woe, — the 
broad and fearful consequences of sin. 

Such being the case, it is not essential to inquire 
whether the first pair understood all that was involved 
in the penalty, " Ye shall surely die." What further 
explanation God may or may not have made of a fact 
that never could be fully comprehended till experi- 
enced, we do not know. It will not answer to assert, 
as some have done, that it would not be just to inflict 
a penalty of which the full extent was not previously 
unfolded. In criminal cases, neither the judicial deal- 
ings of God nor man sustain the position. The question 
is never raised. Whatever may be the views of the 
murderer as to the nature Qf the penalty, he will, if 
convicted, suffer that penalty. 

The assertion of some that 1x) " die," in the threat 
involved merely physical decease, is met by the insur- 
mountable fact, that the actual consequences, as set 
forth in the record, and subsequently announced by 
God himself, include a great deal more. The simple 
facts of that momentous transaction at the beginning 
of human history are these : First the command, with 
the annexed penalty in one word, " Thou shalt surely 
die ; " next the transgression ; then the consequence, 
not alone an ultimate return to dust, but also an im- 
mediate severance from God and his fellowship, shame, 
remorse, dread, and terror before God, sorrow, painful 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 49 

labor, and a curse on the very conditions of toil. Now, 
what more natural and almost unavoidable than that, 
thenceforth, the state into which man fell, with all its 
complex and on-reaching woe, should be described by 
that one term " death " ? Indeed, so thoroughly does 
this higher and pregnant meaning of the term often 
predominate, that, in repeated instances, the physical 
decease is overlooked as not properly deserving the 
name. Thus the Saviour says (John viii. 51), "If a 
man keep my saying, he shall never see death." 

Men are accordingly represented as being even now 
in a spiritual condition called " death," to be followed 
by the full and final consummation which is " the sec- 
ond death," or often simply " death." And as the 
believer shall never see death, but " hath everlasting 
life ;" even so it is said of the unbeliever, that he " shall 
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him " 
(John iii. 36). And in the act of believing men have 
passed in this world " from death unto life " (John iii. 
36; IJohn iii. 14). Each term in the Scriptures 
designates respectively a spiritual state, with all its 
adjuncts and issues. Each state begins here and is 
consummated hereafter ; the future consummation in 
the one case being often, though not always, distin- 
guished as eternal life ; in the other case less frequent- 
ly as the second death. 

Let us look at some indisputable instances in which 
these words designate a moral or spiritual condition of 
the soul, with certain qualities and issues, and in 
which the one can not signify either extinction or nat- 
ural decease, nor the other merely the opposite of this 
idea. 

4 



60 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Both terms are applied to the successive states of 
the repenting prodigal, Luke xv. 24, 32. " This my 
son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is 
found." The words clearly describe his state of deep 
moral degradation and wretchedness, and his recovery i 
from it. They can be tortured into nothing else. It 
is vain for Mr. Hudson to allege "either supposed 
death, or relative loss, — 'dead to me.' " There is no 
hint of any supposed decease, while the explanatory 
phrase, " was lost," refutes the assertion. The ser- 
vants and the elder brother speak of him simply as 
" having come ; " while the elder brother at once di- 
lates upon the history of the profligate as a known fact, 
— " hath devoured thy living with harlots." The other 
alternative — "dead to me" — concedes the whole 
principle of interpretation which the theory denies. 
For if a corrupt and profligate man is intelligibly 
described by the word " dead," dead to his father, the 
case is perfectly parallel to one's being dead to (lod 
and holiness. It designates a moral wreck. 

" But she that liveth in pleasure [wantonly] is dead 
while she liveth" (ITim. v. 6). The lewd Voman, 
while outwardly living, is dead, — literally " has died." 
But she is neither extinct nor deceased : she is in a 
condition of spiritual death, alienation from God, 
perversion of being, and rejection of the true end and 
blessedness of life. 

When one of the disciples said, " Lord, suffer me 
first to go and bury my father," Jesus replied, " Pol- 
low thou me, and let the dead bury their dead" 
(Matt. viii. 22). While it is obvious that the second 
word " dead" refers to the deceased person, it is equally 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 51 

obvious that the first word can not have a similar mean- 
ing. The Savior does not utter such unmeaning 
things as, " Let deceased persons bury deceased per* 
sons," much less, " let the non-existent bury the non- 
existent." The simple apposite meaning recognized 
by the great mass of skillful interpreters is, " let the 
spiritually dead, unbelievers, bury the deceased ; but 
do thou, my disciple, come with me to the work that 
is waiting." * But Mr. Hudson says they are called 
dead by anticipalten, — prolepsis : " Christ regards the 
lovers of this world as heirs of death." Yet even this 
shift concedes the point, viz. that the word " dead " 
describes the present state of certain living men, their 
present character, condition, and prospects, — " lovers 
of this world or heirs of death." It describes men in 
a certain moral condition to which certain fearful ten- 
dencies and consequences attach. 

" I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou 
livest, and art dead " (Rev. iii. 1). The common 
reader can not miss the meaning. The accompanying 
explanation renders mistake impossible : " Be watchful, 
and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready 
to die ; for I have not found thy works perfect before 
Grod. Remember therefore how thou hast received 
and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore 
Uiou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, 

* One writer alleges that the Greek word rendered dead {veKpoib^) " al- 
ways denotes literal death, and commonly signifies corpses.** The statement 
Is enoneoas. Thongh the word frequently designates a corpse, it very often 
designates simply the dead in opposition to the living; and in Homer, when 
used in the plural, denotes the dwellers of the under-world. — See Passow 
•nd Liddell and Scott. Rev. ilL 1 is a perfectly clear case, in which it 
neither designates a corpse nor a deceased person. 



52 ' LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon 
thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which 
have not defiled their garments ; and they shall walk 
with me in white ; for they are worthy." Here, again, 
the word "dead" describes the spiritual condition of a 
church in which the religion was, to a great degree, 
spurious. As De Wette remarks, it was, on the one 
hand, destitute of spiritual power and activity, and a 
fruit-bearing faith (" I have not found thy works per- 
fect," literally fulfilled)^ and, on th^other, even fallen 
into a sinful life (v. 4). But as the Church, being a 
collective body, contained a few individuals not in this 
condition, they, " a few names," are specially excepted 
as the things that remain or are left, not dead, but 
" are ready to die," endangered by the surrounding 
spiritual death. Here, again, Mr. Hudson talks faint- 
ly of a prolepsis, — "devoted to eternal death," but 
says he " shall not insist ; " although he adds that 
" the phrase in verse second, ' strengthen the things 
that are ready to die,' certainly supports the view." 
But (1) that phrase refutes him ; for it discriminates 
what was left not dead, though endangered, the " few 
worthy names," from what was dead, " defiled," and 
needing repentance. (2) The sacred writer clearly 
distinguishes the two things which Mr. Hudson con- 
founds : the present state of the Church, — " Thou art 
dead," — from its threatened doom, — "I will come as 
a thief," etc. (3) The sacred writer, by the connec- 
tion, makes it impossible to understand the word 
" dead " btherwise than as describing the present spir- 
itual condition of that fallen church : " Thou hast a 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 63 

name that thou livest, and art dead." No utterance 
could be more distinct. 

A clear instance is found in Eph. ii. 1-6 : " And you 
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and 
sins ; wherein, in time past, ye walked according to 
the course of this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the 
children of disobedience; among whom, also, we all had 
our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, 
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind ; and 
were by nature the children of wrath even as others. 
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love where- 
with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath 
quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are 
saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here 
are persons described as having been " dead in sins," 
yet all the while in a state of prodigious activity in all 
manner of lust and service of Satan, but now ' quick- 
ened " or made alive with Christ ; being " saved by 
grace." Mr. Hudson regards this as prolepsis ; and 
among several authorities produces one respectable 
recent name (Meyer) in favor of it.* Against it are 
such names as Alford, Olshausen, De Wette, Eadie, 
Eilicott. And the careful reader can judge for him- 
self, by glancing over the passage and the verses fol- 
lowing, as far as verse thirteenth, whether the apostle is 
speaking merely of two diverse retributions, one of 
which would have come, but the other actually will, in 

* Meyer, however, is not to be understood as siding with Mr. Hudson in 
Tiewing this as physical death: in his third edition (1859), he emphatically 
describes thein as sentenced to *^ eternal death.'' 



54 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

the other world ; or is speaking of two actual states ia 
this world, in one of which the Ephesians had long 
lived " in time past," but had now, by the grace of God, 
been transferred into the other, which is indeed to be 
made complete hereafter. Look at the tense of the 
statement, " were dead," " hath quickened " (rather 
" quickened ") ; at the specifications of character ac- 
companying, " had our conversation in times past in 
the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh 
and the mind," but now " his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus unto good works ; " at the producing 
cause of the difference, namely, conversion ; and at the 
description of the two states as coeval with the periods 
before and after conversion, — "At that time ye were 
without Christ, being aliens," &c., " but now ye who 
sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of 
Ciirist." It can not be claimed that the phrase, '^hath 
quickened us together with Christ," looks wholly to 
the future; for our spiritual quickening here grows 
out of our union to Christ, while it finds in his resur- 
rection its symbol, its basis, and the pledge of its final 
completion. 

Still more unanswerably clear is the meaning of these 
terms in Col. ii. 13 : " And you, being dead in yottr 
sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quick- 
ened together with him, having forgiven you all tres- 
passes." The preceding verses read thus: "And ye 
are complete in him which is the head of all princi- 
pality and power. In whom also ye are [were] circum- 
cised with the circumcision made without hands, in 
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the cir- 
cumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism. 



THE SCRlPTUItE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 65 

wherein ye are [were] risen with him through the faith 
of the operation of God who hath raised him from the 
dead." Here the circumcision made without hands, 
and being made alive with Christ and in Christ, are repre- 
sented as cotemporary past events ; and prior to them 
was the death from which these Christians had been 
made alive. Accordingly, the statements before and 
after are of present state and privileges. And, to com- 
plete the proof that the quickening and upraising are 
already experienced, the apostle proceeds in the be- 
ginning of the next chapter, "If ye then be risen 
[raised] with Christ, seek those things which are 
above." Spiritual aflfections are enjoined, on the ground 
of a supposed transition from death to life already 
wrought. Mr. Hudson, as usual, talks of prolepsis. 

In this connection, it may be well to advert to a 
slightly varied use of the same method of speech. The 
apostle, in urging the Ephesians to set their affections 
on things above, and not on things on the earth, adds, 
" For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in 
God" (Col. iii. 3). And elsewhere (Rom. vi. 1-11), 
he speaks of being " dead to sin," and '^ alive unto 
God." What is the propriety or consistency of still 
appljring the term " dead " to those who are no longer 
dead in sin, but alive unto God ? — no longer dead m, 
but dead to, sin ? How simple the explanation ; and how 
it proceeds from and confirms the fundamental notion 
of life already exhibited as the possession of certain 
functional activities. Among other powers of life is 
sensibility^ while bodily death is a state of bodily in- 
sensibility. This aspect is the one seized upon by the 
apostle's thought to make a representation paradoxi- 



56 UFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

cal only in appearance. The higher the Christian's 
religious life and fulfillment of his true functions, the 
more completely insensible is he to the work and at- 
tractions of sin. His highest life to God, or greatest 
remove from death in sin, is thus the fullest death to 
sin. This incidental allusion, superficially inconsistent, 
really in perfect harmony, is thus one of the best proofs 
of the correctness of this view of life and death. 

Another clear text is found John v. 24 : " He that 
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not [doth not] come 
into condemnation, but is [has] passed from death unto^ 
life." The change has taken place, and everlasting 
life is already commenced as the present portion of 
the believer. This twofold statement in the past and 
present tense, mutually explanatory, requires a prodi- 
gious hardihood of reckless interpretation to pronounce 
it a reference wholly to the future. Accordingly, the 
best modern scholars, Alford, Liicke, Tholuck, Olshau- 
sen, De Wette, Meyer, Winer, are perfectly agreed in 
their concurrence in the received view. " Where the 
faith is, there the possession of life is. . . . The 
' passage over ' from death unto life has already taken 
place," says Alford. Winer remarks, " The perfect is 
not used for the future (John v. 24) : the passage con- 
tains no reference to a future event, but to something 
which has really commenced." * Mr. Hudson, how- 
ever, talks of prolepsis. 

Entirely coincident with this passage, and, if possible, 

* Winer's New-Testament Grammar, Masson's Translation, p. 289. Mr. 
Hudson gives a different qaotation, which we do not find in Winer's last 
and matured edition. Wo have not the older editions at hand. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 57 

more explicit, is 1 John iii. 14, 16 : " We know that we 
have passed from death unto life, because we love the 
brethren. He that loveth not his brother abide th in 
death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ; 
and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abid- 
ing in him." In verse 17, the phrase is varied by 
asking, " How dwelleth the love of God in him ? " 
as an equivalent for the same spiritual state. It re- 
quires no comment. One who loves God and his 
brother is a man who has passed from death unto life ; 
one who does not, now abides in death, and does not 
have eternal life abiding in him. Mr. Hudson vir- 
tually admits here that eternal life denotes a process 
already commenced in the soul, and continuing for ever. 
" We think the phrase ' eternal life abiding in him ' is 
best explained of the divine life-giving, working now 
as a regulative principle, and as a germ of the future 
life." 

The case is very fully stated in John vi. 47, et seq. : 
" Verily I say unto you, He that belie veth on me hath 
everlasting life." And, after some intervening remarks, 
" Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life ; and I 
will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is 
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my btood dwelleth in 
me, and I in him," etc. Here is the whole case. They 
that are not united to Christ " have no life in them ; " 
they that are " have eternal life : " it is produced by, 
and begins with, their spiritual feedhig on Christ, and is 



58 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

consummated at the resurrection. ^^ I will raise him 
up at the last day." 

Perfectly explicit on the point that the life unto God 
commences in this world is also Gal. ii. 19, 20 : " For 
I through the law am dead to the law, that I might 
live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless 
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me : and the life 
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the 
Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." 

The immediate effect wrought by that change as the 
beginning of an endless life is well set forth in our 
Lord's conversation with the woman of Samaria (John 
iv.), where he speaks of the " living water," and adds, 
" Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give 
him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall 
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up 
into everlasting life." And, in his conversation with 
Martha (John xi.), the Saviour speaks of this life, begun 
in the believer here, as flowing on uninterrupted for 
ever ; natural decease being disregarded as unworthy 
to be mentioned. "Jesus said unto her, I am the 
resurrection and the. life ; he that-believeth on me, 
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whoso- 
ever liveth and believeth in me shall never dieJ^ 
United to him, the dead lives, and the living never 
dies. With the same disregard of natural death as 
unwortliy of mcftition, and as not interrupting the con- 
tinuity of the true life begun here, Christ says (John 
viii. 51), " Verily I say unto you. If a man keep my 
Baying, he shall never see death." 

In one instance, the life which the Christian gains is 



THE SCRIPT UUE ARGUMENT EXAMINEU. 59 

termed the true or ''real life" {trig 6vt(og C^tf)» — 
1 Tim. vi. 19 * 

As the believer shall never see that which is truly 
death, so the unbeliever never experiences true life. 
" He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; 
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, 
but tlie wrath of God abideth on him " (John iii. 36). 
The one has everlasting life now ; the other shall not 
see life at all, being now in a state on which the wrath 
of Grod abides. 

Regeneration is elsewhere marked as the point of 
transition, being a resurrection to " newness of life." 
" Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 
death, that like as Christ wa§ raised up from the dead 
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life " (Rom. vi. 4). And to leave 
no doubt that tlie apostle speaks of a work already 
commenced, he says in verse 13, " Neither yield ye 
your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto 
sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive 
from the deadj and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God." Holy obedience is proof 
that they are alive from the dead. Yet Mr. Hudson 
talks of " prolepsis." 

'' Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
and Christ shall give thee light" (Eph. v. 14). Sinners 
are summoned to repentance under the form of a call 



* The received text here reads, ''eternal life" (oiww'ov) ; against the 
nuited voice of the oldest manuscripts, A, fi<, D, E, F, G, and many other 
authorities, the decision of critical editions (Lachmann, Tischendorf), and 
the clear opinion of such commentators as Alford, Ellicott, Olshausen, 
De Wette, Meyer. 



60 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

to arise from the dead. In this instance, Mr. Hudson 
admits that "the metaphor,'' as he terms it, "is too 
manifest for doubt." 

In addition to all the other forms of statement, we have 
(John xvii. 3) the assertion that this state called eternal 
Hfe consists in the true knowledge of God in Christ. 
" And this is life eternal, that they might know thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast 
sent." An attempt is made to evade the force of this 
passage by saying that the expression " will, on the 
face of it, as easily mean that the knowledge of God, 
&c., are the way or means of life." But this device is 
not only a departure from the direct and simple form 
of the statement ; it is in . positive contradiction to the 
usage in connection with this peculiar mode of expres- 
sion {avrri de tanv ^ aloiviog l^oor/, iva yivcoaaoDCi, x. r. h this is 
eternal life, that they might know, &c.), which else- 
where means that the two things are equivalent ; so that 
the one constitutes the other, or the second consists in 
the first. Thus John vi. 29 : " This is the work of God, 
that ye [might] believe on him whom he hath sent," i.e. 
to work the work of God consists in believing. " Jesus 
saith unto them. My meat is to do [literally, that I 
might do] the will of him that sent me " (John iv. 34) ; 
not, " the way or means of procuring my meat ; " 
but " my meat consists in doing," &c. " This is the 
message that ye heard from the beginning. That we 
should love one another " (1 John iii. 11) : the message 
consists in the requirement that we love one another. 
" And this is his commandment. That we should believe 
on the name of his Son Jesus Christ " (1 John iii. 23) : 
his commandment consists in the requirement that we 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 61 

believe, &c. " And this is love, that we [should] walk 
after his commandments " (2 John 6), — not, this is the 
way or means to secure love ; but practical love canr 
sists in so walking. In the same verse, " This is the 
commandment. That as ye have heard from the begin- 
ning ye should walk in it " [i.e. love] ; in other words, 
the commandment consists in this injunction ; or, walk- 
ing in love constitutes the commandment, or, according 
to Liicke, the sum of the commandments. " What is 
my reward, then ? [this] that, when I preach the 
gospel, I may make the gospel without charge, that I 
abuse not my power in the gospel ; " i.e. my reward 
consists in this, or this constitutes my reward. " And 
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of 
all which he hath given me I should lose nothing " 
(John vi. 39) : not, this is the way or means of securing 
the Father's will (though that is doubtless true) ; but 
the Father's will consists in this purpose. This thought 
and form of speech are repeated in the following verse. 
The above examples include the chief, if not the only 
cases of this peculiar construction in the New Testa- 
ment. And we think that the intelligent reader will 
see that they do not justify the interpretation, " This is 
the way or means of life ; " but they do most emphat-* 
ically sustain the meaning : " Eternal life consists in 
knowing thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent." He will also be prepared to 
learn that the very best modern biblical scholars, with 
almost one accord, Olshausen, Tholuck, Alford, De 
Wette, Meyer, Liicke, and others, agree in this inter- 
pretation. Says Olshausen, " The idea must not be su- 
perficialized by the interpretation that the knowledge 



62 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

of God is one of the meaTU to the attainment of eter- 
nal life (as if the words ran: jy &o^ amviog io^nou 
dta T^ff yvoiiTawff)." And De Wette admirably says. 
"This is — therein consists — the eternal life; not, this 
is the means of the eternal life ; for the vital knowl- 
edge of God and of Christ is itself the eternal life, 
which is a life already beginning here, and penetrating 
the whole life of the human spirit." Olshausen sums 
up, "In faith and knowledge, consequently, eternal 
life is embraced." Several of these commentators 
quote the felicitous statement of the ancient father, 
IrensBus : " To live without life is impossible ; but the 
existence of life is derived from the participation of 
God ; but the participation of God is to know God, and 
to enjoy his goodness." 

Here, then, is brought distinctly to view an important 
fact connected with the Scripture use of this mode of 
expression. Inasmuch as the biblical representation 
thus clearly presents " eternal life " as a condition 
or process commencing in this world, and running on 
in the next world for ever, but receiving in the other 
world its consummation and glory ; so only can we 
readily and fully explain the fact, that, as the minds of 
the sacred writers dwell on the one or the other por- 
tion of its progress, their speech will apply chiefly now 
to the present life, now to the world to come : some- 
times, too, they view it as a process or activity of the 
soul ; sometimes as a glorious result, and even reward, 
lying in the future. A similar remark applies to the 
use of the term " death." For, though both these phrases 
designate spiritual states, they designate those states 
always with a direct or implied reference to certain 



TEE SCHIPTURE ABOUMENT BJLAMINED. 63 

issues or consummations growing out of the present 
state. Sometimes the glorious blessedness on the one 
hand, and perhaps still oftener the elaborated and aw- 
ful woe of a perverted being on the other, in which 
they issue, are distinctly held forth as the most inviting 
promise and the most terrific threat, — each under the 
name of life and of death. And as in Rom. ii. 7, the 
synonym of eternal life in its culmination is given as 
glory, honor, incorruption ; so on the other hand 
" death " and " perishing " (i. 32 and ii. 9) find then- 
expansion in " indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish." In all this we are not prescribing to the 
word of God, but simply following its guidance. 

This particular point now suggested — the variant 
lispects of life and death, covered at different times by 
the same terms — and our general position as to their 
meaning, are both of them illustrated and positively 
sustained by another common Scripture phrase, " the 
kingdom of heaven." 

" To inherit the kingdom of heaven " is an expres- 
sion in more than one respect parallel to " having 
eternal life." In the representation of the final judg- 
ment (Matt. XXV. 34, &c.), the righteous are invited to 
♦* inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- 
dation of the world ; " and, ia the clbsing statement, 
we are told they shall go away " into life eternal." So 
in the history of the rich young man, the inquiry was 
for " eternal life ; " and the reply, " If thou wilt enter 
into lifej keep the commandments." But, when tlie 
young man had gone, the Savior's remark was, that 
^^ a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of 



64 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

heaven^^^ — "enter into the kingdom of God" (Matt, 
xix. 16-24). 

Now, this parallel phrase, " the kingdom of heaven," 
amply confirms o^r interpretation of "eternal life," 
though possessing a still broader diversity of applica- 
tion. Its most distinct prediction appears in Daniel ii. 
and vii., where four successive human monarchies are 
to be followed by a kingdom which the God of heaven 
will set up. Now, without pausing to remark on the 
folly that should pertinaciously narrow down the " king- 
dom " to a mere material state like the Babylonish or 
the Medo-Persian, as equaled by a similar persistency 
regarding the use of the word " life," let us look at the 
New Testament idea of the kingdom of God and Christ. 
It is represented as erected in this world, and flowing 
on to its completion and glory in the world to come. 
And, what especially concerns our argument, it is rep- 
resented, in its relation to the individual believer, as a 
spiritual state which he actually enters upon in this 
world : " Who hath delivered us from the power of 
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of 
his dear Son " (Col. i. 13). " For the kingdom of God 
is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, 
and joy in the Holy Ghost " (Rom. xiv. 17). " Behold, 
the kingdom of* God is within [probably, "among"] 
you" (Luke xvii. 21). "Thou art not far from the 
kingdom of God " (Mark xii. 34). This kingdom, as 
represented in the parables of the mustard-seed and 
the little leaven, begins with small beginnings, and 
proceeds with a gradual and steady increase in the 
believer's heart, as well as abroad in the world, and 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 65 

issues in endless joy, when the Son of man cometh in 
his kingdom with power and great glory. The repre- 
sentation in this form is precisely kindred with the 
other, of a state or process commencing here, and con- 
tinuing till it is consummated in heaven. And, fur- 
thermore, the phrase " kingdom of heaven " is used 
with the same and greater variety of application, ac- 
cording as it is necessary to present one or another 
aspect of the great idea, the " subjection of all things 
to God in Christ." Now it is applied to the commence- 
ment of the Christian life (" the kingdom of heaven is 
like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls ") ; 
now to its progress in the believer ; now to the nature 
of the principle ; now chiefly to its. consummation, and 
that, too, considered as a state of blessedness and re- 
ward^ — "inherit the kingdom prepared for you." It 
has still other applications to the outward aspects and 
relations of religion, with which we are not now con- 
cerned. But, so far as it relates to the individual be- 
liever, its applications describe the same process which 
we have found to be set forth under the term " life," 
commencing in this world, and continuing uninter- 
rupted for ever. On the other hand, a similar continu- 
ous state and process, having its beginning in time and 
its issue in eternity, is indicated of those who are here 
und^ " the power [authority] of darkness," are " full 
of darkness," "love darkness," "work the works of dark- 
ness," are " darkness," and being thus united on earth 
with the rulers of the darkness of this world, are with 
them to be cast into outer darkness, yea, " blackness 
of darkness for ever." 

Certain other expressions, closely allied in moaning 

5 



66 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

to the word " life," point in the same direction. The 
Christian is "a new creature," "created in Christ 
Jesus unto good works ; " he is " born again," " be- 
gotten " of God. These terms clearly describe the 
Christian's present condition, and they indicate the 
bestowment already of a life from God. 

The same great thought of a life already begun from 
God lies everywhere on the face of the New Testament, 
under the designation of a present sonship, and often 
with a reference forward to its glorious issue. " Be- 
loved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet 
appear what we shall be ; but we know that when he 
shall appear we shall be like him." * 

The same view of a present life and death is abun- 
dantly set forth under the form of a vital and fruit- 
bearing union to Christ, or a withered and sinful sepa- 
ration. " I am the vine, ye are the branches ; he that 
abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
much fruit ; for without me ye can do nothing. If a 
man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and 
is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into 
the fire, and they are burned " (John xv. 5, 6). (It is 
to be noted that the same essential fact here denoted 
by the withered branch is, in Isa. v. 2, somewhat dif- 
ferently expressed by the vine bringing forth " wild 
grapes.") This vital union to Christ is everywhere 
set forth as being " in Christ," or as having Christ " in 
us." The time of that union, as well as its present 
effect, is defined in 2 Cor. v. 17 : " Therefore if any 

* So in Rom. viii. 23, where our translation misses the real sense, " ioai<- 
ing out the adoption " (ctireKdexofievoi), i.e. looking for its completion rather 
than simply *' waiting for it." 



TBE 8CB1PTURB ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 67 

man be iu Christ Jesus, he is a new creature : old 
things are passed away ; behold, all things are become 
new." Its date is conversion ; its eflFect, a new creature. 
Its nature as a vital^ a life-producing union, is strongly 
brought 'out, where Paul says, " I live, yet not I, but 
Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in 
the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." " Ye 
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 
When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye 
also appeal' with him in glory" (Col. iii. 3). It is set 
forth under the symbol of the union between the mem- 
bers and the head, and of the temple built with living 
stones upon Christ, the living and the chief corner-stone ; 
and, in various forms of allusion, runs through the New 
Testament. 

But we have not yet seen how deep the view which 
we maintain lies in the whole Word of God, and how 
it is re-enforced on every hand, till we have contem- 
plated another Scripture form of statement, — that of 
health and disease. In this mode, the sinning (and 
often at the same time suffering) are represented as 
those in whom the true functions of life are now, in 
part, impaired or gone, needing and perhaps receiving 
the healing power of the Great Physician. Sometimes 
they are spoken of as blind, deaf, lame, insensible ; 
sometimes deeply wounded ; sometimes desperately 
sick ; while deliverance is healing mercy. The repre- 
sentation is found alike in the Old Testament and the 
New. " Is there no balm in Giiead ? is there no phy- 
sician there ? Why, then, is not the health of the 
daughter of my people recovered ? " (Jer. viii. 22.) 
**Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, 



68 LIFE AND DEATU ETERNAL, 

— and convert, and be healed " (Isa. vi. 10). " With 
his stripes we are healed " (Isa. liii. 6). " Behold, I will 
bring it [Jerusalem] health and cure, and I will cure 
them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of 
peace and truth "(Jer. xxxiii. 6) ; and the cure is ex- 
plained in the verses following as restoring their cap- 
tivity, cleansing them from 'their iniquity, pardoning 
their iniquities, and procuring them goodness and 
prosperity. " Return, ye backsliding children, and I 
will heal your backslidings " (Jer. iii. 22). Among nu- 
merous other passages of the same character, in many 
of which, however, the idea of punishment is entirely 
predominant, see Isa. i. 5, 6 ; xxx. 26 ; Jer. vi. 14 ; 
XXX. 12, 13, 14, 17 ; xl. 11 ; Hos. v. 13 ; vi. 1. The 
Saviour resumes the same thought : " They that be 
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick " 
(Matt. ix. 12). " Lest they should be converted, and I 
should heal them '' (Matt. xiii. 15). His miracles of 
outward healing are confessedly symbolical of the work 
he came to work on the spirit, which he sometimes 
wrought, and announced in the very act of outward 
cure : " Whether is easier to say. Thy sins be forgiven 
thee ; or to say, Take up thy bed, and walk ? But that 
ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth 
to forgive sins, then saith he to the sick of the palsy, 
Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house." And 
so closely are the symbol and its object wrapped to- 
gether in the sacred word, that the same passage of 
Isa. liii. 4, " He hath borne our griefs, and carried our 
sorrows," is quoted by Matt. (viii. 17), and applied 
to Christ's miracles of bodily healing, and by Peter to 
his atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 Pet. ii. 24). It was 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 09 

" when we were yet without strength [sick, oa^eycav], 
Christ died for the ungodly " (Rom. v. 6) ; and the 
leaves of the tree of life are " for the healing of the 
nations " (Rev. xxii. 2). Thus, even in that outward 
healing, the almost constant call for " faith to be 
healed." 

A kindred mode of conception represents the soul 
as working truly and happily on the one hand, or 
falsely and disastrously on the other, under the image 
of the " liberty of the sons of God," and the " slave- 
ry " of sin. 

Thus it will be seen that the notion of two continu-^ 
ous moral states of the human soul, each commen- 
cing in this life with certain tendencies distinctly 
marked, and reaching across into the other world with 
developments and issues in kind, only mature and un- 
mingled, is no superficial view, depending on the casual 
use of a word here and there, but a settled pervading 
doctrine of the Bible, set forth in a variety of modes, 
— life, health, the kingdom of God, light, being born 
again, the new creation, the new man, sonship, liberty, 
on the one hand ; death, disease, and loss of function, 
darkness, the old man, continuance in the kingdom of 
Satan, slavery to sin, on the other. A man may as 
easily deny the evangelical system, as deny this teach- 
ing, which underlies the whole system of the sacred 
volume. Of these kindred forms of speech, " life " 
and " death" are the most striking. 

We have seen that " life " does not literally signify 
mere existence, nor death non-existence ; that life des- 
ignates a certain functional power, attended with cer- 



70 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

tain processes and results, — something superadded to 
existence; that the usage of common life in various 
tongues, the language of the Bible included, employs 
the term in a pregnant sense to comprise true action, 
welfare, and prosperity ; that as the Word of God con- 
templates man chiefly as a moral being, so it predicates 
the term of his spiritual condition and activity, with 
their tendencies and results — and death of the oppo- 
site. We have cited instances of this usage in the 
varied modes of simple statement, antithesis, definition, 
and clear discrimination, not fairly ei^plicable other- 
wise ; we have seen how it meets the circumstances of 
its origin ; have found certain seeming inconsistencies 
of usage explained by the fundamental conception ; 
and the whole sustained by similar kindred represen- 
tations, marked with the same peculiarities, and all, in 
like manner, derived from outward and physical phe- 
nomena. 

To complete the showing would carry us over a large 
number of passages, where, though the proof is not so 
absolute and unanswerable, the real meaning is so easi- 
ly recognized that intelligent commentators and lexi- 
cographers have recognized it with one accord. They 
are so understood without force, or continual " prolep- 
sis." They speak in the present tense. They refer to 
an immediate influence. Thus all those passages con- 
cerning Christ : " In him was life, and the life was the 
light of men." " I am the way, the truth, and the life." 
"I am the bread of life." " Christ, who is our life." 
" The life was manifested." " He giveth life unto the 
world." " For the life was manifested, and we have 
seen it and bear witness, and show unto you that eter- 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. J\ 

nal life which was with the Father, and was manifested 
unto us." Such allusions as these : " The command- 
ment which was ordained unto life I found to be unto 
death. Gentiles . . . alienated from the life of Gtod 
through the ignorance that is in them. As being heirs 
together of the grace of life. To the one we are a savor 
of life unto life, to the other of death unto death. His 
commandment is life everlasting. Among whom ye 
shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of 
life. To be carnally minded is death, but to be spirit- 
ually minded is life and peace. The just shall live by 
faith. And the law is not of faith, but the man that 
doeth them shall live in them. For we also are weak 
in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God 
toward you.* Who died for us that, whether we wake 
or sleep, we should live with him. Always bearing 
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the 
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 
So, then, death worketh in us, but life in you. As dying, 
and behold we live. Who his own self bare our sins 
in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, 
should live unto righteousness. A crown of life which 
the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. 
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and 
they are life. He that hath the Son hath life ; and he 
that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Search the 
Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come 
unto me that ye might have life. Now, if the fall of 

♦ Mr. Hudson in quoting this verse cuts off the last two words, " toward 
yOQ,** in whioh, according to Alford, De Wette, and others, lies the emphasis 
of the Terse. 



72 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

them be the riches of the world, what shall the receiv- 
ing of them be but life from the dead ? " 

Now, as these two states are but commenced in this 
world, and are hastening towards a maturity in the 
other world, glorious or terrific, in which all that is 
excellent in the one and loathsome in the other will 
have brought forth their harvests; so the Scripture 
designates the totality of well-being in the one harvest, 
and of woe in the other, by the name of that condition 
— the seed-grain — of which they are but the luxuriant 
growth; and calls the one retribution pre-eminently 
life, eternal life ; and the other death, the second death. 
Naturally; for all that is inviting in the one and 
fearful in the other is but the continuation of the pro- 
cess, the eternal fruiting of the tree. 

Accordingly, in a large number of cases, these words 
are used to designate that coming harvest, — the retri- 
butions of another world. On this point it is unneces- 
sary to accumulate proof-texts, since there is no con- 
troversy about the general fact. We hold, as fully as 
do the advocates of annihilation, that the future state 
of the righteous is very commonly called life, eternal 
life ; and tlie doom of the wicked, though less constant- 
ly, death, the second death. But we also hold, that so 
far from designating, when thus applied, the simple 
fact of continued existence on the one hand, and final 
extinction of existence on the other, these terms most 
clearly set forth the whole complex and then consum- 
mated well-being, and the whole complex and com- 
pleted ill-being, of God's rational creatures in their state 
of perpetual retribution. They are comprehensive 
terms, bearing not merely a physical, but a spiritual 



THE aCBIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 73 

import. They designate primarily certain states of the 
soul, each of which embraces many aspects and conse- 
quences : they gather up the totality of those aspects 
and consequences, and thus often chiefly the weal and 
woe which stand out so prominent at last.* 

The view which we have thus explained has this 
additional mark of truthfulness, that it is thoroughly 
consistent with itself. We start with one fundamental 
conception of the nature of life, wliich conforms to the 
truly literal meaning of the word, is supported by the 
higher uses of human speech, and meets all the shades 
of application in the Scriptures, even when seemingly 
exceptional. We have confined ourselves to the usage 
of the terms themselves, reserving for its proper place 
the positive proof that the death of the sinner consists 
in a state of conscious suffering. 

We conclude, therefore, that the terms " life " and 

♦ In his later book (Christ our Life), Mr. Hudson virtually admits this 
important point in regard to the word ** life." " We disclaim the representa- 
tion that * eternal life * in our view signifies mere eternal existence. We 
certainly believe in eternal blessedness, and we think this implied in the 
phrase * eternal life.' For all real life, according to its proper laws, is joy- 
ous, and can not be otherwise. Blessedness or well-being is the natural and 
legitimate adjective secse of the phrase in question ; eternal being, its svb- 
ttandve import. We insist on this part of its meaning, as implying that 
they who have not eternal life do not * li\|p for ever.' " p. 4. - 

The tmm is characteristic and futile. For (1) the statement concern- 
ing the substantive and adjective meaning of the vxyrd is incorrect. Exist> 
ence is not the thing asserted, though it is involved in '* life : " life is always 
and distinctively more than being. (2) Blessedness or well-being is more 
than ** implied:" it i^the thing asserted in the Scripture statements. Is any 
man bold enough to maintain that these announcements of ^' eternal life," 
which form the constant burden of the Scripture promises, mean to include 
perfection, glory, blessedness, and all manner of well-being, only hy infer- 
ence f Is it chiefly and principally being that they so enthusiastically set 
forth? or is it the highest perfection of well-being f The answer will decide 
what 18 jhc "substantive " meaning of eternal life in the Scriptures. 



74 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

" death," ou which so largely depends the theory of anni- 
hilation, not only give it no countenance whatever, but 
teach a very different doctrine. The so-called literal 
meaning is a perversion of language ; and the contin- 
ual resort to assertions of prolepsis, supposed death, 
and the like, will not relieve the diflSculties of the the- 
ory, nor satisfy the statements of God's word. 

But, as certain objections are or may be made to this 
view, this important branch of the subject can not 
properly be dismissed without giving them some at- 
tention. 

No person who has reflected upon the most familiar 
use of language will object that we find both a higher 
and a lower sense in the use of these terms in Scrip- 
ture. When it is written, " Look unto me all yo ends 
of the earth, and be ye saved ; " " HearkeHy and your 
soul shall live ; " " Come unto me, all yo that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," — is it 
a physical or a spiritual looking, hearkening, coming, 
that are intended ? and is any diflSculty created by the 
fact, that, in scores and hundreds of other instances 
in the Bible, these words designate only bodily acts ? 
The reigning of Christ ^over his people is a very diflFer- 
ent tiling from the " reigning " of Ahab ; yet the same 
word, in its lower and its higher senses, describes them 
both. " Israel," primarily the personal name of Jacob, 
is also abundantly used as the name of the t^hole 
nation, his descendants ; sometimes of the ten tribes ; 
and sometimes, in a higher sense, of the true children 
>f God ; e.g., " They are not all Israel which are of 
Israel" (Rom. ix. 6). "Zion " originally designated 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 75 

one of the hills of Jerusalem, and occurs with that 
simple meaning; but it became a favorite term by 
which God addressed his people, and especially as the 
objects of hie love. These diverse uses of words, the 
higher and lower, are freely mingled in the sacred vol- 
ume. Thus, when the Saviour had just cured a case of 
both bodily and spiritual blindness, he said (John ix. 
39), " For judgment am I come mto this world, that 
they which see not might see." 

In a similar way, the lower and the liigher meanings 
of "life" and "death" are freely scattered through 
the Word of God, often in close proximity, and usually 
to be discriminated readily by the subject and connec- 
tion. The higher sense is less strongly marked, in 
general, in the older Scriptures. This fact, however, 
only corresponds to the general difference of the two 
dispensations, in the foa^mer of which all that was spir- 
itual was both symbolized and veiled in sensuous forms. 
But tiiere are many cases in the Old Testament where 
this usage is so manifest, that not only the mass of 
common Christians and evangelical expositors, but even 
rationalist scholars, personally indifferent, have found 
the pregnant meaning. "Keep thy heart with all dili- 
gence ; for out of it are the issues of life " (Pro v. iv. 
28). "In the way of righteousness is life; and in 
the pathway thereof, there is no death " (Prov. xii. 28). 
" The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart 
from the snares of death " (Prov. xiii. 14). " As right- 
eousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil pur- 
sueth it to his own death " (Prov. xi. 19 ; so also, iii. 
16-18 ; X. 16, 17 ; xiv. 27 ; xix. 23). " See, I have 
set before thee this day life and good, and death and 



76 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

evil." " I call heaven and earth to record this day 
against you, that I have set before you life and death, 
blessing and cursing : therefore choose life, that both 
thou and thy seed may live " (Deut. xxx. 15, 19). 
" He that hateth reproof shall die " (Prov. xv. 10). 
The same phraseology runs through the whole eigh- 
teenth chapter of Ezekiel, occurring more than twenty 
times ; also abundantly in the thirty-third chapter, and 
elsewhere ; in Jeremiah, Hosea, Psalms, Nehemiah, and 
other portions of the Old Testament. 

The reader has but to examine these passages — let 
him read through the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, for 
example — to see in a moment that the words "live" 
and " die " do not mean simple physical life and death, 
nor future existence and annihilation. He can not fail 
to see that they are comprehensive terms, somewhat 
vague, no doubt, in these passages, but denoting mani- 
fold tokens of God's favor and of his displeasure. 
When standing by themselves, they clearly denote the ' 
same thing as when coupled with the explanatorj 
phrases "good and evil," "blessing and cursing" 
(Deut. xxx. 15, 19). Even Gtesenius could not render 
them less than " welfare, prosperity, happiness," on the 
one hand, and " ruin, destruction," on the other ; and 
the least that can be understood of " death " in the 
eighteenth of Ezekiel, and elsewhere, is the meaning 
which Rosenmiiller adopts froni Michaelis : " all man- 
ner of severer punishment." It is vain to cull out from 
the neighboring passages (in some of these instances, 
e.g. Deut. XXX.), and put forward remarks about "pro- 
longing their days in the land," as though thb ex- 
hausted the idea. This is but one trait in a long cata- 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 77 

logue of blessings, with their corresponding curses, 
running through these whole chapters, and summed 
up in the exhortgbtion (xxx. 19), " Therefore choose 
Ufe.'^^ And, in this very portion of the blessing, the 
chief emphasis lies clearly, as the reader may see by 
examining, on prolonging their days in the land of 
Cancum^ the possession of the promised inheritance. 

In connection with this last allusion, let us observe 
more carefully an admirable instance of the Scripture 
mode of promise, strongly illustrative and confirmatory 
of the view we are now defending. It is becoming 
conceded by the best modern interpreters, in accord- 
ance with the older English expositors, that nearly all 
Grod's outward arrangements with his earlier people 
were invested with a spiritual significance, at least to 
the true servant of God. Accordingly, as the promises 
to Abraham and his seed are by the Apostle Paul ap- 
plied not merely or chiefly to the lineal oflFspring, but 
to the spiritual descendants, of Abraham ; so it is also 
distinctly stated in Heb. xi. 10, 13-16, that under the 
promise of the earthly Canaan was inwrapped and 
even apprehended a " heavenly " inheritance : " For 
he [Abraham] looked for a city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God. . . . These all 
died in faith, not having received the promises, but 
having seen them afar off", and were persuaded of them, 
and embraced them, and confessed that they were 
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say 
such things declare plainly that, they seek a country. 
And truly, if they had been mindful of that country 
whence they came out, they might have had opportu- 
nity to have rellimed ; but now they desire a better 



78 lH'K and death eternal. 

country,- that is a heavenly." A similar statement oc- 
curs in verses 39, 40, of the same chapter, while in the 
fourth chapter, we are informed that the " rest" which 
God promised his ancient people was not that to which 
Joshua led them ; and the Saviour chose to couch ono 
of the beatitudes in a similar form, " Blessed are the 
meek, for they shall inherit the earth." 

This striking case is suflScient (without adding oth- 
ers that lie at hand) to show how God chose to pre- 
sent spiritual promises of the highest moment under 
the veil of outer transactions ; and also how, under 
the older dispensation, he chose to leave those topics 
comparatively dim. It is in perfect conformity there- 
fore with the entire method of that dispensation, that 
the life and the death of obedience and of sin should 
have been left somewhat undefined, and should have 
been enforced largely with material sanctions. Still the 
liigher and comprehensive meaning of the terms is 
there.* The Scriptures throughout are consistent with 
themselves in the variant use of this phraseology. 

♦ We have not deemed it necessary to reply more at large to the objec- 
tion of finding two meanings to one word, for the simple reason that not 
only does every page in the Bible answer it, but a man has only to look 
under almost any word in the dictionary, with its list of secondary mean* 
ings, to see its futility. It will weigh only with the illiterate. Such a writer 
as Mr. Blaln turns it to some popular account, and charges the translators 
with "error," "corruption," and "perverting (Jod's word" (Death, not 
Life, p. 30). He and others, the Universalists before him, have made a 
great outcry against the translation in Matt. xvi. 25, 26, where ^vj^ is ren- 
dered both " life " and " soul." We have a similar and incontrovertible 
instance in John iii. 8, in which wuevna is both " wind" and " spirit." A 
difference of meaning is demanded by the " so" of the comparison; and, 
while the meaning " spirit " is unquestioned, the meaning " wind," in the 
first instance, is proved by the adjuncts, — " the wind blotoeth, . . . and thon 
hearest the sound thereof." With reference to the ilfvx^ of Matt xvi. 25, S6, 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 79 

Inasmuch as the Word of God thus uses language 
both in the higher and the lower signification, all flings 
at its interpreters for so understanding it fall quite 
harmless. Thus says Mr. Blain, " It is a notorious fact, 
that, in our theological works, a nondescript dictionary 
is formed with definitions as follows : To be dead 



and the foller passage in Mark viii. 35-88, it may be remarked (1) A differ- 
ence of significations is indispensable to escape a flat contradiction in the 
statement, " Whosoever shall lose his life shall save it." The annihilation- 
ist does not escape this necessity, for he makes one life the life here, the 
other " the re8ttrrec<«? life'* — two distinct things, though coached under 
one word, and even spoken of as thongh identical, — " it." (2) The word 
ypvxVi designating primarily the interior invisible principle, sometimes sig- 
nifies specially the life which was connected with it, and sometimes views 
it as the seat of thought, affection, will, i.e. as a soul. Instances where it 
means life need not be given. Instances in which it designates the soul or 
its affections are the following: Matt. xi. 29; xxii. 37; John x. 24; Acts 
xiy. 2, 22, and many others. (In one instance in the New Testament (Rev. 
vL 9), it means even a departed spirit, as often in classic Greek.) (3) In 
the passage before us, the preceding verse shows that one of its references 
is to the natural life here; the passage following, especially in Mark, proves 
the other reference to be to the future or higher welfare, " When the Son of 
man cometh in his glory." (4) Still more particularly, the connection of 
the two things, not alone by the use of the same word, but the blending 
of them in one common pronoun, " Whosoever will save his life shall lose 
it," renders it proper to carry the same word and thought, " life," through 
both clauses of the antithesis, while we are forced to understand the Unoer 
and the higher life. And this view is sustained by John xii. 25. (5) The best 
mode of translating in the two closing questions, " What shall it profit a 
man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? or, What shall 
A man give in exchange for his soul? " may admit of a question. In favor 
of the view of Alford, who would translate " life in the liigher sense," is 
the one consideration of carrying through the same meaning of the word 
and the same shade of thought. In support of the view of De Wette, Alex- 
ander, and others who understand the soul itself, the seat of that life, is the 
more common meaning of ^XV ^^ ^^ application, the similar expression 
in Luke ix. 25, " lose himself," and the very fact that it is another shade 
of meaning, and that a climax. The plain meaning of the passage is, that 
he who will lose his life in a lower sense for Christ, shall save it in the 
highest sense conceivable. 



k 



80 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

means to be more conscious ; to die is to live on in 
woe ; to lose life is to preserve a miserable existence ; 
life means happiness ; to burn up, to make a living 
salamander ; to destroy is to preserve v^hole ; to de- 
vour, perish, consume, etc., means to make indestruc- 
tible and immortal." And Mr. Hudson writes in the 
same strain ; " We find that the wicked will die, and yet 
not die," etc.' Deferring a portion of these terms to their 
proper place, and waiving some inaccuracies, we accept 
the statement on the whole. The wicked will die, and 
yet in another sense not die ; for " to die is to live on 
in woe," as Adam be^an to do on that day when he 
ate the forbidden fruit. " To be dead," if not " to be 
more conscious," is, at least, to be in a state of intense 
action, as the Ephesians, while dead in sins, were 
" walking according to .the course of this world," and 
" fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind." 
To lose life in one sense may be compatible with pre- 
serving a miserable existence ; just as to lose life in 
another sense is ccnnpatible with preserving a blessed 
existence, or simply preserving life (John xii. 25). To 
those who are disposed to make such flings as these, it 
might be not altogether unsuitable to commend the 
study of verses 4 and 5 of Prov. xxvi., in one of which 
we are told, "Answer not a fool according to his folly ; " 
and in the other, " Answer a fool according to his 
folly." 

One evasion of a difierent kind is brought to view in 
the above quotations. " Life means happiness," says 
Mr. Blain concerning our interpretation. And Mr, 
Hudson implies, that, according to the opponents of an- 
nihilation, life means " endless felicity." Mr. Dobney 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 81 

also assumes that we understand it as meaning " an 
eternity of bliss.'* Much of the speciousness of their ar- 
guments turns on confining the higher meaning of life, 
which we claim, to this signification. It is needless to 
say that this is a great misconception. Endless felicity, 
as we understand the Bible, is but one aspect of that 
true life, — an important aspect, but not the most im- 
portant, nor by any means the radical idea of that 
complex term. And the conclusiveness of our view is 
seen in the fact that the one fundamental conception 
of the phrase easily and naturally meets all the various 
modes of its usage. 

It is also attempted to evade the view now presented, 
especially in connection with the threat of death as the 
penalty of sin, by averring that we make the death it- 
self to cousist in sin or sinning. Thus Mr. Hudson in 
both his books, substantially : Adam did not, '' in the 
day " when he ate the forbidden fruit, receive tempo- 
ral or physical death, nor certainly eternal death, i.e. 
future misery ; and " theologians are more and more 
conceding that ^ spiritual death ' as consisting in a sin- 
ful state should not be called penalty, lest God should 
seem to punish sin with sin." * And again : " His con- 
tinuing to sin can not be called his punishment." No 
doubt this is adroitly put, but is very easily answered. 

* Christ our Life, p. 41 ; see also Debt and Grace, p. 167. Mr. Hudson is 
replying to an argument which some bring against his theory of death by 
laying emphasis on the phrase, ** In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt 
surely die; '' whereas Adam did not become extinct on that day: therefore 
the ** death " was something different from extinction, and the soul, though 
dead, is yet immortal. We have not cared to press that view. Death 
might that very day have begun its work by the implantation of its seed in 
his system ; the mortal change tending steadily to the end. This would 
meet the demands of the statement. 
6 



82 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Ill tho act of sinning, the man inflicted a permanent 
injury on his whole moral nature ; an incurable wound, 
or rather disorder^ which brought with it false work- 
ing, further sinning and sufiering, internal and exter- 
nal, ripening for ever. If this be not punishment, thor- 
ough-going and terrible, what is punishment ? One 
disconnected act of sin may not be the penalty -of an- 
other, or of itself; but when the first involves the sin- 
ner in such entanglements and necessities, or begets in 
him such uncontrollable passion or folly, as to lead into 
the second and all its disastrous consequences, is not 
that a true and awful punishment ? Is it not one of 
the daily and most fearful penalties of crime that it 
leaves no way of retreat, but both induces^ and often 
drives the criminal to plunge ever deeper ? Does ha- 
bitual intoxication carry any form of punishment so 
dreadful as the insane passion which urges the victim 
again and again hopelessly to the cup, and thereby to 
all its bitter dregs ? " Spiritual death," then, if that 
be the mode by which it shall be designated, does 
not consist in isolated acts of sinning, but in a perma- 
nent disease or distortion of the moral nature, a prone- 
ness to sin, a hopeless entanglement with it and all its 
woes. 

Nor does it avail to refer to passages from the Bible, 
in which death (as well as its opposite, — life) has the 
lower meaning. The lower does not preclude other 
instances of the higher. 

To set aside the force of the Scriptures, which af- 
firm a death already commenced, and therefore not a 
cessation of existence, various methods are adopted. 
But the chief cesort is to the figure prolepsiSj antici- 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 83 

pation: men are called dead because soon to die. Mr 
Hudson naively remarks of this word prolepsis, " We 
shall find it a convenient name." He certainly does 
so. 

That there is such a figure as prolepsis, and that 
there are instances of it in the Bible, there is no occa- 
sion to deny. The failure of this appeal, however, 
as an attempt to cut down the meaning of the word 
" death," appears in several ways. 1. The very few cases 
cited as proleptical assertions of death are, in several 
instances, more than doubtful. They are as follows, in 
Mr. Hudson's words (when speaking of the threat 
" Thou shalt surely die ") : *' Just so said the aflFrighted 
Egyptians when God had smitten their first-born, ' We 
be all dead men ; ' and the trembling Israelites, when 
the troop of Korah was destroyed, ' Behold, we die ; 
we perish, we perish.' And God himself employs sim- 
ilar language in addressing the presumptuous Abime- 
lech, * Behold, thou art but a dead man for the woman 
which thou hast taken.' A phrase similar to that in 
our text occurs (Exod. x. 28) : ' Get thee from me ; 
take heed to thyself; see my face no more : for, in 
that day thou seest my face, thou shalt^ die.' Yet 
Pharaoh would not have falsified his words if Moses, 
incurring his wrath, had lived many days under sen- 
tence of death. Still more in point is the passage in 
1 Kings ii. 36, 37, where Solomon gives charge to 
Shimei respecting the tenure of his once forfeited life : 
* It shall be, that on the day thou goest out and passest 
over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain 
that thou shalt surely die.' The last phrase is the 
same as in Gen. ii. 17, 'Dying thou «lialt die;' and 



84 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

the expression, ^ Thou shalt know for certain/ makes 
no diflference, since Shimei knew his danger on the 
fatal day no more certainly than before : the circumlo- 
cution is simply emphatic." Add to these Matt. ix. 
24, " The maid is not dead, but sleepeth," which he 
interprets '' is called not deadj because she will soon be 
alive ; " and Rom. viii. 10 : " And, if Christ be in you, 
the body indeed is dead because of sin ; but the spirit 
is life because of rightedusness." 

But in the last passage, the real meaning of which 
has been much controverted, a sound interpretation is 
that of Alford : " The body still remains dead, under 
the power of death physical," in which he substantially 
agrees with De Wette. Death is going on in the body, 
doing its work. 

A more legitimate exposition of Matt. ix. 24 is that 
of Alexander : " She really was dead, but only for a 
time, and therefore not dead in the ordinary accepta- 
tion of the term." Physical death includes not only 
the departure, but the returnless 'departure, of the 
spirit: in this sense she was not dead. Not only does 
this exposition retain strictly the ordinary lower mean- 
ing of the .word ; it is confirmed by the additional 
words ''but sleepeth^^^ showing the point of the re- 
mark to lie in the return of the spirit ; and still fur- 
ther sustained by Christ's words in reference to Laza- 
rus, where he begins by saying, " Our friend Lazarus 
sleepethj but I go that I may awake him out of sleep;" 
and, when the disciples failed to comprehend, he plainly 
tells them '* Lazarus is dead," though immediately 
hinting at the miracle which made his departure a 
sleep rather than a common death. The threat of 



THE SCRIPTUBE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 85 

Pharaoh aiBTords no ground for asserting a prolepsis : 
he threatens, in a certain contingency, immediate 
death, — death in that very day. There is no cause 
for saying he meant any thing else. The threat of Sol- 
omon to Shimei was also doubtless intended to intimate 
the most summary vengeance. And we find, that, to 
all appearance, the execution was as speedy as the pos- 
sibility of the case admitted. 

The exclamation " We die, we perish," meant, in 
the mouths of Israelites and Egyptians, death is close 
upon us, just before us, stares us in the face. This 
nuiy be called a prolepsis ; but it is cutting very close 
to do so. Just so, when Jacob and Joseph respectively 
were about to die, they began by saying, " I die " (Gen. 
xlviii. 21 ; 1. 24) ; though Jacob certainly lived long 
enough to utter a whole chapter of predictions after- 
wards. If any one chooses to call this a prolepsis, it • 
certainly shows how small a matter a prolepsis may be, 
and how close an argument may come to a quibble. 
In the two remaining passages, " We be all dead men," 
" Thou art but a dead man," the appearance of pro- 
lepsis is more distinct from the use of the word '' dead " 
in the translation ; whereas the expression in the origi- 
nal is precisely the same as that of Joseph and Jacob, 
ti'anslated " I die," and is so translated in these pas- 
sages in the Septuagint, — " Behold thou diest," " We 
all die." * But if -we waive this point, and admit, ac- 
cording to the English version, a prolepsis, that pro- 



* The Hebrew tnJQ may be either a participle used for the finite verb, 
or an adjective nsed as a substantive. Fiirst gives it either way in these 
passages. Perhaps the latter usage is the more commdn. 



86 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

lepsis is not only obvious, it does not admit the possi 
bility of misapprehension. 

2. So far as any of these can be considered cases of 
anticipation, it is of a death immediately at hand. 
" We die," " We be all dead men," " Thou art a 
dead man," indicate that the parties are at death's 
door. 

3. The exclamation of ^' trembling Israelites " and 
"frightened Egyptians," as Mr. Hudson calls them, 
and the threats of Pharaoh or even of Solomon, if the 
latter bore upon the case, are but a slender basis on 
which to modify the solemn legislation of God, the 
calm words of Christ, or the doctrinal utterances of 
Paul and John. 

4. It is vain to cite even clear cases of prolepsis 
against certain other passages which are just as clearly 
not proleptical. We have adduced many passages that 
can not be so understood without violence both to text 
and context, but which yield perfectly easy meanings, 
consistent with each other and with the radical idea of 
death, and with scores of other passages in which the 
same thought occurs. 

5. The attempt, in this mode, to evade the Scripture 
teaching concerning a continuity of condition from this 
world to the next, called death, is also frustrated by 
equally numerous representations concerning the con- 
tinuance of one and the same life, extending unbroken 
from this world into the next. 

6. The resort to prolepsis is still further frustrated 
by the fact, that the same view of continuous conditions, 
life and death, is also presented under entirely differ- 
ent forms of speech. 



THE 8CBIPTURB AMOUMBNT BXAMINBD, 87 

7. The assertion of an habitual prolepsis (for habit- 
ual it is made) on the subject of the sinner's death, is 
itself the assertion of an habitual use of the term " death " 
concerning the sinner's condition, with an application 
quite different from the literal or lower use of the word. 
In the incautious language of Mr. Hudson (Christ 
our Life, p. 54), those numerous passages ^^seem to 
describe a coming death as if its proper work were 
already done** Precisely so. 

If any thing were wanting to show the entire futiUty 
of the attempt to force " death " into meaning " extinc- 
tion " throughout the Bible, it is found in the complete 
breaking-down of that attempt, even in the collateral 
uses of the word. There are numerous instances in 
which the word "dead" does not describe bodily. de- 
cease, nor the moral disease or future doom of the soul. 
In these cases, the meaning will be found a legitimate 
oul^rowth of the radical signification which we advo- 
cate, and entirely incompatible with the fundamental 
meaning insisted on by the annibilationists. Of this 
class are such expressions as these : " Likewise reckon 
ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive 
imto Gtod" (Rom. vi. 11). " For I, through the law, 
am dead to the law " (Gal. ii. 19 ; Rom. vii. 4). " Faith 
without works isdead " (Jas. ii. 20). " Dead works " 
(Heb. vi. 1 ; ix. 14). " The law being dead " (Bom. 
vii. 6). "Sm was dead" (Rom. vii. 8). 

Now, let us look at Mr. Hudson's exposition of the 
phrase " dead td sin," to which we invite the reader's 
careful attention. After a faint suggestion (which he 
does not venture to maintain) to translate " dead bp 



88 UFS AND DEATH MTBRNAL. 

or in siu," he proceeds thus:* "But if we translate 
the phrase vBXQoig rg dfutgtiiitj ^ dead to siu,' the sense 
of the term 'dead' will not be figurative, but quite 
literal. Christians have no life in the direction of sin. 
Their love for it has died out [the Italics are ours], 
and their capacity for it is dying out. They have too 
much of the life that quickens to retain much of the 
life that kills." Now, let the reader look at this poor 
juggle. What is " literal " death ? It is extinction, 
says Mr. Hudson, — extinction of the man himself; 
first the body, then the soul : and here is quite " lite- 
ral" death, — "Reckon yourselves to be dead." What 
is it ? extinction of the man ? No : the maai, still lives, 
and is to live on for ever: only his "love for sin'* 
has died out. But even this, if you look closely, is 
but a figure ; for not a faculty has perished, — only he 
has learned to turn his faculties in a difierent " direc- 
tion." He who loved sin loves God. And so this 
^'literaV^ death, this annihilation of a man, turns out 
to be a transfer of his affections from one object to 
another ! Can it be that a man should not see that he 
has surrendered his whole argument, and admitted 
that death sometimes denotes a spiritual state ? Still, 
he could not well do better. It is true that the term 
is applied in a different moral relation from the cus- 
tomary one, — suflSciently explained by its adjuncts; 
yet it exemplifies the same fundamental meaning for 
which we contend. 

Equally ineffectual is his method of dealing with 
those other phrases, " dead faith," " dead works," " the 
law being dead," " sin was dead." " Here, however," 

• Christ our Life, p. 49. 



THB SCMIPTURE ARGUMENT EZAMINED, 89 

he says, " death is predicated, not of persons^ but of 
thirds ; which certainly can not be spiritually dead, or 

* dead in trespasses,' as that phrase is commonly under- 
stood." Well, and who ever supposed that they could ? 
But they can be dead in a sense fully kindred to that 
meaning, — they can have ceased or failed to perform 
their proper function, can be destitute of all true eflB- 
cacy, power. And this is precisely what is meant. 
Accordingly, in the next sentence, the author admits 
it against himself. " And the metaphor, if it be such 
[he seems to agree with us now, that it is hardly a 
metaphor], grows out of the conception of things that 
have force and power, as 'vital,' 'living,' and, again, 
as ' dead,' when they have lost their power." This is 
very well said, but not strengthening to his own cause. 
And now he proceeds, endeavoring to give the matter 
a diflFereut direction : " A law that is invalid is a ' dead 
letter;' and the parchment that contains it is waste 
paper [quite figuratively; for the parchment is still 
carefully preserved]. All things that grow out of date, 
or obsolete, may be very properly said to lose all the 
life they ever had ; [how much is that in the case of 

* dead works,' for example ?] and the forms in which 
they were embodied in due time crumble away and 
vanish, or remain* only as monuments [some diversity 
in the two suppositions] or ruins of that which is no 
more. Nothing could be more like literal death." But 
the reader will be pleased to observe through all this 
haze of statement that the " law " itself has not ceased 
to exist, nor perhaps been repealed, only lost its 
proper functions ; that sin has not ceased to exist or 
even to act mightily, but simply to do its peculiar work 



90 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL,. 

on this individual ; that the works were dead, not be- 
cause non-existent, nor because they liad lost any thing 
whatsoever, but because they never had any vitalizing, 
functional energy or true significance in them; the 
faith was dead, not as having perished, but because it 
failed to exliibit those activities which are the marks 
and issues of a living power performing its true work. 
Thus on each and all these collateral uses of the phra- 
seology, as well as on the chief instances, the narrow 
sensual interpretation breaks down, and is inconsistent 
with itself; while the plain fundamental meaning which 
we have found not only fits the main drift of the Bible 
and its particular assertions, but adapts itself to all 
the incidental uses of the word, even the opposites of a 
dead faith and dead works, — of the law being dead, 
and of being dead to the law ; of being dead in sin, 
and being dead unto sin. 

We have, then, on the one hand, tlie legitimate and 
ordinary meaning of the words " life," " death," as de- 
noting the presence or the absence of certain functions 
and activities tending to certain results in existent 
beings, traced in their higher and pregnant application 
from a material to an intellectual and spiritual use 
even in common life, and especially througli the Word 
of God ; we find that fundamental conception jconsist- 
ently applying in cases outwardly diverse ; and espe- 
cially we find that conception to be the one which will 
meet, and which alone will fully and easily meet, all 
the exigencies of that phraseology in its comprehensive 
power as applied to the state and prospects of the hu- 
man soul, — a meaning too, not dependent on a word, 
but impregnably sustained by various otlier represen- 



THB^ SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 91 

tatioiis running through the warp and woof of Scrip- 
ture, and read there unmistakably by the great mass 
of Christian men. 

We have, on the other hand, a meaning assigned to 
the words "life" and " death" as the literal meaning 
(a meaning ascribed as unwarrantably as it is ostenta- 
tiously and pertinaciously) ; then we follow the writers 
who set out with this literal meaning of " death " as 
" extinction," not only to find the meaning breaking 
down in a large number of passages, and unsuitable in 
a great number more ; not only refuted by other modes 
of representation, and, as we are presently to see, 
contradicted by positive statements to the contrary, 
but we track them in their detious paths casting away 
this " literal " meaning piecemeal ; making it now a 
cause of death, now a " supposed death " (when there 
was no such supposition) ; now a " relative loss," now 
a " loss of force and power ; " now the state of " the 
lovers of pleasure regarded as heirs of death," now a 
doomed condition, or a certainty of death — and that 
certainty spoken of as already existing in the past — 
while yet some of the very parties have now the cer- 
tainty of not dying (Eph. ii.) ; and finally this " lite- 
ral " death or extinction completely vanishing into a 
transfer of a living man's aflFections. 

The truth is, that no man, however ingenious, can 
carry consistently through the Bible an endeavor to 
palm off this spurious meaning of " extinction " upon 
the word " death." The main argument is a total 
failure.* 

* See Appendix, note A. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SCRIPTURB ARGUMENT EXAMINED: "DESTRUCTION," 
AND OTHER TERMS. 

HAVING examined the terms " death " and "life," 
which constitute the most plausible portion of 
the argument for annihilation, the other phraseology, 
which is treated in the same arbitrary and material 
mode, may be more briefly dispatched. The same 
persevering attempt is made to ingraft the meaning of 
annihilation upon various other terms. But the refu- 
tation is easy. 

1. Destroy^ Destruction, " The Lord preserve th all 
them that love him ; but all the wicked will he destroy " 
(Ps. cxlv. 20). " Fear him which is able to destroy 
both soul and body in hell " (Matt. x. 28). "Art thou 
come to destroy us " before our time ? (Mark i. 24.) 
" The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction " 
(Job xxi. 30). '' Broad is the way that leadeth to de- 
struction" (Matt. vii. 13). "Vessels of wrath fitted 
to destruction" (Rom. ix. 22). 

Mr. Blain quotes and refers to some forty-two such 
texts, and informs us that such terms are used five 
hundred times in the Bible. But as the same Greek 
word {ojtoXkviu and cbroJ^ta) is also translated by the 
words " perish," " perdition," " lose," and " lost," 
it will be convenient to add those words also before 
replying. 

^^m^ 92 



TJBE SCBIPTUBB ABGUMENT EXAMINED. 93 

2. To perishj perdition. " Kiss the Son, lest he be 
^"igry, and ye perish from the way, when his anger is 
kindled but a little " (Ps. ii. 12). " As many as have 
sinned without law shall also perish without law" 
(Rom. ii. 12). " None of them is lost but the son of 
perdition" (John xvii. 12). "We are not of them 
who draw back unto perdition " (Heb. x. 39). Some 
thirty-five other passages containing these terms are 
cited by Mr. Blain. 

3. LosCy lost. "He that findeth his life shall lose 
it " (Matt. X. 89). " But if our gospel be hid, it is hid 
to them that are lost" (2 Cor. iv. 3). Some six other 
texts more or less resemble these. 

The words here quoted, in a very large number of 
passages of the Bible, refer simply to physical ruin or 
death ; as where Joshua " destroyed " the cities of 
Canaan and their inhabitants, and Bahab '^perished 
not." 

But there is another mse, perfectly clear and unde- 
niable, in which these terms do not refer even to the 
loss of physical life, much less of existence, but corre- 
spond almost precisely to our comprehensive phrase 
ruin^ and being' ruined or undone. The ruin may be 
of the most various description, — a destruction of the 
well-being in whatsoever form, but, when applied to 
the prospects of the sinner, of his whole highest wel- 
fare here and hereafter. The Greek word translated 
lost, perished, destroyed, has this for one of its moet 
familiar meanings. ^mlmXa — I am lost, destroyed, 
or perished — was a common Attic phrase, mean- 
ing, according to Passow, " I am in the last degree 
miserable or unfortunate." So in thfe Scriptures. 



.94 ^/^^ ^^t> DEATH ETERNAL. 

The prodigal sou was ^' lost," though neither dead nor 
anniliilated, but in a most forlorn and wretched state. 
Christ was sent unto the " lost " sheep of the house 
of " Israel," to " seek and to save that which was lost," 
— ruined, though still existing and bitterly active. 
And if we wish for Christ's own exposition of what the 
" lost " sheep of the house of Israel were, read in Luke 
XV. 4-7 : " What man of you having an hundred sheep, 
if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and 
nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is losty 
until he find it? ... I say unto you, that likewise 
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, 
more than over ninety and nine just persons which need 
no repentance." A sinner alienated from God is al- 
ready lost, in a state of ruin begun : his repentance is 
the recovery. Precisely so said God to Israel, "0 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself ; but in me is thy 
help" (Hos. xiii. 9). Yet Israel was not extinct 
either nationally or individually, but reduced to a 
most calamitous and desperate condition. '^My people 
are destroyed [cut oflF] for lack of knowledge " (Hos. 
iv. 6). But the people were existing still. Indeed, 
the " destroying " ranges through almost every form 
of calamity that can befall a nation or individual, up 
to the eternal penalty of sin. " Egypt was corrupted 
[destroyed^ margin] by reason of the swarms *of flies " 
(Exod. viii. 24). Said Pharaoh's servants, "Knowest 
thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed ? " (Exod. x. 7.) 
Said Job of his great afflictions, ^^ He hath destroyed 
me on every side " (Job xix. 10). And God says con- 
cerning him to Satan, " Thou movedst me to destroy 
him [swallow him up] without cause " (Job ii. 3). 



THE aCRIPTURS ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 96 

The king of Babylon, who by his wars had exhausted 
the resources of his kingdom, is told, " Thou hast de- 
stroyed thy land, and slain thy people" (Isa. xiv. 20). 
We are told of Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 16), " When 
he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruc- 
tion ; " upon his profane attempt to burn incense, he 
was smitten with leprosy, and obliged to abandon his 
palace and his government, dwelling by himself to the 
day of his death. " The rich man's wealth is his strong 
city ; the destruction of the poor is their poverty " (Prov. 
X. 16). Clearly the meaning is, not the annihilation 
of the poor, or even the cause of their death, but the 
source of exposure to many forms of grievous suffering, 
trial, and danger. " In the multitude of people is the 
king's honor ; but in the want of people is the destruc- 
tion of the prince '' (Prov. xiv. 28), — a cause of his 
weak and inglorious condition, liable to defeat and 
overthrow. " Pride goeth before destruction, and a 
haughty spirit before a fall" (Prov. xvi. 18), '' But 
when his disciples saw it, they said. To what purpose 
is this waste?" — cmtiohia, destruction, i.e. simply 
misapplication or perversion (Matt. xxvi. 8). The 
ravaging of plain and valley is thus predicted (Jer. 
xlviii. 8) : " The valley shall perish and the plain shall 
be destroyed." The utter overthrow of hope and 
courage is described as a perishing of heart (Jer. iv. 
9) : " And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the 
Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the 
heart of the princes ; and the priests shall wonder. 

Without citing numerous other similar instances 
which abound, especially in the Old Testament, we 
remark in brief, that any reader of ordinary intelli- 



96 1>IFB AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

genco who shall run over, with a concordance, the pas- 
sages of the Bible contaming these words, will see that 
the attempt to force these passages to the aid of anni- 
hilation is destitute of all true foundation. He will 
see that the simple and generic idea of the words is 
not extinction, but rwm, — ruin of very .various kinds, 
— very often indeed designating the demolition of a city 
with its buildings, and the taking of physical life ; but 
also applied, with equal freedom, to the impoverish- 
ment, exhaustion, or devastation of a land, the miser- 
able condition and dispersion' of its inhabitants, the 
humiliation of a living monarch, the calamitous state 
of a surviving man, the downfall of a haughty sinner, 
the entire misapplication of a precious ointment. He 
will thus see that the word does not carry with it, by 
its proper force, the idea of extinction ; and therefore, 
though applied to designate the awful ruin which shall 
overtake the sinner in another world, the attempt to 
sustain by its use the doctrine of annihilation, how- 
ever vaunting and persevering, is simply preposterous. 

•4. Consume^ devour. Some six or eight passages in 
which these words occur are materialized into extinc- 
tion : " They that forsake the Lord shall be consumed " 
(Isa. ii. 28). " They shall consume ; into smoke shall 
they consume away " (Ps. xxxvii. 20). " A fearful look- 
ing-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall 
devour the adversaries " (Heb. x. 27). 

Can not a living man be, in Scripture imagery, de- 
voured or consumed, without the destruction or impair- 
ment of his conscious being ? Read a few passages 
and see. Says Jacob, in describing his physical en- 
durances, '^ In the day, the drought consumed me ; and 



THE SCRIPTUMtE ARGUATENT EXAMINED. 97 

the frost by night" (Gen. xxxi. 40). The Psalmist de- 
scribes the deep grief which roused his faculties to a 
constant wakefulness : '^ Mine eye is consumed because 
>f grief" (Ps. vi. 7). "Mine eye is consumed with 
ijrief, . . . my bones are consumed " (Ps. xxxi. 9, 
10). Of the effect of God's heavy chastisements, he 
says, " I am consumed by the blow of thine hand " 
(Ps. xxxix. 10). He says of the wicked, "They are 
utterly consumed with terrors " (Ps. Ixxiii. 19). Of 
the active zeal that filled all his being with life, he says, 
" The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up " [consumed 
me] (Ps. Ixix. 9). In like manner the word " devour," 
though very often including the taking of human life, 
has a wide range of special meaning under the general 
idea of inflicting grievous evils. We read of strangers 
" devouring the land " (Isa. i. 7) ; of " shame devour- 
ing the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks 
and their herds, their sons and their daughters" (Jer. 
iii. 24); of "secretly devouring the poor" (Hab. iii. 
14) ; of Christians warned not " to bite and devour one 
another " (Gal. v. 16) ; of men who " devour widows^ 
houses" (Mark xii. 40) ; of a " deceitful tongue " that 
" loveth all devouring words " (Ps. Iii. 4) ; and other 
similar utterances, which clearly show the futility of 
the endeavor to materialize these words into meaning 
annihilation. 

6. Tea/r in pieces^ break in pieces^ grind to powder. 
" On whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to pow- 
der" (Matt. xxi. 44). " Now, consider this, ye that 
forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none 
to deliver " (Ps. 1. 22). " The adversaries of the Lord 
shall be broken to pieces " (1 Sam. ii. 10). 

7 



98 



LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 



One would suppose that such texts as these were 
sufficient to open the eyes of any one to the absurdity 
of the kind of interpretation with which we are con- 
tending. As though the Almighty would, like some 
hungry beast of prey, literally " tear in pieces," or, 
like a falUng stone, crush into a shapeless mass ! One 
is almost ashamed to refute such a gross conception 
by citing the numerous passages which show it to be 
only a vivid representation of deep contrition, oftener 
of heavy affliction, and especially of an irresistible and 
crushing overthrow and vengeance. " A broken and 
contrite heart " (Ps. li. 17) is literally a heart " broken 
in pieces and shivered." Job asks his friends (chap. 
xix. 2), " How long will ye vex my soul, and break me 
in pieces with words ? " " They [the wicked] break 
in pieces thy people, Lord, and afflict thine heritage " 
(Ps. xciv. 5). " The fourth beast " (Dan. vii. 23) was 
to " devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and 
break it in pieces ; " yet the fifth kingdom (Dan. ii. 
44) was to " break in pieces and consume all these 
[previous] kingdoms." Said the Lord to Jeremiah, 
"Arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee : 
be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound [break 
to pieces J margin] thee before them." He addresses 
the enemies of Judah (Isa. viii. 9), " Associate your- 
selves, ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces ; 
and give ear all ye of far countries : gird yourselves, 
and ye shall be broken in pieces ; gird yourselves, and 
ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, 
and it shall come to naught." In David's song com- 
memorative of his deliverance " out of the hand of all 
his enemies, and out of tlie hand of Saul," he says, 



TMS SCEIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 99 

" Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the 
earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and 
did spread them abroad " (2 Sam. xxii. 43) : in other 
words, they were completely routed and overthrown 
by him. " To break all one's bones " is a frecjuent ex- 
pression for heavy afHiction. Job speaks thus of his 
grievous suflFerings coupled with the triumph of others 
over him : " He teareth me in his wrath who hateth 
me ; he gnasheth upon me with his teeth ; mine enemy 
sharpeneth his eyes upon me. . . . God hath deliv- 
ered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the 
hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he hath 
broken me asunder : he hath also taken me by the 
nexjk, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his 
mark ; " and more in the same strain (Job xvi. 9-14). 
Yet all this time Job was in a state of the highest 
mental activity. It is also true that these terms are 
often applied to defeats and overthrows in which life is 
taken ; but, even then, how completely the meaning 
rises above the mere form of the imagery is well illus- 
trated in the song of Moses, where, after distinctly stat- 
ing in repeated forms that the enemy were " drowned 
in the Bed Sea,'' he continues, " Thy right hand, 
Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy " (Exod. xv. 
6). A man is crushed and prostrated, not annihilated, 
whether by deep contrition, severe affliction, or entire 
defeat. 

6. Out off. Some five texts containing this phrase 
are cited in proof of annihilation. " For evil-doers 
shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord 
shall inherit the earth " (Ps. xxxvii. 9). " The face of 
the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the re- 



100 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

membrance of them from the earth " (Ps. xxxiv. 16). 
" For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth ; 
and they that be cursed of him shall be cut oflf" (Ps. 
xxxvii. 22). See also verse 28. 

The very form of the above expressions shows the 
primary reference to temporal blessings and calamities, 
— "inherit the earth;" "cut off from the earth." 
They would leave the question of future existence out 
of sight. It is therefore hardly needful to show that 
they do not and can not signify annihilation^by quoting 
such passages as these concerning the Messiah : " He 
was cut offoxxt of the land of the living " (Isa. liii. 8). 
"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah 
be cut off" (Dan. ix. 26) ; and other passages almost 
equally decisive. But if it should be said that these 
passages, first cited under the form of temporal good 
and evil, involve also future retributions, we reply, 
If so, they affirm that the one class shall possess, and 
the other shall be cast out from, all the promised bless- 
ings of the heavenly land. In Matthew, we read a 
much stronger expression than simply to be cut off 
from a land ; the Lord of the evil servant will " cut 
him asunder," i.e. cut him in two. If applied to phys- 
ical life, the expression, literally taken, would assert 
its extinction, of course ; but how different a meaning 
is here conveyed is made evident at once by the next 
words, " and shall appoint him his portion with the 
hypocrites : there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth^' (Matt. xxiv. 51). The phrase " cut off" com- 
monly refers simply to physical death, but sometimes 
involves the additional idea of a threatened removal 
from the blessings of God's people in this life ; whilei, 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 101 

in some instances, it even expresses a release from life's 
afOictions: ''That he would let loose his hand, and 
cut me off; then should I yet have comfort " (Job vi. 
9). The Psalmist, however (Ps. Ixxxviii. 16), ex* 
claims concerning his pitiable deprivation of earthly 
joys, " Thy terrors have cut me off." 

7. Blot out. Two texts containing these words are 
adduced to prove annihilation : '*' Let them be blotted 
out of the book of the living, and not be written with 
the righteous " (Ps. Ixix. 28). "I will not blot out 
his name out of the book of life " (Rev. iii. 5). In 
the first of these passages, the last part well explains 
the first part. Let them " not be written with the right- 
eous j^^ as sharers of their blessings, — perhaps here in 
the land of the living. " To blot out our transgres- 
sions," an often-recurring phrase, does not mean to 
annihilate them, but to pardon them, i.e. overlook their 
claims to punishment. To " blot out the handwriting 
of the ordinances which was against us " (Col. ii. 14) 
is not to annihilate those ordinances, but to set aside 
their demands and punitive consequences. 

The fundamental image is that of record-books, some 
containing certain records of sins as though debts to 
God, others containing the registry of ancient Israel 
as heirs of the promised land, and one (in the New 
Testament) containing the names of the heirs of the 
kingdom of heaven. To blot out the transgressions or 
the handwriting of the ordinances was figuratively to 
erase thatTecord ; that is, to release the claim. To blot 
out the name from God's book (Exod. xxxii. 32 and 
Ps. Ixix. 28) was to take away all title to the promises, 
and perh^ to send to a premature death ; not to blot 



102 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

out a name from the Lamb's book of life is to leave 
the man a recognized ,» recorded heir of all Christ's 
promised love, entitled to the privileges of enrolled 
citizens of his kingdom. He, therefore, whose name is 
blotted out from that book of life, is for ever banished 
from the kingdom of heaven. 

8. Not be, na/ughty as nothing. A few texts contain- 
ing these words are also forced into the service of the 
system ; with what success, the reader shall see. Ps. 
xxxvii. 10, " For yet a little while, and the wicked 
shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his 
place, and it shall not be." Mr. Blain triumphantly 
asks, " Where is hell, then ? " We answer. In the other 
world ; for this passage speaks clearly of the over- 
throw and disappearance of the wicked in this world. 
So the phraseology, " Thou shalt consider his place ; " 
so the next words, " But the meek shall inherit the 
earth ; " so similar statements in the same psalm, " I 
have seen the wicked in great power. . . . Yet he 
passed away, and lo, he was not : yea, I sought him, but 
he could not be found ; " that is, on earth. Even Job 
describes his own desired disappearance in similar 
terms (Job vii. 21) : " For now shall I sleep in the dust ; 
and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not 
be : " see also Job xx. 8, and other places. The same 
remark applies to another quoted passage (Job viii. 22), 
"The dwelling-place of the wicked shall come to 
naught," or not be ; where the whole argument re- 
spects God's dealings with men in this world. Another 
passage : " They shall be as though they had not been " 
(Obad. 16). But here the prophet is speaking of the 
entire temporal overthrow and extermination of the 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 108 

Edomites : the land shall be as clear of them as though 
they had never been. The same thought is expressed 
two verses later : " There shall not be any remaining of 
the house of Esau." Job can hardly be accused of ex- 
pressing the hope of annihilation, when, having uttered 
the wish that he had " given up the ghost at birth," 
he adds. " I should have been as though I had not 
been ; I should have been carried from the womb to 
the grave." He clearly means that so transient an 
appearance, followed by an immediate and final disap- 
pearance from this life, would have been almost the 
same as not having lived here at all : he would have 
escaped the flood of earthly afflictions that came upon 
him. 

And let it be observed, in passing, that it is vain to 
appeal to those passages which speak of death as the 
land of silence and darkness ; for these passages are 
quite as often employed in case of the righteous as 
of the wicked, and they manifestly describe the case 
merely according to the appearance of things. It is 
the view from this side, the land of the living. To us 
it is darkness and silence, where " there is no work 
nor device." 

But there are one or two passages like these : " They 
that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a 
thing of naught ; and they that strive with thee shall 
perish" (Isa. xli. 11, 12). "Correct me; but . . . not 
in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing" (Jer. x. 
24). But how perfectly manifest the meaning, even to 
the commonest reader. To be as nothing and as a thing 
of naught, in warring against God, is but the popular 
expression for utter insignificance, e.g., "All nations 



104 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

before him are as nothing ; and th6y are counted to 
him less than nothing, and vanity " (Jsa. xl. 17). Is 
that annihilation ? Just so a multitude of phrases 
which it is superfluous to quote, all having the same 
general meaning of insignificance (or sometimes dis- 
comfiture) : " Mine age is as nothing before thee " 
(Ps. xxxix. 6). " Circumcision is nothing, and un- 
circumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the com* 
mandments of God " (1 Cor. vii. 19). " An idol is 
nothing in the world " (viii. 4). " Though I be noth- 
ing " (2 Cor. xii. 11). " If a man thinketh he is 
something, when he is nothing " (Gal. vi. 3). So the 
phrases, "Brought their counsel to naught," "Bring to 
naught " (Neh. iv. 16 ; Ps. xxxiii. 10 ; Acts v. 36 ; 1 
Cor. i. 28), mean to show the insignificance of a thing 
in its complete overthrow. To "set at naught" 
(Prov. i. 25 ; Mark ix. 12 ; Rom. xiv. 10) is to treat 
as insignificant and with contempt. 

With this plain idiom thus running through the 
Bible, it is astonishing that any man can even impose 
upon himself so as to find annihilation in it. Still 
more astonishing in reference to the other passage, 
" Lest thou bring me to nothing " (which is cited by 
Mr. Blain) ; for a man who could not read in his He- 
brew Lexicon that the word means simply and strictly 
" to make little or few," might at least read in the mar- 
gin the translation " diminish " (Jer. x. 24). 

9. Some prominence is given to four texts, contain- 
ing the word " end " : " Whose end is destruction " 
(Phil. iii. 19). " Whose end is to be burned " (Heb. 
vi. 8) (where the wicked are spoken of under the im- 
age of thorns and briers). " Oh ! let the wickedness of 



THE SCRIPTUBB ABOUMENT EXAMINED. 105 

the wicked come to an end " (Ps. vii. 9). " The end 
of the wicked shall be cut ofF" (Ps. xxxvii. 38). The 
texts are somewhat oddly brought together. But look 
at the first two : the argument is^ that ^^ end " here 
means final cessation of existence. What, then, ^hall 
we say of these texts ? — " Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his " (Num. xxiii. 
10). " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; 
for the end of that man is peace " (Ps. xxxvii. 37). 
Do these passages declare' the annihilation of the right- 
eous at death ? No. The word " end," which has a 
variety of meanings in Scripture, when used in such 
texts as this, simply denotes m a. general way the close 
of the earthly career or probationary state : " Make 
me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, 
what it is " (Ps. xxxix. 4) ; or perhaps, more exactly, 
sometimes the close of this state as the beginning of 
the final condition. Indeed, that it sometimes denotes 
a final condition, even in this world, is undeniable : 
" Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end 
should greatly increase " (Job viii. 7). " So the Lord 
blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning " 
(Job xlii. 12). " And the end everlasting life " (Rom. 
vi. 22). All reliance upon this phraseology is suicidal. 
The two renutining passages are somewhat difTerent : 
" Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end." 
Waiving all other remarks, the reader who shall pe- 
ruse the whole psalm will see that the one subject in 
view is the wickedness and its ebullitions in this world, 
from which the Psalmist prays for deliverance. The 
other passage is translated by Rosenmiiller, De Wette, 



106 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Maurer, and apparently by Olshausen, " The posterity 
of the wicked shall be cut oflF." * 

10. Burtiy and burn up. The materialist interpre- 
tation lays considerable stress on nine or ten texts in 
whicli these terms are used concerning the enemies of 
God, and argues as though the vengeance of God 
were strictly similar to a wood fire, and the human 
soul to a combustible material, and the operation of 
the one upon the other was in either case much the 
same. Mr. Blain actually italicizes the word " ashes '* 
in quoting Mai. iv. 3 : The wicked " shall be ashes un- 
der the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do 
this." The passages cited (in addition to this) are the 
following : " A fire goeth before him, and burneth up 
his enemies round about " (Ps. xcvii. 3.) " And the 
fire shall devour them " (Ps. xxi. 9). " Whose end is 
to be burned " (Heb. vi. 8). " Cast them into the fire, 
and they are burned " (John xv. 6). " He will burn up 
the chaflF with unquenchable fire " (Matt. iii. 12). " As 
therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, 
so shall it be in the end of this world" (Matt. xiii. 40). 
" For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an 
oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, 
shall be stubble : and the day that cometh shall burn 
them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave 
them neither root nor branch " (Mai. iv. 1). " Our 
Otod is a consuming fire " (Heb. xii. 29). " Fire came 
down out of heaven, and devoured them " (Rev. xx. 
9). "A fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery in- 

• Gesenios translates the word " end " here [t^'^'^IJ*] ecetUut feUx, 
** happy close; " and Delitzsch, ** the future (l.e., the earthly fhtare) whiob 
he had imagined." The word itself admits either meaning. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 107 

dignation, which shall devour the adversaries " (Heb. 
X. 27). 

It requires but a moderate familiarity with this kind 
of imagery in the Bible, to see the entire fallaciousness 
of the interpretation. This particular mode of ex- 
pression runs through the Bible, and especially the 
Old Testament, so abundantly, as to render the mean- 
ing unmistakable. God's anger is a fire or a flame ; 
afflictions and suflferings are its heat and burning ef- 
fect, sometimes a burning in general ; and when that 
vengeance is perfectly irresistible, appalling, and over- 
whelming, it is represented, as could be done in no 
other way so graphically and so consistently, as a de- 
vouring and consuming fire, driving over the helpless 
stubWe, or sweeping through the dry thorns and briers, 
or reducing the tares and chaff to ashes. This is the 
simple fact of the case, capable of easy proof. 

Not alone God's anger, but anger generally, is de- 
scribed as heat. The phrase, " he was angry," is, in 
Hebrew, " it was hot to him ; " and the primary allu- 
sion probably to the flush upon the cheek. Heat and 
anger, associated in all languages, are still more closely 
interwoven in the Hebrew. Severe anger is li'nn, burn- 
ing. Ahasuerus " was very wroth, and his anger 
burned within him " (Est. i. 12). 

The expression of that anger is a sending forth of 
flames or of coals, especially when infliction of suf- 
fering is implied. Even Leviathan is thus described 
(Job xli. 19-22) : " Out of his mouth go burning lamps, 
and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth 
smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath 
kiudleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth." 



108 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Judah said to Joseph, ^^Let not thine anger burn 
against thy servant " (Gen. xliv. 18). Of God it is 
said (Jer. vii. 20), " Behold mine anger and my fury 
. . . shall burn, and shall not be quenched." " Shall 
thy jealousy burn like fire ? " (Ps. Ixxix. 5 ; Ixxxix. 46.) 
" So a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also 
came up against Israel " (Ps. Ixxviii. 21). Numerous 
other passages use these phrases and the like to describe 
in general the exhibition of anger, in whatever mode, 
but so as to involve the infliction of suflFering. 

In other cases, the suflFering inflicted is clearly the 
prominent thought represented, as the eflfect of the 
fire. The calumniator is one in whose lips " there is as 
a burning fire " (Prov. xvi. 27). See also Ps. cxx. 4, 
Prov. vi. 27, for similar expressions with similar mean- 
ing. Jeremiah describes his deep sorrow " with which 
the Lord hath aflflicted me in the day of his fierce anger," 
by adding in the next words, " From above hath he 
sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them " 
(Lam. i. 13). The Psalmist, in his " prayer of the 
ajfiicted " (Ps. cii. 3), complains that his " bones are 
burned as a hearth." And Job, in his deep troubles, 
utters the same cry : " My skin is black upon me, and 
my bones are burned with heat" (Job xxx. 30). Tlie 
deliverance of the Israelites from the terrible oppres- 
sions of Egypt was God's bringing them " forth out of 
Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron " (1 Kings 
viii. 51 ; Deut. iv. 20 ; Jer. xi. 4). God's threats of 
the terrible evils he would bring upon the house of Is- 
rael for its sins, describe him as about to gather them 
in Jerusalem like " silver and brass and iron and lead 
and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 109 

upon it, to melt it ; so will I gather you in mine an^ 
ger and in my fury, and I will leave you there and 
melt you ; yea, I will gather you, and blow upon you in 
the fire of my wrath, and ye shall be melted in the 
midst thereof. As silver is melted in the midst 
of the furnace, so shall ye be melted in the midst 
thereof; and ye shall know that I the Lord have 
poured out my fury upon you " (Ezek. xxii. 19-22). 
Here is terrific trial, but of course no annihilation : 
and the silver is melted as well as the tin ; the fire 
only separates the two. So we read of a " fiery trial " 
(1 Pet. iv. 12), of being " tried with fire '' (1 Pet. i. 7), 
and of being " saved so as by fire " (1 Cor. iii. 15). 
David describes his afflictions by saying, "We went 
through fire and through water " (Ps. Ixvi. 12) . " The 
rust of them [of your gold and silver] shall eat your 
flesh as it were fire " (Jas. v. 3). The Saviour de- 
scribes the bitter troubles and persecutions which were 
to rage around the track of the gospel, " I am come 
to send fire on the earth ; and what will I, if it be al- 
ready kindled ? " (Luke xii. 49.) 

But oftener yet the thought conveyed, while still 
involving the notion of sufiering, at the same time sets 
forth prominently the resistless, overwhelming discom- 
fiture which Grod's anger will inflict upon the wicked. 
Nothing can so well describe the appalling power of 
that punitive anger, and the utterly helpless condition 
of its objects (together with the keenness of their tor- 
tures), as the surging, devouring conflagration. It is 
sometimes used even of severe human vengeance ; thus 
(Judg. ix. 20) : " Let fire come out from Abimelech, 
and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of 



110 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Millo.*' Num. xxi. 28 : " For there is a fire gone out 
of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon : it hath 
consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places 
of Arnon." Here is only a threat of thorough over- 
throw. But more particularly God's irresistible ven- 
geance, in whatever form, is represented under this 
figure. Thus (Nah. i. 6) : " His fury is poured out 
like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him ; " 
which is suflSciently explained by the preliminary ques- 
tions of the same verse : " Who can stand before his 
indignation, and abide in the fierceness of his anger?" 
Jeremiah (in Lam. iv. 11) describes in general the over- 
throw of the land : " The Lord hath accomplished his 
fury ; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath 
kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foun- 
dations thereof." The vengeance which God will exe- 
cute by the Assyrian is spoken of (Isa. xxxi. 9) as the 
work of " the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his fur- 
nace in Jerusalem." Of the devastation already in- 
flicted by God upon his people, it is said that the vine- 
yard " is burnt with fire ; it is cut down " (Ps. Ixxx. 
16). And the whole comprehensive and appalling 
chastisement in store for the sinning house of Israel, 
though often drawn out in detail, is constantly summed 
up in the sweeping threat of a fire that shall come upon 
it ; sometimes a fire that can not be quenched : " 
house of David, thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment 
in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out of 
thr hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, 
and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil 
of your doings " (Jer. xxi. 12 ; see also iv. 4 ; xvii. 
27 ; Isa. xxx. 27 ; Ezek. xxi. 32; xxxix. 6, etc.). If 



THE SCBIPTUJRAL ARGUMENT BXAMINBD. Ill 

any additioaal proof were needed tbat this phraseology 
simply 'describes any kind of overwhelming and irre- 
sistible vengeance, it is found in the reiteration con- 
tained in the first and second chapters of Amos, where, 
in the same words, with only a change of names, the 
punishments of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre,Edom,Ammon, 
Moab, and Judah, are all alike described as ^^ sending 
a fire upon " those cities and nations, which shall " de- 
vour the palaces thereof" (Amos i.). 

The same methods of speech — probably from the 
necessity of the case, and certainly in conformity with 
the usage which represents the joys of heaven under 
the forms of this world — are employed to describe the 
punishments of the wicked hereafter. Indeed, that 
flame is sometimes apparently represented as a contin- 
uous fire following them into the other world : " For 
a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto 
the lowest hell" (Deut. xxxii. 22). Sodom and Go- 
morrha " are set forth for an example, suffering the 
vengeance of eternal fire," — the temporal overthrow 
passing into an endless woe of which it was the fearful 
symbol. In the New Testament it is the everlasting 
fire, the unquenchable fire, the fire that never shall be 
quenched, the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
stone. In the last of these phrases, the additional 
features would seem to have been drawn from some 
such scene as that of Sodom, where the lurid light, the 
suffocating smoke, and the torturing heat, all combine 
in one image of horror. 

To the assertion that such phraseology as " burn " 
and " bum up," together with the other references to 
that punishment as a fire, denotes annihilation, we 



112 LIFE AND DEAT& ETERNAL. 

offer, then, the following decisive replies (waiving the 
fisLct, that, even in earthly fire, the elements remain un- 
diminished, though changed in form) : 1. The strange 
inconclusiveness of thus arguing from a figure, that 
because heat decomposes fuel, therefore God's anger 
must decompose a spirit. 2. The positive £eict that 
this figure itself is abundantly used to denote extreme 
suffering and resistless vengeance, when the subject 
continues to exist, and even to describe himself as burnt 
and consumed. 3. The epithets often iaccompanying, 
which describe, not an extinction, but a long-continued 
infliction. It is "eternal," "unquenchable," "that 
never shall be quenched." To evade this consideration 
requires the double artifice of maintaining that " eter- 
nal," not once, but in all cases where it applies to the 
punishment of the wicked, shall not only be shorn of 
the meaning of endless duration, but of all duration 
whatever, and signify only " final" or " irreversible ; " 
and that the incessant continuance of the flame, which 
in one solemn passage (Mark ix. 43-48) is twice re- 
peated, should be a superfluous circumstance.* Yet 
the Old Testament passages from which this latter rep- 
resentation is drawn most clearly denote protracted 
suffering. — See Jer. xvii. 4 ; xxi. 12 ; xvii. 27 ; iv. 4, 
and the contexts. 4. The additional decisive fact, that 
the fire of punishment is definitely described in the 
New Testament as the agent of conscious, continued 

* The meaning of these phrases will be more fully considered hereafter. 
We say, twice repeated, but, if we follow the received text, it is Jive times. 
•Tischendorf omits three of them, in verses 44, 45, 46. He is supported by 
manuscripts B, C, L, A, fi^, together with the Coptic and Armenian versions; 
opposed by manuscripts A, D, E, F, G, H, K, M, 8,U, V, X, T, aind the Latin 
versions, Vulgate, Gothic, Ethiopic, and both Syriac. The case is doabtftd. 



THE SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 113 

anguish, and not of extinction. The rich man, who 
"in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torments," said, "1 
am tormented in this flame." ^'The devil that de- 
ceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone, where the beast and the false prophet are ; and 
shall be tormented day and night for ever " (Rev. xx. 
10). The worshiper of the beast and his image " shall 
be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence 
of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb ; 
and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever 
and ever ; and they have no rest, day nor night " (Rev. 
xiv. 10, 11). "The furnace of fire " into which the 
wicked shall be cast at the end of the world is described 
as a place where " there shall be wailing, and gnashing 
of teeth" (Matt. xiii. 42, 50). These passages, so fuU 
and explicit, are conclusive that fire symbolizes an 
irresistible overthrow of perpetual suffering, and not of 
extinction. 

11. " Put under his feet^'* With the same eager- 
ness, even this phrase is claimed as teaching annihila- 
tion. Mr. Blain quotes 1 Cor. xv. 25, 26 : " For he 
must reign till he hath put all enemies under his 
feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
death." With characteristic sensuousness of interpre- 
tation, he adds, " To have eternal groaning and cursing 
in a ' footstool ' would not seem to be pleasant. This 
is a Bible expression for utter destruction of enemies : 
see Mai. iv. 3, and Rom. xvi. 20." Archbishop Whate- 
ly seems to admit this position.* On this we need 
only remark, that the Apostle Paul elsewhere uses this 
very expression to describe the complete subjection of 

* Blain*t Death, not Life^ p. 21; ¥rhately'8 Future State, p. 177. 
8 



114 HFB AND DEATH BTBRNAL, 

the whole universe to Christ, — of all created things, 
rational and irrational ; of all intelligences, rebellious 
or obedient: see Heb. ii. 7, 8; Eph. i. 20-23; with 
which compare Phil. ii. 9-11. According to this mode 
of dealing with Scripture, therefore, the subjection of 
Christ's empire to his authority would consist in its 
annihilation ! 

We have examined the chief passages and phrases 
on which the advocates of annihilation rest their posi- 
tion. In every one of them, the attempt utterly fails. 
Its only speciousness consists in viewing the imagery 
detached and materialized. To the common reader, 
the Scripture explains itself as he reads these phrases 
in their place. The whole tenor of the Bible, trans- 
fused as it is with such vivid metaphors, guides him 
aright ; indeed, the case is so clear, that he raises no 
question : but when a few of the most intense expres- 
sions are isolated from their surroundings and ingeni- 
ously combined, and the glowing metaphors converted 
ihto literal propositions, he is surprised, perhaps, at the 
form and strength of the language. It becomes neces- 
sary to clear up the matter by showing him the same 
expression in unmistakable connections : therefore the 
almost superfluous extent at which we have examined 
these phrases. 

Perhaps, in concluding this portion of the subject, no 
more satisfactory exhibition can be made than the 
forms under which a single living speaker in the Bible 
diescribes his own present deep sufferings. The reader 
will observe that a large portion of all the phrases on 
which annihilationists rely, ^nd others besides, are 



THE SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. . 115 

found in Job's description of his state. Let him weigh 
these several modes of expression: "The arrows of 
the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drink' 
eth up my spirit; the terrors of God do set themselves 
in array against me " (vi. 4). "Thine eyes are upon 
me, and I am not^^ (vii. 8). "For he breaketh me 
with a tempest^ and multiplieth my wounds without 
cause. He will not suffer me to take my breathy but 
fiUeth me with bitterness " (ix. 17, 18). " Wherefore 
hidest thou thy face, and boldest me for thine enemy ? 
Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro ? and wilt thou 
pursue the dry stubble ? " " And [I am] he [that] as 
a rotten thing consumethy as a garment that is moth- 
eaten " (xiii. 24, 25, 28). " He teareth me in his wrath 
who hateth me ; he gnasheth upon me with his teeth : 
mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me. They have 
gaped upon me with their mouth ; they have smitten 
me upon the cheek reproachfully ; they have gathered 
themselves together against me." " I was at ease, but 
he hath broken me asunder : he hath also taken me by 
my neck, and shaken me to pieces^ and set me up for his 
mark. His archers compass me round about ; he cleav- 
eth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; lie poureth 
out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with 
breach upon breach ; he runneth upon me like a giant. 
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my 
horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping, and 
on my eyelids is the shadow of death " (xvi. 9, 10, 
12-16). " My breath is corrupt ; my days are extinct; 
the graves are ready for me" (xvii. 1). "He hath 
fenced up my way that I can not pass, and he hath set 
darkness in my paths. He hath destroyed me on every 



116 LIFS AifD DMATB ETMUNAL, 

side, and / am gone ; and mine hope hath he removed 
like a tree. He hath also kindled his wrath against 
me" (xix. 8, 10, 11). "They came upon me as a wide 
breaking'-iu of waters: in the desolation, they rolled 
themselves upon me. Terrors are turned upon me: 
they pursue my soul as the wind." " He hath cast me 
into the mire, and I am become like dv^t and ashes. 
Thou liftest me up to the wind ; thou causest me to 
ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance" " I went 
mourning without the sun ; I stood up, and I cried in 
the congregation. I am a brother to dragons, and a 
companion to owls. My skin is black upon me, and 
my bones are burned with heat" (xxx. 14, 16, 19, 22, 
28-30). 

A glance at the various modes of expressing the 
overpowering afflictions of a living being is sufficient 
to show the futility of using them, or the like of them, 
as arguments for annihilation. By the whole showing 
of Storrs, Blain, Hudson, and their coadjutors. Job 
was an anniliilated man while uttering these words. 
The language describes indeed a reality, a terrible re- 
ality ; but that reality is not annihilation. It is the 
overwhelming anguish of a living, conscious being. 
Let the man who rests his hopes of annihilation on 
such phraseology pause, and ponder well its meaning 
in the Word of God. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SCBIPTUBB ARGUMENT EXAMINED : THE BESTTRBECTION 
AND THE SECOND DEATH. 

SOME of these writers attempt to lay stress upon 
certain passages which speak of the resurrection 
as an object of promise and desire to the believer. 
Mr. Dobney quotes specially three passages, — John vi. 
39, 40, in which the Saviour says of the believer, that 
he shall "have everlasting life, and I will raise him up 
at the last day;" Luke xx. 35, "But they which shall 
be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the res- 
urrection from the dead," etc. ; Phil. iii. 11, " If by 
any means I might attain unto the resurrection of 
the dead." With these he combines 1 Cor. xv. 12-32, 
and, after some twenty pages of discussion, sums up 
as follows : — 

1. " There is a resurrection of the dead, generally. 
2. The final judgment of each individual, with its 
award to heaven or hell, is consequent upon the resur- 
rection. 3. The resurrection state was that which the 
apostles longed for, earnestly desiring to find them- 
selves in their house from heaven, or heavenly house ; 
that is, their second or spirit body. 4. Future con- 
scious existence is connected with, and dependent upon, 
or identical with, resurrection; so that, no resurrection, 
no future life. 5. The resurrection grows out of the 

117 



118 LIFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

mediatorship of Christ ; so that, no Mediator, no res- 
iirrection, and therefore no future state." * 

Some of these points we do "not care to discuss now, 
though we dissent from them. We would remark, in 
passing, that the denial of consciousness immediately 
after death can not by any fair means be reconciled 
with Luke xxiij. 43, 2 Cor. v. 6-8, Phil. i. 21-24, 
the appearance of Moses and Elijah, and Christ's ar- 
gument in Matt. xxii. 31, 32. And how far the fifth 
proposition is consistent with the writer's own theory 
will incidentally soon appear. 

The main point of the writer appears in his third 
proposition, — that "the resurrection state was that 
which the apostles longed for ; " from which he would 
argue that none but the righteous attain the " resur- 
rection state," or, as he would interpret his own mean- 
ing, continue in existence after the resurrection. 

The fallacy is here covered over in the phrase " res- 
urrection state,^ Si, phrase of the writer's own coining. 
If this phrase means the state of having been raised 
from the dead, the Bible is perfectly explicit that all 
men will share that state. " There shall be a resur- 
rection of the dead, both of the just and unjust " (Acts 
xxiv. 15). " The hour is coming, in the which all that 
are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth : they that have done good, unto the resurrection 
of life> and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
tion of damnation" (John v. 28, 29). Nor does this 
writer venture to deny it. It is, then, not simply a liv- 
ing again from the dead which the apostle desired and 
Christ promised his disciples ; that must come. What 

♦ Futnre Punishment, p. 164. 



THE SCRIPTURB ARQUMBNT EXAMINED. 119 

yrz& it ? Clearly, as the context in Philippians shows, 
the blessed resurrection, the resurrection in Christ to 
those joys and glories which he elsewhere describes as 
" the crown of glory," " the prize of his high calling," 
and which Peter calls the " incorruptible inheritance," 
the resurrection to " eternal life." Here is nothing 
about the resurrection state. It is " the resurrection " 
par eminence^ no doubt ; being " the only resurrection 
which is the completion of the man in his glorified 
state." The apostle speaks, therefore, not of the fact 
of a resurrection, but the mode and circumstances of 
the blessed resurrection ; just as " life " means true 
life, — life worthy of the name. Eadie well remarks on 
Paul's expression, " The reference is to the resurrection 
of the just — Luke xx. 35 ; that resurrection described 
also in 1 Thess. iv. 16, etc. The resurrection of the 
dead was an article of his former creed, which the 
apostle did not need to change in his conversion ; but 
it was the resurrection to eternal life secured by Christ 
that the apostle aspired to reach." This is the simple 
explanation necessitated by the Scriptures ; for it is 
a clear scriptural doctrine, that the wicked shall be 
raised. These passages have no bearing on the ques- 
tion of their continued existence afterward. 

But the fact of their resurrection at all is a fact of 
ominous significance, and of the gravest diflSculty to 
the advocates of annihilation. They feel it. Says 
Mr. Hudson, " It is hard that they are raised up by a 
miracle that ends in their destruction, or that accom- 
plishes nothing but a judgment, which in this view 
must appear simply vindictive. If they have no im- 
mortality, why are their slumbers disturbed ? " Surely, 



120 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

why ? The Scripture gives clear information why the 
wicked are raised ; it is to " the resurrection of con- 
demnation ; " " that every one may receive the things 
done in his body according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad ; " that God may render to 
them that obey not the truth " indignation and wrath, 
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that 
doeth evil ; " that they may " go away into everlasting 
punishment." This is simple and consistent. But 
the deniers of immortality must find here an abortive 
and meaningless miracle. And here they scatter in 
various confusion. Some of them, accordingly, by Mr. 
Hudson's own admission,* openly deny that " the res- 
urrection of the unjust signifies their being made alive." 
This brings them in direct collision with the Word of 
God. Others hold, with Mr. Blain, that the man al- 
ready once destroyed is brought into existence again 
to be destroyed with a second and final destruction. 
This, waiving all difficulties on the score of identity, 
makes the man suffer the penalty of the law twice over, 
and still leaves the futility of the second process un- 
solved. Mr. Hudson endeavors to escape the ominous 
fact by reducing the resurrection itself to ^minimum; 
making it, indeed, no proper resurrection at all. Hear 
him : '^ Damaged seeds that are sown often exhaust 
their vitality, and perish in the germination ; and we 
have noted the fact, that of insects which pass through 
the chrysalis state to that of the psyche, or butterfly, 
many, from injuries suffered in their original form, ut- 
terly perish in the transition." Then, after suggesting 



* Debt And Grace, p. 247; Christ our Life, p. 4. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 121 

that the effect of the gospel, even upon the wicked, 
may be somehow to prolong a dim though unconscious 
existence after the bodily decease, dividing " death it- 
self " into two installments, he concludes his explana- 
tion thus : " And for judgment, it is as if the unjust, 
hearing the voice of God in the' last call to life, should 
te putting on a glorious incorrvption^ and should per- 
ish in, the actJ^ * 

We will not pause to inquire too curiously mto the 
precise correctness of these matters of natural history, 
uor hi to the closeness of the parallel attempted. We 
will ask two questions; 1. What shadow of resem- 
blance is there between this representation of an ineffect- 
ual struggle to come to life and '' perishing in the act,^^ 
on the one hand, and, on the other, the Scripture doc- 
trme that all the dead shall alike " hear the voice of 
the Son of God, and come forth ; " that they shall all 
appear before the judgment-seat, give account of 
the deeds done in the body, receive sentence from the 
Judge, and the wicked shall go away into everlasting 
punishment ? The Word of God teaches a resurrection 
as truly of the unjust as of the just, followed by the 
most solemn transactions. Mr. Hudson teaches an 
abortive attempt at a resurrection, or rather an abor- 
tive effort of the wicked to put on incorruption, — a 
process which seems itself to require a further elucida- 
tion. 2. What solution does this scheme offer to his 
own question, " Why disturb their slumbers at all ? " 
For let it be remembered the Scriptures represent this 
resurrection, not as a natural process, but as a grand 



♦ Debt and Grace, pp. 264, 265. 



122 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

miracle of the Son of God. To what end this tran- 
scendent miracle, this vast and inconceivably wonderful 
and solemn preparation ? The Scriptures answer, that 
it is the fitting introduction to a still more solemn se- 
ries of transactions, and a destiny commensurate. Mr. 
Hudson can not answer his own question ; he simply 
evades it by depreciating and substantially denying 
the fact. 

The whole Scripture doctrine of the resurrection, 
therefore, instead of lending any support, furnishes a 
most momentous objection, to the scheme of annihila- 
tion. 

Equally ineffectual is the appeal to the phrase, " the 
second death." The term might have been considered 
in connection with other phrases denoting the destiny 
of the wicked. " The second death is to be taken," says 
Mr. Hudson, " in the literal sense." By the " literal " 
sense, he chooses to mean extinction. And it deserves 
special attention, that, in his quotations on this subject 
here and throughout his volume, wherever the words 
" death," " destruction," " exclusion from life," and kin- 
dred terms occur, we have this perpetual juggle on the 
" literal " sense of terms, which are often quoted from 
other writers as though denoting in those writers non- 
existence, but without foundation. A great mass of 
quotation throughout these books is irrelevant and 
worthless, by reason of this pertinacious persuasion. 
Thus we are told, for example, that the Jews under- 
stood the phrase " second death " to mean " exclusion 
from life."* But did they mean by "life" bare 



* Debt and Grace, p. 178. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 1:^3 

existence ? No. In the same way, the commentator 
Hammond is quoted in the use of the term '' destruc- 
tion," as though he thereby advocated the doctrine of 
annihilation. The persistency of this mode of reason- 
ing strikes us as one of the most thoroughly sophisti- 
cal procedures in the two volumes of Mr. Hudson ; 
and it extends through them. 

The phrase " second death " occurs but four times 
in the Bible ; all these instances being in the Apoca- 
lypse, in one of which its meaning is explained. The 
coarse of Mr. Hudson on this subject is quite peculiar. 
1. He resorts to Jewish Rabbins to explain a New-Tes- 
tament phrase. 2. Of these twelve or thirteen quota- 
tions from " early Jewish books," five, being from the 
Jerusalem Targum, date as low as the seventh century; 
and others, at somewhat uncertain periods. 3. The 
quotations show no settled usage among the Bab- 
bins ; in one instance, the phrase being applied to 
the despair of Rachel at being childless (Gen. xxx. 1), 
in another, to the punishment threatened in Exod. xix. 
12 : " Whosoever toucheth the mountain shall surely 
be put to death." 4. Not one of the quotations seems 
clearly to sustain the meaning of annihilation, even iu 
the Rabbins. Some of them are blind, others turn 
simply on the meaning of these very terms " life " and 
** death ; " which terms, for aught that appears, are 
used in the biblical sense.* 

* The qnotations are as follows: " Let Reuben live in eternal life, and 
not die Uie second death/* " This hath been decreed by the Lord: That 
this sin shall not be forgiven them until they die the second death." *^ Every 
idolater who says that there is another God besides me I will slay with the 
second death, f^m which no man can come to life again." '^ Behold, this 
is written before me: I will not give them long life, until I have taken 



124 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

The appeal to the Rabbins to determine the mean< 
ing of a New-Testament term, which is explained in 
the same book in which it occurs, is as unjustifiable as 
it is ineffectual. The four instances in which the 
phrase occurs are Rev. ii. 11 ; xx. 6, 14 ; xxi. 8. In 
the last-mentioned passage, it is explained. After de- 
claring that "he that overcometh shall inherit all 
things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son," 
the sacred writer proceeds : " But the fearful and un- 
believing, and the abominable and murderers and 
whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all 
liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth 
with fire and brimstone : which is the second death." 

The second death, then, consists in having their por- 
tion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. 
But this is not a process of extinction, but of continu- 
ous and endless suffering ; for this lake of fire and brim- 
stone is the same into vhich, according to the previous 
chapter, the D^vil shall be cast, and " shall be tormented 
day and night for aver." So, also, in the chapter fol-^ 
lowing, this same class of persons are spoken of as be- 
ing in existence, but excluded from the joys of the 
New Jerusalem : " Blessed are they that do his corn- 
vengeance for their sins; and I will give their glory to the second death." 
" Every thief, or robber of his neighbor's goods, shall fall by his iniqaities, 
that he may die the second death." " We learn from this place (Num. xiv. 
87) that they died the second death." " Becanse he [Cainr] was doubly 
guilty, he was slain with a twofold death, — the latter far more severe than 
the former." " They shall die the second death, and shall not live in the 
world to come, saith th^ Lord." " They shall die the second death, so as 
not to enter into the world to come." 

Some of these passages seem very clearly not to signify annihilation. 
Two or three of them may, or they may not. It is as difficult as it Ul iiih 
important to determine what they do signify. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 1125 

mandments, that they may have right to the tree of 
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city ; 
for without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers 
and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie" (Rev. xxii. 14). 

The foregoing passage designates most distinctly the 
nature of the " second death," as no extinction, but 
endless suffering, being " tormented day and night for 
ever." One other passage only seems to describe its 
nature, viz. Rev. xx. 14, 15. No doubt the whole 
passage inVhich it occurs is attended with some diflS- 
culties of interpretation, and is still the subject of con- 
troversy. On this account, it is less suitable for ascer- 
taining the meaning of the phrase than the clear 
Passage already cited. Still, as it has been made the 
ground of objection to the view now taken, it deserves 
a brief examination. In this chapter and the preced- 
ing is set forth the victorious progress of him who is 
called the Word of God, and the overthrow of his ene- 
mies. First, the beast and the false prophet are over- 
thrown, and cast into the " lake of fire burning with 
brimstone." Afterwards, Satan, having been suffered at 
large for a time, is " cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone where the beast and the false prophet are, and 
shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." 
Then follows the judgment-scene, the white throne, the 
books opened, all the dead summoned before God, 
" death and hell [hades] delivering up the dead which 
were in them ; and they were judged, every man ac- 
cording to their works. And death and hell [hades] 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 



126 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

death, the lake of fire.* And whosoever was not 
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
of fire." Here it is objected that the casting of death 
and hades into the lake of fire must be, so it is af- 
firmed, their annihilation ; and consequently the cast- 
ing of the wicked into the lak€ must be the annihila- 
tion of the wicked. To this we reply, 1. Satan (verse 
10) is cast into the lake, not to be annihilated, but for 
ever tormented, — a satisfactory refutation. The same 
thing is indicated in regard to the beast and the false 
prophet, when it said they were " cast alive into the 
lake." With this, also, is connected the statement in 
chap. xiv. 10, 11, that the worshipers of the beast 
" shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is 
poured out without mixture into the cup of his indig-. 
nation ; shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in 
the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of 
the Lamb : the smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
for ever £tnd ever, and they have no rest day nor night." 
2. The one point of the representation throughout is 
the victory of Christ over all his foes, and the over- 
throw of their power. The beast and false prophet — 
representatives of living beings — are overcome and 
punished, and their ascendency overthrown. Satan, a 
personality, is overcome and punished, and his power 
broken. All human foes are overcome, and cast into 
the same place oi punishment with Satan. And, to set 
forth the absolute completeness of the victory, death 
and hades^ which, in the New Testament, are repre- 
sented as foes of the redeemed and of the Redeemer's 

* This last clause, omitted In the received text, is found in the three old- 
est manuscripts, and admitted by the latest scholars and editors. 



THE SCRIPTURE ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 127 

kingdom, are here personified ; and they too are pirn- 
ished like the rest, and their power overthrown. For 
this representation of hostility see 1 Cor. xv. 26 : " The 
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Verse 55 : 
" O death, where is thy sting ? grave [hades^ where 
is thy victory ? " Matt. xvi. 18 : " Thou art Peter, 
and upon this rock I will build my church ; and the 
gates of hell {hades} shalL not prevail against it." * 
The representation is not of extinction, but of over- 
throw and punishment. If it be said that the overthrow 
of death and hades is their extinction, that is an inci- 
dental fact, if fact it be, and grows out of the circum- 
stance that they are both personified abstractions, and 
not living beings. The living beings, or representatives 
of living beings, as appears from the passage under 
(iiscussion, continue in existence and in suffering. Mr. 
Hudson, however, remarks of the phrase, " shall be 
tormented day and night for ever," " We think the lan- 
guage describes their utter and irrevocable destruction 
[annihilation] in a dramatic form." f On which all 
that need be said is, that a more utter perversion of 
language, perhaps, can not be found, unless it be in the 
advocates of this system and of universal salvation. 
3. The extinction of death and hades^ if we should 
grant that consequence, has no bearing upon the ques- 
tion of endless punishment. The " second death " re- 
mains, from which no deliverance comes. The " death 
and hades " here spoken of are simply the personifica- 

• Even in Matt xi. 23, Luke xvi. 23, Rev. i. 18, xx. 13, if the idea 
of a direct hostility is not implied, that of opposition or antithesis to heaven 
and the kingdom of Christ always remain. 

t Debt and Grace, p. 215. 



128 l^lFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

tion of physical death. This is overcome, being reck- 
oned as one of the enemies of Christ's redeemed ; just 
as, in 1 Cor. xv. 26, we are told, " The last enemy that 
shall be destroyed is death " (compare verses 54-57).* 
This is the whole aim of the present passage, to set 
forth the overthrow of thanatos and hades — physical 
death — as hostile to Christ and his subjects. All 
death is not abolished, when the first death and the grave 
are overthrown, and cast into the lake of fire. There 
is another death remaining, which consists in being 
" tormented day and night for ever and ever." " This 
is the second death, the lake of fire." Into that are 
cast all the foes of Christ and his subjects,^— the beast, 
the false prophet, the devil, all the wicked, and death 
itself, the attendant of sin and long the terror of the 
righteous. Accordingly, in the next chapter (xxi. 4) 
we read, " There shall be no more death" to the people 
of God, while (verse 8) the unbelieving shall reap 
" the second death," having their portion in the lake 
thaf'burneth with fire and brimstone. 

• So Alford, Dttsterdieck, BrOckner. 



CHAPTER VL 

THE RATIONAL ABGUMENT EXAMINED. 

ACHIEP reliance of the advocates of annihilation 
is on the rational argument. By Mr. Hudson 
and Mr. Hastings, {Iiis reliance is made quite prominent. 
The latter writer declares' that " the doctrine of eter- 
nal anguish and torture of the lost is in itself so ut- 
terly opposed to our natural conceptions of God as 
revealed in the Bible, that it staggers the faith of the 
most devout; how then can it be received by the un- 
believing ? In the language of Bishop Newton, ' Im- 
agine it you may, but you can never seriously believe 
it.' Hence many minds reject revelation entirely^ be- 
cause it teaches, as they suppose, a doctrine so utterly 
repugnant to common sense and divine goodness." In 
the midst of other remarks to the same purport, namely, 
the entire incredibleness of the doctrine, he proceeds : 
" We say, first decide from the Bible whether the doc- 
trine of eternal torment be true, and then, if we find 
no such thing is there taught, reject and oppose it as 
the most terrific blasphemy^ the most audacious and 
unmitigated libel ever uttered against a God of love." * 
The reader can judge how much meaning there is in 

* Pauline Theology, pp. 76, 78. Except in the last sentence, the Italics 
arc hi5. 

9 129 



130 LIFE AND DEATH ETEUNAL, 

the faint exhortation to examine the Scriptures, com* 
ing from one who so peremptorily declares the impos- 
sibility of believing the doctrine. With smoother and 
more temperate phrase indeed, but with a distinctness 
which the reader is requested to ponder, Mr. Hudson, 
after a metaphysical discussion of the whole subject, 
extending through a hundred and fifty-seven pages, 
advances to the Scripture testimony with the remark, 
" If our doctrine of evil be true, it gives us a valid 
theism.^ ^ * ^ 

As we are not discussing this subject to convince 
rejecters of the Bible, but fof the satisfaction of those 
who receive it as the Word of God and as the ultimate 
authority, it is unnecessary to follow out the subject 
in its full extent. The question is with us, at present, 
simply a question of testimony to a matter of fact. If 
the testimony is distinct and valid, metaphysical or 
other objections must, as in all other questions of fact, 
go for nothing. Still, as some of these arguments are 
quite common, and admit of a very ready answer, we 
will give them a passing notice. 

They are drawn from the nature of evil, and the 
nature of God. 

Evil, it is affirmed, must be temporary, because (1) 
it is not needful to God's universe in any mode, and 
(2) because it is in its own nature frail. 

As to the first point, sin is not indeed necessary, nor 
is it the necessary means of the greatest good. But 
no man who believes that God has made the best sys- 
tem can deny that the power freely to commit sin was 

♦ Debt and Grace, p. 168. 



THE RATIONAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 131 

indispensable to the best system of moral agency. And, 
though not necessary in itself, sin is a fact ; and hav- 
ing become a fact, and a universal one, some better 
reason than this must be given to show why, having once 
entered the system^ it may not continue for ever. 
Though not necessary, it came ; much more, it may 
remain. 

As to the frailty of evil, Mr. Hudson has devoted to 
this point some pages, of which the chief allegations 
are, that sin is a derangement and disease of man's 
faculties ; that its pains are marks of decay and her- 
alds of death ; and finally, that sin " has no substance, 
is not an entity, is the antithesis of being." The first 
two of these statements are much the same with certain 
teachings of the Bible, which, however, the writer does 
not choose to find there. But when it is affirmed that its 
pains are signs of decay and " heralds of death," in 
the sense of coming non-existence, the statement has 
no foundation. All high emotions exhaust the bodily 
powers ; but the pains of sin no more reduce the exist- 
ence of the soul than do the joys of holiness. Indeed, 
the vast depths of its being and inextinguishable vital- 
ity are oftenest exhibited in the anguish of its sins. 
And for the " nothingness " of evil, its being " no sub- 
stance," and the like, men may amuse themselves with 
such phraseology as long as they please. It is nothing 
at last but word-play. Whether sin be " an entity " 
or not, it is one of the most universal, ineradicable, and 
appalling /ac^5 in the history of the human race. For 
six thousand years it has been exhibiting a terrific 
power. Its " frailty " of nature remains to be proved. 

But what is there in the nature of God to indicate 



132 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

that all evil shall be banished from his universe ? It 
may be alleged that his power, benevolence, and wis- 
dom are guaranties of such a result. 

But the first two considerations are of themselves 
entirely inadequate. We will grant that he has the 
perfect power to expel all evil by the extinction either 
of its perpetrators or of their evil propensities. But 
the use that he will make Of that power depends en- 
tirely on other attributes. 

We will concede that his benevolence will seek and 
secure the highest good of his universe. But how is 
that end to be accomplished ? The whole question 
hinges at last on this other : Is the wisdom of God a 
perfect guaranty to us that he will secure the highest 
good of his universe by bringing all sin to an end ? 
And this, again, is but the same as asking, Do we our- 
selves so certainly know the whole method in which 
Infinite Wisdom would govern a universe, that we can 
pronounce with confidence on the mode in which it 
will deal with sin ? in other words (for it comes to 
that). Are we ourselves possessed of infinite wisdom, — 
the wisdom of God ? If not, then we can not aflfirm 
that Infinite Wisdom requires the banishment of sin 
and sinners from his universe. 

But we are not left to a negative result, though 
that alone annihilates the objection with which we are 
dealing. We have positive and unmistakable evi- 
dence on the question, whether the wisdom or any 
other of the perfections of God necessarily, or even 
certainly, excludes sin from this universe of which he is 
sovereign. It is the evidence of fact. The perfections 
of God did not prevent sin from entering the world, 



THE RATIONAL AJfGUMENT EXAMINED. 133 

nor have they prevented its remaining age after age 
during the whole history of the human race thus 
far, for at least six thousand years. Now, whatever 
force there might seem to be in the argument that the 
wisdom of God requires him finally to drive out sin 
from his universe, it might be urged with tenfold 
force that he never would suffer it to enter a universe 
where all was holiness and harmony, and that he 
never would suffer it to remain in that universe for an 
hour. Facts showj then, that the argument is abso- 
lutely worthless. And. it is not easy suitably to cha- 
racterize the hardihood of an argument which boldly 
aflirms God's perfections to be incompatible with the 
existence of that which he has permitted to continue 
from the beginning of the world until now. 

But perhaps it is said, the eternal continuance of evil 
is a very different thing from its tolerance in this world. 
How different ? Not in principle, certainly, but only in 
degree. It is only more of the very same thing. If 
there is nothing incompatible with God's perfections in 
its existence to-day and the past six thousand years, 
how is there to-morrow, or any other day, or six thou- 
sand years, or through all eternity ? It is only repeat- 
ing precisely the same process one day at a time ; and 
the process goes on for ever. 

The statement of Archbishop Whately on this point 
is clear and unanswerable: "The existence of any 
evil at all in the creation is a mystery we can not ex- 
plain. It is a diflSculty which may perhaps be cleared 
up to us in a future state ; but the Scriptures give us 
no revelation concerning it. And those who set at de- 
fiance the plain and obvious sense of Scripture, by 



134 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

contending (as some do) for the final admission to 
eternal happiness of all meu, in order (as they them- 
selves profess) to get over the diflSculty by this means, 
and to reconcile the existence of evil with the benevo- 
lence of God, do not, in fact, after all, when they have 
put the most forced interpretation on the words of the 
sacred writers, advance one single step towards their 
point. For the main difficulty is not the amount of 
the evil that exists, but the existence of any at all. 
Any, even the smallest, portion of evil is quite unac- 
countable, supposing that the same amount of good 
could be attained withotd that evil ; and why it is not 
so attainable is more than we are able to explain. 
And if there be some reason we can not understand 
why a small amount of evil is unavoidable, there may 
be, for aught we know, the same reason for a greater 
amount. I will undertake to explain to any one the 
final condemnation of the wicked, if he will explain to 
me the existence of the wicked ; if he will explain why 
God does not cause all those to die in the cradle, of 
whom he foresees, that, when they grow up, they will 
lead a sinful life. The thing caw /lo^ be explained. . . . 
All we can say is, that, for some unknown cause, evil is 
unavoidable. Now, it is a manifest absurdity to at- 
tempt to explain and limit the operations of an unknown 
cause. 

" It would indeed' be very consolatory to be able to 
make out, on sufficient grotmdsy that the total amount 
of sufiering, past, present, and future, in the universe is 
far less than we had imagined. But even if we could 
satisfy ourselves of this,^ — if we could discover that 
not a hundredth part of the evil that we believe to ex- 



THE RATIONAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 135 

ist really does exist, still, as I have said, the diminu- 
tion of the evil itself would not at all diminish the 
difficulty^ I may say the impossibility, of explaining 
how it comes to pass, that, in the work of a benevolent 
Creator, there should be any evil at all. 

" Unthinking people, however, are apt to fancy that 
a difficulty is itself diminished if the thing is dimin- 
ished about which the difficulty arises. For instance, 
it is admitted, as is well known, to be impossible for 
man to annihilate any portion of material substance. 
We can destroy its form, as by tearing this book into 
shreds ; or we can divide it into particles invisible to 
our eyes, as by burning it, so as to disperse part of it 
into vapor and smoke, and scatter away the ashes tliat 
remain : but we can not annihilate, that is, cause to 
exist no longer, the material substance. And, as im- 
possibility does not admit of diflFerent degrees, it is 
equally impossible to annihilate the smallest as the 
largest quantity of matter. And yet, perhaps, some 
people, if they were told that some chemist had suc- 
ceeded in annihilating a few grains of sand, though 
they might not absolutely believe the report, yet would 
not be so much startled at the extravagance of it, as 
if it had been said that he had annihilated some huge 
mountain. Again : it is thought by most to be im- 
possible (at least, they would have great difficulty in 
admitting it) to convert, as some ancient chemists at- 
tempted to do, the baser metals into gold ; and I sup- 
pose most persons, if they were told of some one 
having changed several tons of lead into gold, would 
at once reject the account as an idle tale ; but if they 
were told that it was only a few grains^ some, I ima- 



lo6 LIFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

giue, would feel less confidence in the falsity of the re 
port. And yet, if the diflSculty is to conceive how lead 
can become gold, that difficulty is not at all lessened 
by lessening the quantity of the metal. 

" And so it is with some unthinking persons in respect 
of the present subject. If they can devise some the- 
ory which will explain away great part of the supposed 
amount of evil in the universe, they hastily conclude 
that they have explained away some part, at least, of 
the difficulty presented by the existence of evil. Our 
distress and alarm, indeed, would be diminished by a 
diminution of the evil that exists ; but the difficulty 
would remain precisely the same. And of this, as I 
have said, no explanation can be framed by human 
reason, or is to be found in Scripture." * 

And so there is no difficulty encountered in the doc- 
trine of the continuance of sin and suffering in eter- 
nity, which is not already encountered in the fact of 
its existence in and through all time. And the argu- 
ment which breaks down before these present facts is 
good for nothing as a basis of future predictions. 

But perhaps it may still be argued, there are spe- 
cial reasons why evil is admitted and tolerated in this 
present world, — disciplinary uses to the sinner himself, 
salutary impressions and influences on the universe, 
or exhibitions of the character of God, or grounds un- 
known to us ; but these reasons will cease with the 
present life. We answer, that, hi the first place, this 
reply concedes the main point, and admits that the 
permission of sin and misery for sufficient reasons is 

* Whately'8 Future State, p. 176. 



THE RATIONAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 137 

perfectly compatible with God's perfections, and there* 
fore just, so long as valid reasons exist. If those good 
reasons always exist, then evil may be permitted for 
ever. The question then changes to this : Can any 
man prove that God, who has seen good reasons for suf- 
fering the introduction of sin, and its existence Tor many 
thousand years already, with every prospect of its con- 
tinuance for a still longer period, can have no good 
reason whatever for suffering its continuance in the 
world to come ? And this question involves two in- 
quiries : First, Does any man know the reasons, all the 
reasons, why God permitted sin to enter and occupy 
this universe at all ? Second, Does he know that those 
reasons will all cease hereafter ? He is a bold man 
who ventures to answer the first of these questions in 
the affirmative ; for he claims to have fathomed the 
whole mind of God. And bolder yet, if possible, is the 
man who ventures to affirm the second, while he can 
not affirm the first ; who dares to assert that the meth- 
ods of God must certainly change, while yet he does 
not know on what they are founded. 

It is therefore entirely unnecessary to follow out in 
detail the argument, in whatsoever form presented,which 
endeavors, by its theory of God, or its " theodicy," as 
the phrase is, to prove that sin must come to an end. 
It has a fatal lack of fact for its basis. 

And not only so, it is sadly in conflict with all the 
facts which seem related to the case. The history of 
the human race, and of the angelic.race thus far, has a 
very unfortunate bearing on it. Had God never suf- 
fered moral evil to break in on his universe, very likely 
we should have thought that his perfections constituted 



188 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

an incontrovertible argument that he never would 
suffer it. Had he even on the first irruption of sin 
instantly hurled it out, by whatsoever method, annihi- 
lation or restoration, we might still have had some 
confidence in this argument against its permanence. 
Had he blotted out the sinning race, and started an- 
other, pure and spotless; had he manifested some 
special haste to bring the sinful race to an end ; did 
he continue in existence only those fallen beings who 
were on probation, or those only whose probation would 
surely bring them to repentance, and cut off at once 
all those who, he knew, would never repent, — we might 
still allow some weight to the argument. Or could 
some man show very clearly and certainly some great 
end to be accomplished by permitting sin for many 
thousand years, which must wholly cease at some par- 
ticular time ; or some valid reason for continuing one 
finally impenitent sinner for a long term of years, and 
for repeating the process millions on millions of times, 
which reason can not possibly exist except in their par- 
ticular circumstances, — the reasoning would have some 
force. But, unfortimately, every one of these particu- 
lars is against the argument. God did not exclude 
nor banish sin. He did not narrow it down to the least 
possible time, nor the fewest possible individuals. He 
has not exterminated the sinning race, but has suffered 
it to drag on its protracted and sinful career. He has 
continued in existence for an unknown length of time 
a race of sinful beings to whom we have no knowledge 
that any offer of recovery was ever made. He pro- 
longs on earth the lives of multitudes of sinners who 
do not repent, and who, he knew beforehand, would 



THE BAT9QNAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED, 189 

not repent. Thousands and millions of these sinners 
he suflFers thus to prolong their lives on earth, not only 
to no purpose so far as their own final welfare is con- 
cerned, but, as far as we can see^ to no purpose as a 
warning to other sinners; yea, rather to introduce 
other sinners into the world, and to be the means of 
keeping countless thousands away from God. Such 
are the facts. They prove that the permission of sin 
and suflFering is perfectly consistent with the perfec- 
tions of God ; that the reasons for their continuance 
do not necessarily contemplate the recovery, or even 
the probation, of the sinner ; and that those reasons 
are wholly beyond our complete apprehension. The 
aspect of the case, from the facts which lie before us, 
aflFords no objection whatever to the eternal continuance 
of evil. On the other hand, it shows that if God see 
adequate reasons, he may properly continue this state 
of things for ever; and, in our entire inability to 
fathom the reasons for its present and past existence, 
holds out, of itself, a very strong presumption that he 
may deem it wise to suffer the continuance of evil in the 
future world. No man can allege a ground for the 
final extinction of all sin, that did not exist still more 
strongly for its original exclusion. No man can give 
a reason for the annihilation of the sinner at the end 
of fourscore years, which did not exist a fortiori for 
his non-creation, or for his extinction at the first trans- 
gression. No reason can be given why evil should be 
exterminated when probation has ceased, which would 
not bar its permission where no probation was offered, 
or where probation was known to be fruitless. 
There is still one other shape iu which the opposing 



140 LIFE AND DEATH ETSIU[AL, 

argument may be advanced. Thus: The protracted 
existence of sin and suffering is compatible with God's 
perfections, only because of his commg final and per- 
fect triumph over it. We answer, First, This fully 
concedes the main principle at issue, namely, that the 
permission of sin for a good reason is perfectly defensi- 
ble, while somewhat presumptuously asserting that 
there can be but one good reason. Secondly, The rea- 
son assigned overthrows the position which it endea- 
vors to sustain ; for if it be, as the argument admits 
and assumes, more honorable to God, and more truly a 
triumph^ to show his mighty ascendency in the uni- 
verse, after the protracted admission of sin and suflFer- 
ing, than by its utter exclusion, then, on the same 
principle, a fortiori, it is a still grander triumph in him 
to show that ascendency and. glory over the eternal op- 
position 6f sin. 

Considered thus in whatsoever light, the argument 
drawn from the perfections of God against the future 
existence of evil, is, in view of the plain facts of this 
universe, entirely fallacious, and hardly even specious. 

It is quite customary with the advocates of annihila- 
tion (as well as the teachers of universal salvation) to 
garnish their argument with extracts from a letter 
of Rev. John Poster, in which, while admitting that 
^'the language of Scripture is formidably strong" in 
support of the doctrine of eternal punishment, he des- 
cants dismally but powerfully upon the terrible aspect 
of the case. The point of the whole is contained in the 
following paragraph : " Under the light (or the dark- 
ness) of this doctrine, how inconceivably mysterious and 
awful is the whole economy of this human world ! The 



THE RATIONAL ARGUMENT EXAMINED. 141 

immensely .greater number of the race hitherto, 
through all ages and regions, passing a short life, un- 
der no illuminating, transforming influence of their 
Creator, (ninety-nine in a hundred of them, perhaps, 
having never even received any authenticated message 
from Heaven), passing ofif the world in a state unfit for 
a spiritual, happy, and heavenly kingdom elsewhere, — 
and all destined to everlasting misery. The thought- 
ful spirit has a question silently suggested to it of a far 
more emphatic import than that of him who exclaimed, 
* Hast thou made all men in vain ? '." 

But Mr. Foster best answers himself by another pic- 
ture, equally lugubrious and direful, which he has 
drawn of the aspect of things in this world hitherto, 
and irrespective of any future state. He writes to Mr. 
Harris in the following strain : " I hope, indeed may 
assume, that you are a man of cheerful temperament ; 
but are you not sometimes invaded by the darkest vis- 
ions and reflections, while casting your view over the 
scene of human existence from the beginnings to this 
hour ? To me it appears a most mysterious and awful 
economy, overspread by a dreadful and lurid shade. I 
pray for piety to maintain a humble submission of 
thought and feeling to the wise and righteous Disposer 
of all existence. But to see a nature, created in purity, 
ruined at the very origin, etc., the grand remedial vis- 
itation, Christianity, laboring in a difl&cult progress; 
soon perverted ; at the present hour known and even 
nominally acknowledged by very greatly the minority 
of the race ; its progress distanced by the increase of 
the population ; thousands every day passing out of 
. the world in no state of fitness for a pure and happy 



142 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

state elsewhere, — oh, it is a most confounding and ap- 
palling contemplation ! " 

Thus the condition and history of things in the pres- 
ent world are described by Mr. Foster in the same 
mode in which he paints the retributions of the future 
world ; and, by his own showing, it appears that the 
same kind of impeachment against God's character may 
be drawn from the one as from the other. The objec- 
tion is therefore null. 



fj^:rt II. 



POSITIVE DISPROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF 
ANNIHILATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

BELIEF OF A FUTURE EXISTENCE AMONO THE EABLIEB 
JEWS. 

WHEN we would weigh the teachings of Christ 
and his apostles on the subject of punishment, 
it is important to know what views prevailed among 
their immediate hearers. Those inspired teachers 
knew how their words could not fail to be understood, 
and spoke accordingly. And it may be well to consi- 
der, not only what was the then existing view, but what 
bad been the early education, of that people. 

Now it can be conclusively shown that the belief of 
another state of existence was familiar to that people 
from ancient times. 

1. It is incredible, not to say impossible, that the Is- 
raelites should have lived in Egypt for many genera- 
tions, without being thoroughly conversant with the 
belief of a future state. The doctrine of the continued 
existence of the soul after death, and in a state of re 

143 



144 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

ward or of suffering, was one of the most prominent 
religious beliefs of the Egyptians. All attempts to 
cast doubt or confusion on this prime fact of the Egyp- 
tian religion is idle, if not dishonest.* 

Herodotus, the oldest Greek historian, indicates the 
remote antiquity, as well as the prominence, of this 
doctrine among the Egyptians, when he says that "they 
were the first to broach the opinion that the soul of 
man is immortal." f But we do not depend upon the 
testimony of foreigners. The Egyptians themselves 
have made their own clear record. Delineations of 
judgment-scenes in the other world are among the 
most abundant of the old Egyptian records. They are 
found on the papyri, in the temples, and especially in 
the tombs. Here, with some variety of detail, abun- 
dantly recurs the same fundamental representation. 
The deceased person, in charge of the god Horus, is 
brought toward Osiris, the judge of the dead. Near 
the gates of Amenti, the region of the blessed, stand 
the scales of Justice ; and the god Anubis, placing 
in the one scale a vase representing the good actions of 
the deceased, and in the other the emblem of Truth, 
ascertains the result. If found wanting, Osiris inclines 
his scepter in token of condemnation, and remands the 
soul, in the form of an unclean animal, back to earth ; 
and all communication with Amenti is hewn away be- 
hind him. But, if his virtues predominate, Horus, tab- 
let in hand, leads him forward to dwell in the presence 
of Osiris and the mansions of the blessed. A full ac- 
count of these paintings may be found in Wilkinson's 

* See Hudson's unworthy attempt: Future Life, p. 268. 
t Herodotus, Book ii. sect. 128. 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 145 

Popular Account of the Egyptians.* The same writer, 
in the notes of Bawlinson's Herodotus, makes the fol- 
lowing declaration, — the declaration of an eye-witness: 
'' This [doctrine of immortality] was the great doctrine 
of the Egyptians, and their belief in it is everywhere 
proclaimed in the paintings of the tombs. But the 
souls of wicked men alone appear to have suffered 
the disgrace of entering the body of an animal, when, 
weighed in the balance before the tribunal of Osiris, 
they were pronounced unworthy to enter the abode of 
the blessed. . . . There is every indication in the 
Egyptian sculptures, of the souls of good men being ad- 
mitted at once, after a favorable judgment had been 
passed on them, into the presence of Osiris, whose mys- 
terious name they were permitted to assume. Men 
and women were then called Osiris, who was the ab- 
stract idea of * goodness ;' and there was no distinction 
of sex or rank when a soul had attained that privi- 
lege."! 

Proofs on this subject are abundant and incontro- 
vertible. The question is set at rest. Bunsen, in his 
great work on Egypt, speaks thus : " The Egyptians 
were the first who taught the doctrine of the immor- 
tality of the soul, — a fact mentioned by all Greek writ- 
ers from Herodotus to Aristotle, and one brilliantly 
confirmed by the monuments." % In addition to the 
delineations of the monuments, a papyrus has been dis- 
covered in the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, and re- 
cently translated by Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, 

* Vol. ii., pp. 876-888. 
t Bawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. pp. 168,169. 
X Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. iv. pp. 689 et seq. 
10 



146 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

entitled the Book of the Dead. It describes the 
acts or adventures of the soul of the deceased, and 
contains his prayers, invocations, and confessions on 
his long journey through the celestial gates. Bunsen 
gives an analysis of the work, with extracts, and pro- 
ceeds to say, " The main points in the formulas of the 
Book of the Dead may be summed up as follows : Ac- 
cording to the creed of the Egyptians, the soul of man 
was divine, and therefore immortal. It is subject to 
personal moral responsibility. The consequence of 
evil actions is banishment from God [in migration 
through animal bodies]. Faith transfers venial sins 
to the account of the body, which is, in consequence, 
doomed to annihilation. Man, when justified, becomes 
conscious that he is a son of God, and destined to be- 
hold God at the termination of his wanderings. " * 

The celebrated Egyptian scholar, Lepsius, adds his 
testimony. He describes the Book of the Dead as 
" essentially a history of the soul after death ; " confirms 
the reference of the doctrine of immortality by Hero- 
dotus to the Egyptians ; adding, " It is now sufficiently 
known from the monuments, that the Egyptians pos- 

* Id. vol. iv. p. 648. Bunseu also remarks, *^ It is only by considering 
how very deeply this sense of immortality was ingrafted on the Egyptian 
mind, that we can comprehend the passion for the monstrous and colossal 
proportions of the Pyramids, and, at the same time, the glorious emblem- 
atical and artistic character of those works of the Old Empire. As animal 
worship is merely the Egyptianized African form of an early Asiatic con- 
ception, so is also the combination of the care for the preservation of the 
body, and, if possible, its protection from destruction, connected with the 
doctrine of immortality. The soul was immortal; but its happiness, if not 
the possibility of its continuing to live, depended on the preservation of the 
body^ The destruction of the body consequently involved the destruction 
of the soul." — Vol. iv. p. 657. The closing remark seems to be offered as 
conjectural. No proof is cited. 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 147 

sessed, from the earliest times, very distinct ideas about 
the transmigration of souls and of judgment after 
death."* 

The records on these monuments date back to a 
period earlier than the residence of the Israelites in 
Egypt. Certain side-questions about the exact nature 
and history oC the doctrine of transmigration have 
been raised ; but the fundamental fact of a belief in 
immortality is indisputable. " No one," says a learned 
writer, " has ever disputed the fact that the ancient 
Egyptians believed in a future state ; and, as appears 
from the work of Roth (Die Egypt), they had this 
belief even before Jacob and his sons took up their resi- 
dence in Egypt." f 

* Lepsiiis' Introduction to Egyptian Chronology (Bohn's Antiq. Library), 
pp. 892, 885. 

t Bev. S. Tuska in the Bibliotheca Sacra for October, 1860. 

Prior to the modem discoveries, much confusion hung over this subject; 
and differences of opinion still exist as to some of the details. But the fun- 
damental fact is no longer an open question. Mr. Hudson, however, by re- 
ferring to these differences of detail, apparently endeavors to leave the im- 
pression that there f s a doubt whether the Egyptians believed in the souPs 
existence After death. — Future Life, p. 268. 

Mr. Alger, in his History of the Doctrine of a Future Life (A.D. 1864), 
very properly treats this as a question most perfectly settled by the three 
sonroes of knowledge now accessible; viz., the papyrus-rolls, the ornamental 
oases <^ the mmnmies, and the paintings in the tombs. He cites eminent 
modem authorities for the following results: "Souls at death pass down 
faito Amenti, and are tried. If condemned, they are either sent back to 
the earth, or confined in the nether space for punishment. If justified, they 
jom the blissful company of the Sun-god, and rise with him through the 
east to journey along his celestial course. ... The condemned soul is either 
sooorged back to the earth straightway, to live again in the form of a vile 
animal, as some of the emblems appear to denote; or plunged into the 
tortures of a horrid hell of fire and devils below, as numerous engravings 
let forth; or driven into the atmosphere, to be vexed and tossed by tempests, 
riolently whirled in blasts and clouds, till its sins are expiated, and another 
probation granted through a renewed existence in human form *' (p. 108). 



148 I'iFB AND DEATH STERNAL. 

Now, the Israelitish people resided in Egypt many 
generations in the midst of such views publicly held 
and conspicuously promulgated. To suppose them ig- 
norant of a future state at the exodus is preposterous. 
The unquestionable records of the Egyptian monu« 
ments now for ever refute the alleged incredibility of 
finding the knowledge of a future state in the Hebrew 
documents. They make it incredible that it should 
not be there, — incredible that the long series of in- 
spired men, from Moses to Malachi, should have been 
so far below Egyptian priests and kings as never to 
have alluded to a great truth which had been pub- 
lished to the empire long before the days of Moses. 

2. The Hebrew view of the nature of the soul was such 
as to lay a natural foundation for a belief in its continued 
existence after death. The human being is specially 
distinguished from the animal world in his creation ; 
and the soul is specially distinguished from the body, 
and allied to Grod, its creator. 

This view of the human soul, though not drawn out 
in metaphysical statements and definitions, lies upon 
the face of the sacred volume from the beginning. 
The first chapter of Genesis sets forth the distinction 
between man and the animals, and his special alliance 
to Grod. The Creator proposes to " make man in oar 
image, after our likeness ; " and it is solemnly recorded, 
" So God created man in his own image." The He- 
brew reader could not understand this as referring to 
any thing connected with the body ; for he was taught 
(Exod. XX. 4) that Qt)d could not be imaged forth in 

Mr. Alger, it shoold be remarked, does not find the doctrine of eternal pnn- 
ishment taught in the New Testament 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 149 

a body. The spirit alone could be made after the like- 
ness of the spirit God. The thought is confirmed 
in the following chapter, where man's special relation 
to Gt)d in his nature is indicated in the fuller narrative 
of his creation. God " formed man of the dust of the 
ground;" and as a distinct and distinguishing act, we 
are told, he " breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
life, and man became a living souL" Thus the tenant 
of the human body was from the special inbreathing 
of God. " Two elements are united in man, — an 
earthly and a divine ; which latter no other creature 
shares with him." * 

The same high view of human nature is assumed 
throughout the older Scriptures, sometimes with ap- 
parent allusion to this account of man's nature and 
origin. Man walked and talked with God (Gen. ii. 
iii.). He was to be inviolate ; " for in the image of 
God made he man " (Gen. ix. 6). " Thou hast made 
him a little lower than the angels," or rather (in the 
original), " Thou hast made him lack little of God " 
(Ps. viii. 6). Elihu exclaims, " There is a spirit in 
man : and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them 
understanding " (Job xxxii. 8). " The Lord, which 
. . • formeth the spirit of man within him " (Zech. 
xii. 1). " Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth 
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth down- 
ward to the eartli ? " (Eccles. iii. 21.) 

In this high doctrine of man's nature, and especially 
of the peculiar origin and alliance of his soul as the 
very inbreathing of the eternal God, was laid the firm 
basis of the almost inevitable conclusion — the immor* 

* Hengstenberg on Ecclesiastes, p. 121. 



150 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

tality of the soul, and its survival of the body's dis- 
solution. In one striking passage, the conclusion is 
stated with the clearest reference to its foundation. 
The best comment on Gten. ii. 7 is found in Eccles.xii. 7, 
where the diverse destination of body and soul at death 
is distinctly stated, and with an allusion to their dif- 
ferent origin and alliance : " Then shall the dust re- 
turn to the earth as it was ; and the spirit shall return 
unto God who gave it." 

Thus Elijah prayed : " O Lord my God, let this 
child's soul come into him [within, or into the midst 
of him] again. And the Lord beard the voice of Eli- 
jah ; and the soul of the child came into [the midst 
of] him again, and he revived " (1 Kings xvii. 21, 22). 

It is not pretended that the Hebrews had nice meta- 
physical notions, or used precise phraseology to define 
this nobler part of human nature. It is never so in 
common life. But it is a fact beyond the reach of 
cavil, that throughout the Old Testament there runs 
the underlying and outcropping distinction between 
the earthly, perishable frame of man, and that higher 
portion of his being, variously termed his heart, soul, 
or spirit, which brought himnnto alliance and com- 
munion with God. " Bless the Lord, O my soul ; and 
all that is within me, bless his holy name " (Ps. ciii. 1). 
" With my spirit within me will I seek thee early " (Isa. 
xxvi. 9). Sometimes it is even termed the " glory " 
of his being, and is distinguished from the body, which 
is joined with it to make the whole man : " Therefore 
my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth ; my flesh 
also shall rest in hope " (Ps. xvi. 9). Sometimes the 
soul and body are together put for the whole being of 



BBLIBF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 151 

the man : " My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth 
for thee ; " " My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow 
and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee " (Ps. 
Ixiii. 1, 5). " But his flesh upon him shall have pain, 
and his soul within him shall mourn " (Job xiv. 22). 
Sometimes over against the frailty of the one portion of 
his being is set the eternal joy of the other in its union 
with God : " My flesh and my heart faileth ; but God is 
the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever " (Ps. 
Izxiii. 26). Quite often the soul, as the nobler part, 
is put summarily to designate the man himself : " Many 
there be which say of my soul [myself]. There is no 
help for him in God " (Ps. iii. 2). " How say ye to 
my soul [to me]. Flee as a bird to your mountain " 
(Ps. xi. 1). " Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation " 
(Ps. XXXV. 3).* 
Through the entire Old Testament runs this distinc- 



* From this desiguatiou of the man by the animating and interior portion 
of his nature arose a still farther extension of the term to designate a human 
being in the most general terms: " Seventy souls," persons, irrespective of 
age or sex (Exod. i. 6; xvL 16; Gen. xlvi. 18, 27, etc.)- It is used of ser- 
vants : " The souls they had gotten in Haran " (Gen. xii. 5); " If a roan be 
found stealing any of his brethren '* [a soul of his brethren] (Deut. xxiv. 7). 
Of captives: " Give the persons," literally souls (Gen. xiv. 21). With the 
proper adjective, it even designates a dead man, but never a dead animal: 
** Shall come at no dead body," literally dead soul, i.e. person (Num. vi. 6). 
The universal application of a law is indicated by the use of the word 
" soul " for " person : " " If a soul touch any unclean thing " (Lev. v. 2). In 
view of this last fact, so manifest, one can appreciate the force of the fol- 
lowing passage fVoro a tract by Thomas B. Newman, with his own capitals: 
"What dies? The soul that sinneth, it shall die." The Scripture, of 
coarse, means simply that the individual, whoever he may bo, shall die. 

It is not denied that the particular Hebrew word ^*sonl" [123^3] which 
primarily denotes the vitalizing principle, and thence an animate behig, is 
finequently applied to all living creatures ; e.g., Gen. i. 24 ; ii. 7, 19, etc. — 
See the next note. 



152 ^/^^ ^^^I> DEATH ETERNAL, 

tion between the earthly body and the higher princi- 
ple, the animating spirit which brings the man into 
commimion and union with the ever-living God, from 
whom it came ; and which clings to him in unshaken 
hope and deathless love. It forms the natural basis 
for the almost inevitable doctrine of the continued ex- 
istence of that exalted portion of our being.* 

3. Accordingly, an existence beyond this life is rec- 
ognized on the very threshold of the Bible, in the 
translation of Enoch ; and, in the same palpable form, 
is reiterated in the translation of Elijah. 

It is recorded that " Enoch walked with God ; and 
he was not, for God took him " (Gen. v. 24). Now, it 
did not require the explanation of the writer to the 
Hebrews (Heb. xi. 6.) to unfold the meaning of this 
statement. A good man who walked with God while 
on earth, — and the fact is twice aflSrmed, — God there- 
fore takes. Whither ? To annihilation ? To extinc- 
tion of all conscious joy ? Is that the mode in which 

* This position, it will be perceived, does not rest on the nice or unvnr 
ried usage of a particular term or terms, but upon the accompanying ut- 
terances, the explanatory phrases, and unmistakable drift of whole pas- 
sages; not upon a few such utterances, but upon a multitude of them, 
constituting the entire strain of such outpourings as the Psalms. Mean- 
while many specific passages like those we have quoted definitely refer this 
alliance and communion with Grod to the inner portion of our being, in dis- 
tinction from the perishable body. 

It is therefore idle to tell us of certain diverse uses of the words ** soul,*' 
" spirit,'* ** heart " (lbt)3> rvr\, A}, to disprove the Hebrew beUef ; as idle as 
to attempt a disproof of the modem belief in a soul or spirit, because loe use 
these words so variously at times: e.g., the heart of the subject, the heart 
of the Andes, heartless ; the spirit of a poem or a discussion, the high 
spirit of a horse, proof-spirit, etc. ; every soul on board perished, a soul- 
less wretch. 



BEUBF OF THB EARLIER JEWS. 153 

God shows his love for a good man ? The thought is 
ridiculous. He took bim to himself, to heaven ; to be 
with him on high with whom he walked below. No 
man could miss the meaning.* And the sacred writer 
explains (Heb. xi. 6) : " He was translated, that he 
should not see death." This narrative, occurring al- 
most at the beginning of the sacred history, is very strik- 
ing and weighty. It gives a key-note to the whole 
strain of the Scriptures. 

Once again, long afterwards, the eyes of the whole 
nation were directed to that home of the holy by the 
ascension of the grandest of the Israelitish prophets to 
the presence of God. Elijah, in the repeated phrase 
of Scripture, "was taken up by a whirlwind into 
heaven," in a chariot of fire (2 Kings ii. 1, 11). It 
needed not his re-appearance on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration to intimate, that, though absent from earth, 
be was present with God. Malachi foretold his return 
(iv. 5) ; and there is the most ample evidence, both in 
the Gospels and the Talmud, that the whole nation 
looked for his coming. 

4. The patriarchs, who died by natural deaths, are 
described as having gone to join the company of their 
ancestors beyond this life. 

It will not be forgotten how Christ silenced the Sad- 
ducees, in their denial of inmiortality, by that phrase 
from the Old Testament, " I am the God of Abraham, 
of Isaac, and of Jacob ; " adding, that " Gt)d is not a 
God of the dead, but of the living " (Luke xx. 38). 

* Such was the interpretation, for example, of Ecclesiasticns. xliv. 14; 
zlix. 14; and of Josephns, Antiq. 1, 8, 4. 



164 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

The statement, he would say, made by God long after 
the deatli of the patriarchs, proved that they were 
not extinct ; for God does not stand in such relations 
to extinct beings. Though dead, they live. 

Other passages very distinctly intimate the continued 
existence of these patriarchs. We refer to those pas- 
sages where each of them is said to be " gathered to 
his people," or " gathered to his fathers." This is the 
phrase employed concerning Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, 
Moses, and Aaron (Q^n. xxv. 8 ; xxxv. 29 ; xlix. 29 ; 
Deut. xxxii. 50). To Abraham also there was given 
the previous assurance, " Thou shalt go to thy fathers 
in peace " (Gen. xv. 15). • 

Now, this phrase does not mean simply to die, or to 
be buried, or to be buried in a family tomb ; for three 
reasons, the third of which is absolutely decisive. (1) 
Death and burial are both mentioned in the same con- 
nections, as facts distinct from this : ^' Thus Abraham 
gave up the ghost and died, an old man and full of 
years, and was gathered to his people ; and his sons 
Isaac and Ishmael buried him" (Q^n. xxv. 8, 9). 
Here the joining his people is mentioned as though the 
sequel of death, and as entirely distinct from his bu- 
rial. Sarah, indeed, was the only occupant of the tomb 
in which he was buried. Precisely the same statement 
is made of Isaac (Gen. xxxv. 29). So Jacob " charged 
them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered 
unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the 
cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite " (Gen. 
xlix. 29). Here the being gathered to his people is 
the event over which he had no control ; but the burial 
is the subject of direction. Moses was commanded 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 155 

(Deut. xxxii. 50) to " die in the mount whither thou 
goest up, and be gathered unto thy people; as Aaron thy 
brother died in Mount Hor, and was gathered unto his 
people." Here, again, death and the being gathered 
to his people are distinguished ; while burial in a fami- 
ly tomb is out of the question, since neither Moses nor 
Aaron was buried with their ancestors. The phrase 
in question is almost invariably preceded by the addi- 
tional, statement, "died." (2) The distinction be- 
tween burial in one common tomb, and " being gathered 
to one's people," is also made prominent by the sepa- 
ration of the two events by a considerable interval of 
time. Jacob " yielded up the ghost, and was gathered 
unto his people " (Gen. xlix. 33) ; but it was only after 
embalming and seventy days of mourning, and a journey 
to Canaan, that we are told his sons " buried him in the 
cave of the field of Machpelah " (Gen. 1. 13). (3) It 
is a decisive fact, that the phrase is employed concern- 
ing those who were not deposited in the tombs of their 
ancestors. Abraham was buried beside his^ wife only. 
Moses (and apparently Aaron) was buried in an un- 
known and solitary place. So also David, Omri, and 
Manasseh, each " slept with his fathers ; " although 
David was buried in the city of David, Omri in Sama- 
ria, and Manasseh " in the garden of his own house, in 
tlie garden of Uzza " (1 Kings ii. 10 ; xvi. 28 ; 2 Kings 
xxi. 18). 

There is, therefore, conclusive reason for under- 
standing the phrase " gathered to his fathers " in its 
unperverted meaning of joining them in the other 
world. Such is the clear decision of the best modem 



156 LIFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

commentators of various schools, — Baumgarten, Grer- 
lach, Knobel, Delitzsch.* 

It is with this thought that David comforts himself 
concerning his dead child (2 Sam. xii. 23) : " I shall 
go to him ; but he shall not return to me." The pa- 
triarch Jacob apparently expressed the expectation of 
joining his lost son Joseph, at the time when he sup- 
posed his body to have been irrecoverably devoured by 
wild beasts: "For I will go down into the grave 
(sheol) unto my son, mourning" (Gren. xxxvii. 35). 

To the same purport the record of Elijah's miracle. 
The prophet prayed, " Lord, my God, I pray thee 
let this child's soul come into him again ; . . . and the 
soul of the child came into him again, and he revived" 
(1 Kings, xvii. 21, 22) : an apparent recognition of 
the separate existence of the departed soul. 

5. We may not properly omit to mention that this 
view is strongly re-enforced by the repeated designation 

• Says Gerlach, on Gen. xv. 16, " Thou shalt go to thy fethere, or thy 
people, hi peace, is the gracious expression for a life after death." Says 
Baumgarten, ** A continuance after death is assuredly expressed therein." 
Knobel remarks more at length, on Gen. xxv. 8, ** Abraham was gathered 
to his fathers, i.e. was associated with his ancestors in iheol [the under- 
world]. The phrases * to go to his fathers,' * to be gathered to his fathers,* 
and the very common one * to sleep with his fathers,' all have the same 
meaning. They signify neither to die merely, since !9^3 and ty^fZ are com- 
monly connected with them; nor to be buried in a family tomb with one*8 
ancestors, since the interment oft»n is also expressed at ^e same time by 
^?p) and since the terms are applied also to those who were not buried 
with their fathers, but elsewhere, like Moses, David, Omri, Manasseh, as 
well as of those in whose place of burial not more than one of their fathers 
lay, e.g. Solomon, Ahab." Delitzsch takes the same ground on Gen. xxr. 
8: ** That Abraham was buried is first stated ftirther on; the onion with 
his relatives who had gone before thus takes place first, not at his inter* 
mentjbut already in the moment of death. . . . The union with the fathen 
is not a mere union of corpses, bat of persons." 



BELIEF OF THE EABLJEB JEWS. 157 

of the whole present life, however protracted, as a pil- 
grimage. " The days of the years of my pilgrimage 
are a hundred and thirty years, few and evil have the 
days of the years of my life been, and have not attained 
luito the days of the years of the life of my fathers in 
the days of their pilgrimage " (Gen. xlvii. 9) ; " I am a 
stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers 
were " (Ps. xxxix. 12). The writer of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews certainly puts this construction on these 
utterances ; for he says that the patriarchs ^' confessed 
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ; 
for they that say such things declare plainly that they 
seek a country, — a better country ; that is, an hea- 
venly " (Heb. xi. 13, 14, 16). 

6. Another, and a decisive indication, amounting to 
a positive proof of a belief in the continued existence 
of the departed, is found in the practice of magical in- 
vocations of the dead, — a practice which, among other 
species of witchcraft, Moses was obliged to prohibit 
by law. In Deut. xviii. 10, 11, he commands, " There 
shall not be found among you any one that maketh his 
son or daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth 
divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, 
or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar 
spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer^^ literally a con- 
sulter of the dead. 

The clear comment on this law, and conclusive 
proof of the strong hold of the belief and practice upon 
•the nation, is found in the interview of Saul with the 
Witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii. 7-20). Saul went 
with the demand, " Bring me him up whom I shall 
name unto thee." The woman's reply shows that this 



158 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

was a common pretension of the whole class of wizards : 
" Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he 
hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the 
wizards, out of the land ; wherefore then layest thou a 
snare for my life to cause me to die ? " When Saul 
had re-assured her, she inquires in the most sweeping 
way, " Whom shall I bring up unto thee ? " He calls 
for Samuel. The sequel need not be related. 

Now, no difference of opinion as to the actual nature 
of the subsequent transactions can disguise that there 
was a class of persons in Israel who pretended to sum- 
mon the dead into conmiunication with the living, and 
that, while the belief in their power to do it was so ex- 
tended as to require a special exertion of the mon- 
arch's authority to banish them from the kingdom, 
it was also so deep-seated, that even that monarch him- 
self was the victim of the delusion. And, furthermore, 
this prevalent belief in the ability to bring up the dead 
must have rested on an equally prevalent belief that 
the dead were still in being. 

7. But there are found also in the earlier times clear 
indications of the nature of that future ; allusions to 
it as a state of retribution. It is the scene of joy and 
recompense to the righteous, and of vengeance to the 
wicked. Sometimes these respective future prospects 
are contrasted with each other, sometimes they are in- 
dicated separately. 

How plainly does the writer of the sixteenth Psalm 
declare his confidence that God, who is his trust, will 
rescue him from the grave, and receive him to eternal 
joy in his presence ! The first part of the Psalm (ver. 
1-7) expresses his confidence and his delight in God, 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS, 169 

and the intimacy and firmness of his adhesion to him. 
With Gk)d at his right hand (ver. 8), nothing shall dis- 
turb his tranquillity. Not only shall his spirit be glad 
(ver. 9), but his " flesh also '' — his body or person — 
" shall rest in hope " of future deliverance. " For thou 
will not leave my soul in hell \liadss^ sheoV\ ; neither 
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 
Thou wilt show me the path of life [the way to life, 
to Gk)d's presence]. In thy presence is fullness of joy ; 
at thy right hand, there are pleasures for evermore " 
(ver. 10, 11). Here is the plainest hope of a life of 
pleasure for evermore at the right hand of God, after 
deliverance from the grave. The Messianic bearing 
of the Psalm makes no difference in regard to the doc- 
trine of a future life, uttered primarily in the person 
of David. 

The seventeenth Psalm contrasts the bright future 
hopes of the Psalmist with the earthly transient enjoy- 
ments of the men of this world. Tlie Psalmist, with 
strong confidence in his integrity of purpose (ver. 1-4), 
appeals to God for defense from his deadly foes (ver. 
5-9). He describes their pride and ferocity (ver. 10- 
12), and, in connection with si fresh petition for deliv- 
erance (ver. 13), he reminds himself of the evanescence 
of their many sensual joys (ver. 14) : " Men of the 
world, which have their portion in this life, and whose 
belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : they are full of 
children, and leave the rest of their substance to their 
babes." Immediately (ver. 16) he breaks out exulting : 
" As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness ; I 
shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." 
Now; when we consider that to which this hope stands 



160 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

contrasted, — the portion of the men of the world in this 
life, as well as the Psalmist's own sufferings, inflicted 
by them in their hostility ; and when we look at the 
phraseology of his hope, — the beholding of God's face 
in righteousness, the awaking, the satisfaction with 
God's likeness, — it is not easy to dissent from the 
statement of Bosenmiiller, that '^ these things can 
hardly be understood otherwise than concerning the 
hope which the prophet entertained of a blessed vision 
of God in the future life, when he should have awaked 
from the sleep of death." Indeed the brilliant but 
skeptical scholar, De Wette, even maintained that Da- 
vid could not be the author of the Psalm, because it 
clearly expresses the hope of immortality. Tholuck 
says well : " Wondrously enlightened by the Holy 
Ghost, he [David] speaks with a clearness which 
seems possible to Christian minds only, of the glories 
of heaven, where the struggle with sin shall be changed 
into perfect righteousness ^ faitli into face-to4ace vision, 
satiation with the divided goods of this life into satia- 
tion with the one perfect good, which renders every 
thing besides unnecessary." * 

Psalm seventy-third describes in full the writer's per- 
plexity, distress, and danger, as he viewed the grand 
enigma of Providence in the sufferings of the godly and 

* Heogstenberg does not receive this exposition; but his objections are 
singular enough. They are solely that, " according to it, not merely would 
there be expressed here a knowledge of eternal life, more clear and confi- 
dent than we could almost expect to find in a psalm of David, but specially 
that the Psalmist would declare his entire resignation in regard to earthly 
things, which, in that case, he wholly abandons to the wicked, and directs 
all his hope to the heavenly.*' Therefore he can not suffer him to exfHren 
so clear a knowledge or so entire a resignation. 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS, 161 

the undisturbed prosperity of the heaven-defying wick- 
ed, and the solution of that enigma in which his soul 
found peace in the assurance that the relative posi- 
tion of the parties shall be speedily reversed at death 
by the mighty and righteous Governor of the world. 
In the earlier part of the Psalm, he describes the occa- 
sion of his repining: "The prosperity of the wicked," 
often up to the very hour of their death (ver. 4.), their 
exemption from suffering, and their accumulation of 
riches and pleasures in the fullest degree through 
their whole life, while they defy both God and man 
(ver. 6-12). The contrasted sight of his own suffering 
lot had bred in him deep gloom (ver. 13-16), till he 
went to the sanctuary, and understood their end (ver. 
17), which will be an instantaneous waking from an 
empty dream to a fearful reality of "destruction," 
"desolation," and "terrors" (ver. 18-20). After an 
expression of amazement at his own former stupidity, 
the writer exults in the consciousness of God's contin- 
ual support; breaks out in the joyful assurance, 
"Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and after- 
ward receive me to glory;" declares God to be his su- 
preme portion in heaven and earth (ver. 25) ; and 
asserts that, even though or when "flesh and heart fail- 
eth, God is the strength of my heart, and my portion 
for ever." In this passage, the obvious meaning of the 
language is sustained by the whole scope of the Psalm. 
The source of the writer's distress was the unbroken 
prosperity of the impious wicked up to the very hour 
of death* (ver. 4-17), as compared with the daily 

* To avoid this, Ewald and J. Olshaasen find it Qecessai^ to change 
the Hebrew text of verse 4, — conjecturally. 
11 



162 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

chastisements of the righteous. At the " end " only 
does the difference appear. The destruction, desola- 
tion, and terror of the wicked must be even subsequent 
to their dissolution ; for there are " no bands in their 
death : but their strength is firm." The " dream " is 
dispelled "in a moment." On the other hand, the 
Psalmist is consoled under his daily chastisements 
with the assurance that the God who has hitherto held 
him by the hand will guide him by his counsel here, 
and " afterward receive him to glory ; " * and that 
He who, of all objects in heaven and earth, is his chief 
good, will be his strength and portion when heart and 
flesh fail ; yea, " to eternity." The judicious Alexan- 
der well remarks, that the reference to a future state 
in verses 16-19, 24, is " evident, if interpreted in any 
natural and reasonable manner." 

The forty-ninth Psalm, though more obscure in meth- 
od and expression, is a development of the same funda- 
mental theme. It is intended to vindicate the govern- 
ment of God, and, in the words of Alexander, " to 
console the righteous under the trials arising from the 
prosperity and enmity of wicked men by showing these 
to be but temporary, and by the prospect of a speedy 
change in the relative position of the parties." In 
like manner, Tholuck describes it as "a didactic psalm 
concerning the uncertain prosperity of the proud and 
rich, their certain death, the victory of the godly, and 
their final reception with God." The writer solenmly 
calls the attention of the whole world to his solution 
of the great problem (verses 1-5). He points to the 

. * It makes no material difference if we adopt De Wette's tranfllation, 
— and ** afterward with honor receive roe.'* 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 163 

iniquity of his pursuers (not "heels") as they com- 
pass him about, boasting in their riches, and while 
powerless to redeem themselves from death with all 
their wealth (verses 7-9), yet regardless of the com- 
mon lot that awaits alike the wise man and the fool 
(verse 11), and dreaming of perpetual prosperity 
(verse 12). But there comes an hour when " the 
righteous shall have dominion [shall triumph] over 
them," and that time is the hour of death. How so ? 
for the Psalmist tad already admitted (verse 10) the 
transparent fact, that the righteous, too, must die. 
Wherein, then, is the triumph ? It is that " God will 
redeem my soul from the power of the grave ; for he 
will receive me " (verse 15) ; while all the good things 
of the wicked pass away at death: " When he dieth he 
shall carry nothing away ; his glory shall not descend 
after him, though while he lived he blessed his soul " 
(verses 16, 17). It is precisely the case of the rich 
fool of the New Testament, not so fully carried out. 
And so manifestly is tliis obvious interpretation of the 
language indispensable to even a tolerable fulfillment 
of the opening promise of the psalm, that a late Ger- 
man (rationalist) commentator (J. Olshausen), who 
denies the reference to the future, makes this fatal 
admission : " Though the poet in the introduction pro- 
ceeds with no little self-confidence, yet does his solu- 
tion of the problem which he treats turn out to be 
very unsatisfactory. Surrounded by the baseness of 
enemies, insidious and wholly reliant upon their worldly 
resources, he looks around for consolation, and without 
diflSculty finds it, — sorry enough, however, — chiefly 
in the thought, that even his luxury can not rescue the 



164 UFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

rich man from death, and he must leave it all behind ; 
while altogether short-lived and even trivial (beildujig) 
is the defense and deliverance from death which in his 
conception the righteous may hope from God." 

Sorry indeed, if that were all ! The naked state- 
ment of such an exposition is a sufficient refutation. 
Strange that men should deem it needful to put a re- 
straint on the obvious meaning of language in order 
to educe such inanity ; and passing strange that the 
sweet singer of Israel can not be suflFered to make the 
least allusion to a future world, when even the cat- 
worshiping Egyptian had recorded his convictions of a 
judgment to come, a thousand years before ! 

A very distinct assertion of the future retribution is 
found in Eccles. xii. 13, 14 : " Let us hear the conclu- 
sion of the whole matter : Fear Gk)d, and keep his com- 
mandments ; for this is the whole duty of man. For 
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every 
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." 
That the judgment here spoken of is a future one, as 
Hengstenberg well remarks, is clear from verse 7 of 
the same chapter, where the writer 'speaks of the ap- 
pearance of the spirit, separated from the body, before 
God, to receive the recompense for its works. 

Still more distinct, if possible, is the utterance of 
Dan. xii. 2, 3 : " And many of them [i.e., the many, 
the multitude ; see Bom. v. 15, 19] that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, 
and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And 
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the 
firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness, 
as the stars for ever and ever." 



BELIEF OF TEE EARLIER JEWS. 165 

This passage is from the closing declarations of Dan- 
iel's prophecy. He who had depicted so fully and repeat- 
edly the rise and fall of the great earthly monarchies, 
and the triumph of the kingdom which the Gk)d of 
heaven should set up, and who just before the present 
passage minutely specifies the conflicts that should rage 
around the seat of that kingdom, now, in accordance 
with prophetic custom, flashes one clear glance down 
to the end and issue of the whole struggle on earth. 
Then the message is to be sealed up (verse 4) " to 
the time of the end ; " and the prophet himself is di- 
rected (verse 13), " Go thy way till the end be; for thou 
shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the 
days." The collocation of the passage thus strongly 
justifies the obvious interpretation ; while the lan- 
guage itself, in its details, will hardly admit any other. 
It has indeed been questioned whether the verse next 
precedmg refers to the ultimate " time of trouble " at 
Christ's coming, or to a nearer series of terrific trials 
in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. But Profess<5r 
Stuart, who takes the latter view, is perfectly decided 
that the passage in question " opens the prospect of 
the future and final destiny of men, the righteous and 
the wicked, and shows us the final result of the Messi- 
anic period." * 

These are some of the passages in the Old Testament 
which more specifically refer to the future state of re- 
wards and pimishments.f But it would be doing greats 

* For a fuller vindication of this view, see Stuart's Commentary on Dan- 
iel on this passage. 

t Such passages have been selected as were easily apprehensible by or- 
dmary readers. Passages like Job xix. 25-27 have been intentionally omit- 
ted, because lees available in a popular discussion. 



160 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

injustice to the older portion of the sacred volume 
were we to intimate that these comprise the main por- 
tion of such allusions. The doctrine here distinctly 
stated seems to underlie a multitude of promises and 
threats, as an implication without which they are 
empty. Such passages as the whole thirty-seventh 
Psalm ; Ps. i. 3-6 ; Prov. x. 28, 30 ; xi. 7, 19, 21, 
23 ; xii. 3, 21, 28 ; xiv. 32 ; xv. 24 ; and the like,— 
consider what they amount to, except as they involve 
such a reference. Without it, what does it mean to 
say, " As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pur- 
sueth evil pursueth it to his own death ; " " In the way 
of righteousness is life, and in the pathway thereof is 
no death?" Unless these threats and promises reach 
forth into another world, all these high-sounding words, 
and others like them, mean only this, — that a wicked 
man shall have a little earlier decease than a good 
man ; a threat not always fulfilled. 

The case seems to us one of remarkable strength. 
We start with the now settled fact, in itself of great 
weight, that the nation among whom the Israelites 
resided four hundred years had for many hundred 
years previous held and publicly recorded the doctrine 
of an existence and retribution after death. We find 
the Hebrew doctrine concerning the origin and char- 
acter of the soul laying the proper basis for a belief in 
its continued existence when the body dies. We find 
the record, in both the antediluvian and the Mosaic ages, 
of good men, by reason of that goodness, taken directly 
from this world to dwell with God. We find this whole 
present life designated as a pilgrimage. We find the 
successive deaths of patriarchs, prophets, priests, and 



BELIEF OF THE EARLIER JEWS. 167 

kings, even when they were laid in unknown or soli- 
tary graves, described as being gathered to their fa- 
thers. We find the practice of conjuring by pretended 
communication with dead persons, familiar spirits, to 
have gained such a hold on the general belief, that the 
law of Moses specially prohibited the offense ; and even 
the first monarch of the nation, in his time of exigency, 
resorted to the practice. And, finally, we meet with 
not a few passages which of set purpose present the 
doctrine of a judgment and twofold retribution after 
death, so distinctly, that they can be set aside only by a 
denial both of the obvious meaning of the language, 
and the obvious scope of the argument. 



CHAPTER n. 

BELIEF OF A FUTURE EXISTENCE AMONG THE JEWS IN 
THE TIME OF CHRIST. 

WHEN our Saviour and his apostles began their 
mission, they addressed themselves first to the 
Jewish nation. Their teachings were professedly but 
the fuller development of " the law and the prophets." 
Moreover, their utterances on the subject of a future 
destiny, unless specially guarded by them to the con- 
trary, must, of course, be understood in the light of the 
known and acknowledged views of the nation. 

Now, even if there were any reasonable doubt what 
were the notions of the earlier Jews upon this subject, 
no such doubt hangs over the views that prevailed in 
the time of Christ. It is susceptible of decisive proof 
that the prevalent belief of the people at that time rec- 
ognized a future state of rewards and punishments. 
This proof is found more full and minute in profane 
writers, as they are called, but briefly and conclusively 
confirmed in the New Testament. 

The fullest and most competent secular witness is 
the celebrated historian Josephus. He was a native 
Jew, belonged to the order of the priesthood, and not 
only was a man of learning, but had been specially ini- 
tiated into the ways of each of the three sects into 

168 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST. 169 

which the Jewish nation was divided. For a long time 
he governed Galilee, afterwards commanded the Jew- 
ish army, and, upon the conquest and destruction of 
Jerusalem, went with Titus to Rome, where he wrote 
the History and Antiquities of his nation. No man 
could be more competent as a witness. 

Now, Josephus informs us in many passages that the 
Jewish people were divided into three sects, the Phar- 
isees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. Of the Pharisees 
he informs us (Antiq. book xviii. chap. i. sect. 3), 
" They also believed that souls have an immortal vigor 
in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards 
or punishments according as they have lived virtuously 
or viciously in this life ; and the latter are to be de- 
tained in an everlasting prison, but the former shall 
have power to revive and live again : on account of 
which doctrines, they are able to persuade the great 
body of the people." Again (Wars of the Jews, ii. 
§ 14) : " They [the Pharisees] say that all souls are 
indestructible ; that the souls of good men alone are 
removed into other bodies ; but that the souls of bad 
men are subject to eternal punishment." * 

Concerning a second of these Jewish sects, the Es- 
senes, we are told by Josephus (Antiq., xviii. 5), " They 
teach the immortality of souls, and esteem that the 
rewards of righteousness are to be earnestly striven 
for." Again (Wars, ii. 8, 11) : " For their doctrine is 

* It is commonly understood that the removal " into other bodies " 
(strictly another body\ here ascribed to the souls of the righteous, simply 
designates the new or spiritual body. Any question which may be raised 
on this point does not in the slightest degree affect the positiveneas of Jose- 
phos's testimony to the doctrine of inmiortality and future eternal rewards 
and punishments. 



170 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

this : That bodies are corruptible, and that the matter 
they are made of is not permanent, but that the souls are 
immortal^ and contimiefor ever ; and that they come out 
of the most subtile air, and are united to their bodies 
as in prisons, into which they are drawn by a certain 
natural enticement ; but that, when set free from the 
bonds of the flesh, they then, as released from a long 
bondage, rejoice and mount upward. And this is like 
the opinion of the Greeks, that good souls have their 
habitation beyond the ocean in a region that is neither 
oppressed with storms of rain or snow, nor with intense 
heat ; but that this place is such as is refreshed by the 
gentle breathing of a west wind that is perpetually blow- 
ing from the ocean : while they allot to bad souls a 
dark and tempestuous den, full of never-ceasing pun- 
ishments. And, indeed, the Greeks seem to me to have 
followed the same notion when they allot the islands 
of the blessed to their brave men, whom they call he- 
roes and demi-gods ; and to the souls of the wicked 
the region of the ungodly in hades, where their fables 
relate that certain persons, such as Sisyphus and Tantalus 
and Ixion and Tityus, are punished ; which is built on 
this first supposition, — that souls are immortal. And 
thence are those exhortations to virtue and dissuasions 
from wickedness collected, whereby good men are made 
better in the conduct of their life by the hope they 
have of reward after their death, and whereby the ve- 
hement inclinations of bad men to vice are restrained 
by the fear and expectation they are in, that, although 
they should lie concealed in this life, they should suffer 
deathless punishment (ad-dvatov ttjmQlav) after their dis- 
solution. These are the divine doctrines of the Essenes 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST. 171 

about the soul, which oflFer an irresistible attraction to 
tho5e who have once had a taste of their philosophy." 
The reader will observe in this passage how distinctly 
the writer represents the future punishment to consist 
in continual suffering. 

His statements are made still more distinctly signifi- 
cant by the account which he give^ of the remaining 
sect, the Sadducees : " The doctrine of the Sadducees 
is this: That souls die with the bodies" (Antiq., xviii. 
1, 4). Again (War, ii. 8, 14): "They take away the 
belief of immortality, and the punishments and rewards 
in hades.^' 

This testimony is explicit. The Pharisees and Es- 
senes believe in a state of endless rewards and suffer- 
ing after death. The Sadducees discard that doctrine. 
It only remains to ask which of these sects represents 
the prevailing and received belief. Josephus himself 
informs us that " the Sadducees are able to per- 
suade none but the rich, and have not the populace 
obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the multi- 
tude on their side " (Antiq., xiii. 10, 6) ; that the Phar- 
isees " are able greatly to persuade the body of the peo- 
ple " (xviii. 1, 3) ; that the doctrine of the Sadducees 
"is received but by a few," who, when they become 
magistrates, " addict themselves to the notions of the 
Pharisees, because the multitudes would not other- 
wise hear them " (xviii. 1, 4). 

Fully coincident with this is Josephus's remonstrance 
with his comrades against suicide (War, iii. 8, 5), in 
which he urges, that " the soul is ever immortal, and 
is a portion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies ; " 
that " those who depart out of this life, according to the 



172 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

law of nature, and pay that debt which was received 
from God, when he that lent it is pleased to require it 
back, enjoy eternal fame. Their houses and their pos- 
terity are sure ; their souls remain pure and propitious 
to prayer, and obtain a most holy place in heaven, from 
whence, in the revolution of ages, they are again sent 
into pure bodies ; while the souls of those who have 
acted madly against themselves are received by the 
darkest place in hades.^^ Again (War, i. 33, 2) : the 
learned Jews Matthias and Judas are represented as 
rousing a sedition against Herod by the consideration 
that, " it was a glorious thing to die for the laws of 
their country ; that for those thus perishing remained 
an immortality of soul, and an endless fruition of 
happiness." And when forty of the rebels were 
brought before Herod, and interrogated " how they 
could be so joyful when they were to be put to death," 
they replied, " because they should enjoy greater hap- 
piness after they were dead." And once more, at the 
siege of Masada (War, vii. 8, 7), Eleazer the leader 
of the Sicarii urges his men to dispatch one another 
rather than fall into the enemy's hands, by a burning 
appeal to the doctrine of immortality : " The laws of 
our country and God himself, have, from ancient 
times, and as soon as we could use our reason, contin- 
ually taught us, and our forefathers have corroborated 
the same doctrine by their actions and by their bravery 
of mind, that it is life which is a calamity to men, and 
not death ; for this last affords our souls their liberty, 
and sends them by a removal into their own place of 
purity, where they are to be insensible to all sorts of 
misery. For, while souls are tied down to a mortal 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, 173 

body, they are partakers of its miseries : and really, to 
speak the truth, they are themselves dead [observe his 
use of the word " dead "] ; for associatioa with what 
is mortal befits not that which is divine." And he 
goes on to a considerable extent, pressing on them the 
hope of a blessed immortality, presenting even the ex- 
ample of the Indians " who have such a desire for im- 
mortality that they cheerfully hasten to their death," 
and asking, " Are we not therefore ashamed to have 
lower notions than the Indians ? " Such appeals even 
to the populace on the ground of reward and punish- 
ment hereafter, however perverted may have been the 
application, are the best possible proof of the universal 
hold of that doctrine on the popular belief.* 

These reiterated testimonies, uttered by a learned 
Jew whose life was cotemporary with the epistles of 
Christ's apostles, present an insurmountable difficulty 
to those who incline to deny the prevalence of the doc- 
trine among the Jews of Christ's day ; for, unfortu- 
nately for them, the statements can not be rejected as 
spurious, or of questionable genuineness. Their total 
meaning can not possibly be mistaken, nor can the 
perfect competency of the witness be called in question. 
In all these respects, the testimony is impregnable. 

The only possible resort remaining is to impeach the 
veracity of Josephus. This, accordingly, is attempted 
by one leading advocate of annihilation. But how ? 
By bringing any counter testimony to refute these as- 
sertions ? By showing any inconsistency in his several 

* We have chosen for the most part to follow the common, awkward 
translation of Josephus. In some instances, we have substituted Traill's 
Tenioa as more accurate. 



174 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

statements on this subject? By proving that he is not, 
in the main, a veracious narrator ? By showing that, 
in this particular subject, he had some special tempta- 
tion to fabricate a deliberate falsehood, — total, circum- 
stantial, reiterated, and easy of refutation ? None of 
these things. 

Mr. Hudson endeavors to dispatch this troublesome 
witness by accumulating from various writers a few 
general criticisms upon him, — some of them wholly 
irrelevant, some of them unfounded, and all of them 
falling short of an impeachment of his testimony on 
this point, — and then summarily " dismissing Josephus 
as an unreliable witness " (Debt and Grace, p. 336). 

Mr. Hudson is not ashamed to quote in his argument 
certain epithets applied by a late female writer (Char- 
lotte Elizabeth) to Josephus's personal history, such as 
''traitor," "apostate," "groveling sycophant," "ful- 
some flatterer," " sordid, craven tool of the pagan foe," 
although he admits that the language " is perhaps too 
expressive of indignant feeling," and fails to inform us 
what it has to do with the matter in hand, supposing 
it to be true. 

Among the cited criticisms upon Josephus, there are, 
however, two classes of remarks which might seem to 
have force. 

First, it is alleged that he is not always trustworthy. 
"Another writer observes, It must be owned, that, in 
his account of the Scripture times, he has taken a bold 
liberty to add, alter, retrench, and even sometimes con- 
tradict it ; which is a fault for which no other apology 
can be made than that he was of the sect of the Phar- 
isees, and gav6 too much credit to their trifling tradi- 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, 176 

fcions/' The same writer shows that the whole account 
given by Josephus of the visit of Alexander to Jerusa- 
lem (Antiq., xi. 8, 5) is unquestionably fabulous, and 
is " at a loss to determine whether he was himself the 
author of the story, or was imposed upon in taking it as 
a narrative or tradition of some other Jewish writer " 
(Debt and Grace, p. 335). A note on the same page 
mentions another account of Josephus (War, vi. 9), 
which " is shown to involve insuperable difficulties." 

Now, the reader will observe that even this critic 
does not charge Josephus with proved intentional false- 
hood, but admits that his deviations from Scripture 
history were because " he gave too much credit to " 
Pharisaic "traditions," and that, in his account of 
Alexander, he may have been " imposed upon." It 
should be added that his adhesion to the Scripture nar- 
rative in his Antiquities, though the book was written 
for heathen readers, is, for the most part, singularly 
close ; most of the deviations being *by way of expan- 
sion, while others show inadvertence, and others indi- 
cate that he probably had before him a diflFerent read- 
ing, as is sometimes the case in matters of number.* 
But no inadvertence, no diflFerence of text, no imposi- 
tion, no credulity, could mislead him in the doctrines 
of his cotemporary sects. 

We may go further than does his critic, and admit 
that, in his topography, he is sometimes inaccurate, as 
in the dimensions of the temple, which he perhaps em- 
bellished, — writing, as he did, far from the place, with- 
out exact data, and prone from national vanity to 

* In some instances, the suggestion of Josephus actually relieves a diffi- 
culty. 



176 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

magnify its glory.* Still, no such motive can be found 
in the present instance ; and if there could, it would 
hardly cover the case of a deliberate and circumstan- 
tial invention of alleged facts concerning his own be- 
lief and that of the whole nation. 

Secondly, it is alleged that " his doctrine " is, so to 
speak, " im-Jewish " and " the account given by Jose- 
phus is in a nomenclature to which the Jews had been 
strangers, which is unknown to the Talmud, but with 
which the Greeks and Orientals were quite familiar." f 
This view is backed by several quotations, % — one from 
Pococke, that, " in giving the views of the sects he 
names, respecting the other world, he [Josephus] 
seems to have used words better suited to the fashions 
■and the ears of the Greeks and Romans than such as 
a scholar of the Jewish law would understand or deem 
expressive of his meaning ; " one from Matthaei, that 
" Josephus was pre-eminently inclined to accommodate 
his accounts to the understanding of the Gentiles ; " 
one from Bretschneider, that " his extant writings 
would be more valuable if he had separated their views 
from the modifications which he has seen fit to give 
them, out of respect to the Grecian readers for whom 
he wrote." Harmer is quoted, who speaks of his " so- 
licitude to make his representation of the opinions and 
practices of that nation, in those writings that were 
designed for the perusal of the unbelieving (Jentiles, 
as little exceptionable to them as possible ; " and who 
also says that " some of the learned have remarked that 



* Robinson*8 Researches, i. 415. 

t Debt and Grace, p. 224. J lb. p. 885 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, 177 

he has even expressed himself in such a manner as 
might lead his readers to imagine that the Pharisees 
believed rather a transmigration than a proper resur- 
rection.'* 

These are the statements. On which it may be ob- 
served, 1. That no one of the writers quoted questions 
the fundamental veracity of Josephus's statements. 
They simply aver that, in stating his views, he has " used 
words suited to the fashions of the Greeks and Romans,'* 
and that " he was pre-eminently inclined to accomnKh 
date his accounts to the understanding of the Gentiles : " 
at most, that he has given " modifications " to his state- 
ments out of respect to the Gentiles, has made them 
" as little exceptionable to them as possible," or has in 
one case used a perhaps intentional ambiguity. 

2. Inasmuch as both the treatises from which we 
have quoted were, in the form in which we have them, 
expressly written for and to be understood by Gentile 
readers, it was the most obvious dictate of common 
sense to adapt his phraseology to their " fashions " and 
" imderstandings ; " and, in alluding directly to any 
supposed resemblance to Gentile views, Josephus was 
doing only what is common enough even in Christian 
writers, and, in the very act of making the comparison, 
he asserts the difference. If in any respect he may be 
thought to have modified the Jewish notions, that soft- 
ening-down is a very different thing from an out-and- 
out fabrication. Even the alleged ambiguity concern- 
ing the resurrection (if designed) was, at most, a shrink- 
ing from an outspoken statement of belief. If his words 
could be interpreted by some of his readers in harmony 
with the doctrine of transmigration, it is still true that 

12 



178 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

they can be understood strictly of a proper resurrec- 
tion, and that, in any cascj they positively assert a future 
retribution; and it is true that his reiterated doctrine 
is of a twofold retribution, — eternal happiness and 
endless suflFering. 

3. The diflSculty of invalidating the testimony of Jo- 
sephus is well illustrated by the two remaining specifi- 
cations. ''' His dissuasion from suicide is quite Platonic : 

* The bodies of all men are corruptible, and are cre- 
ated out of corruptible matter ; but the soul is ever 
immortal, and is a portion of the divinity that inhabits 
our bodies.' " The last clause contains the alleged Pla- 
tonic phrase. But if that one mode of statement indi- 
cates connivance with Platonism, then on equally valid 
grounds does the Apostle Peter's expression (2 Pet. i. 4), 
" That by these ye might be partakers of the divine 
nature," indicate a collusion with Brahminism. Such 
expressions, when occurring singly, are too common, 
and too readily suggested to any mind, to attract at- 
tention. But Mr. Hudson endeavors to settle the case 
by one other quotation from Josephus : " To the pas- 
sage already cited, in which he speaks of the soul as a 

* portion of the divinity that inhabits our bodies,' we may 
here add the following : ' Those souls,' he says, ^ which are 
severed from their flesliy bodies in battles by the sword, 
are received by the ether, that purest of elements, and 
joined to that company which are placed among the 
stars : they become good demons and propitious he- 
roes, and show themselves as such to their posterity 
afterward.' " The reader will appreciate the force of 
this argument, when he learns that the sentiment 
ascribed by Mr. Hudson to Josephus is part of a 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST. 179 

speech which Josephus ascribes to the heathen emperor 
Titus.'' 

4. The declarations of Josephus, as the reader will 
observe, are not found alone in his formal statement of 
doctrine, but they stand also naturally interwoven in 
the details of his narrative, as comprising the motives 
addressed to his countrymen by himself and other Jews 
to nerve them up to courage and to fortitude. The ter- 
rors of hell were urged by himself to dissuade his coun- 
trymen from suicide. The joys of heaven were pre- 
sented by Eleazer and Matthias and Judas, to persuade 
their followers to brave deeds ; and the followers of 
the two last mentioned sustain themselves in the hour 
of condemnation with the hopes of blessedness after 
death. These accounts are not only intrinsically nat- 
ural and probable, but, as we shall presently see, the 
presentation of such motives to the Jews for such pur- 
poses is specially corroborated by the Roman historian 
Tacitus. 

6. The statement of Josephus concerning the gen- 
eral diflFerence of views between the Pharisees and Sad- 
ducees closely corresponds to the declarations of the 
New Testament. Josephus is more full, inasmuch as 
it was part of his purpose to describe those sects ; 
whereas the sacred writer alludes to them only inci- 
dentally, and describes them only so far as necessary 

* See Josephus's War, vi. 1, 4, quoted in Debt and Grace, page 336. We 
might have supposed it a blunder, though a very inexcusable one; but 
when the attention of Mr. Hudson was called to the error, he told the in- 
formant (a student of Chicago Theological Seminary) that it was corrected 
in a later edition. On procuring that later edition, we found that the whoiU 
argument and passage remained as before, with the slight difference, that, 
instead of " he says," it now reads, " he makes Titus say,'* — still holding 
Josephus responsible for the sentiment. 



180 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

for explanation. The accounts are entirely harmoni- 
ous. 

6. It is proper to add, that, in general, the statements 
of Josephus on this and other kindred subjects are re- 
ceived by the great mass of historians and antiquari- 
ans ; and indeed, in connection with the New Testa- 
ment, they censtitute a very large part of the material 
for the history of Jewish affairs in those times. To 
mention all the writers whose statements rest more or 
less extensively on the declarations of Josephus would 
be simply to cite the names of every writer in every 
department of literature who has had occasion to treat 
of that nation or that age. His general trustworthi- 
ness as a writer, not indeed free from mistakes arising 
from forgetfulness, inattention, and misinformation, 
yet, on the whole, well-informed and accurate, especially 
on topics where, as in the present case, he had the 
means of personal knowledge, is vindicated by the later 
investigations. 

We conclude, then, that the attempt to overthrow the 
testimony of Josephus on this subject totally breaks 
down. It lacks the first element of a valid impeach- 
ment ; and the decision to " dismiss Josephus as an 
unreliable witness " is a very serio-comic device to get 
rid of a fatal testimony.* 

* We would refer to Dr. TrailPs introductory essay on the personal char- 
acter of Josephus for a valid though brief defense of his credibility as a 
. writer, pages 14>25. It will be observed that the weightiest names cited by 
Mr. Hudson against him are fuimes of tkepasL Traill well remarks, "A 
diligent use of the copious means placed at our disposal by those researches 
in Palestine which English, French, German, and American writers have 
effected, yields proof, various in its kind, and often very definite, entirely 
excluding as well the skepticism that had been admitted by some of the 
learned of the seventeenth centurv as the less erudite cavils of recent wri- 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, 181 

We pass to Tacitus the more readily in this connec- 
tion, because his testimony bears directly on the same 
use of the doctrine of future rewards to encourage 
personal bravery and endurance to which Josephus 
refers. It is given also in connection with the same 
events; namely, the capture of Jerusalem by Titus. 
He was cotemporary with that transaction ; and, in writ- 
ing an account of it, he evidently had taken pains to 
inform himself concerning the Jewish nation. His 
honesty of intention is unquestioned, as well as his 
accuracy in stating such things as he had the means ' 
of investigating. Prom the nature of the case, being 
a Roman historian, he commits many errors in narrat- 
ing the past history of the nation, as he did not have 
access to the Hebrew Scriptures, or other authentic in- 
formation on that subject ; but, in his delineation of 
their current habits and traits, his narrative is gener- 
ally correct, and, in regard to marked and prominent 
facts, trustworthy.* 

Tacitus writes thus of the Jews : " Infanticide is in 
every case a crime (necare quemquam ex adgnatis fior- 
gitiurn) ; and the souls of those slain in battle or by 
torture they believe to be eternal. Hence a desire for 
oflFspring, and a contempt of death. Dead bodies they 
bury rather than burn, after the custom of the Egyp- 
tians: they bestow the same care [as do the Egyptians], 

ters. Beyond possibility of doubt, as may now be shown, Josephus was ac* 
curately and familiarly conversant with the things and with the places, as 
well as with the transactions, of which he speaks : quite certain it is that 
he was observant in his habits, and, in the main, correct in his statements" 
(p. 23, American edition). 

* Mr. Hudson warmly commends the honesty of Tacitus (Debt and 
Grace, pp. 886, 837). 



182 LIFE AND DEATH ETEENAL, 

and hold the same belief, concerning the state of the 
dead \_de infernisy^ the infernal regions, or their 
occupants. — See Freund's or Andrew's Lexicons]. 
Hist., V. 6. 

Here the Roman historian testifies to the same gen- 
eral facts with Josephus. The desperate valor of the 
Jews in battle, and their invincible endurance of suffer- 
ing and torture, were well known to him, and emphat- 
ically recorded by him (v. 14). Equally notorious was 
the fact, which he and Josephus aUke recorded, that 
this fierce bravery was sustained by the hopes of a fvr 
twre life, and was stimulated by appeals to those hopes. 
The coincidence is striking. 

But Tacitus does not leave the subject here. He 
proceeds to speak of their funeral customs, — burjdng, 
and not burning, wherein they resemble the Egyptians ; 
and to this he adds, that they bestow the same care as 
do the Egyptians, and hold the same belief concerning 
the state of the dead or the infernal regions. What 
that belief is the reader will find exhibited in a pre- 
vious chapter of this discussion. Its grand feature, as 
conclusively proved, was, that after death the soul en- 
ters on a protracted state of rewards or punishments. 
Tacitus thus fully confirms the statement of Josephus, 
that the Jews of that day held the doctrine of a two- 
fold state of retribution after death ; and corroborates 
even his special and repeated declaration, that they 
were sustained in battle and under punishment by ap- 
peals to that belief. 

The mode in which Mr. Hudson deals with Tacitus 
is equally remarkable, perhaps, as his method with 
Josephus. He entirely omits the latter part of the pas- 



JEWISH BELIEF IHf THE TIME OF CHRIST, 183 

sage comprising the statement of their belief concern- 
ing the state of the dead ; and, quoting only the 
previous remark concerning those who die in battle 
or by torture,* he proceeds to say that " the lan- 
guage in this passage is peculiar, in that it clearly 
denotes the inmiortality of a class." If the writer had 
said what his argument requires, " the immortality of 
only 2i. class," he would have elicited from Tacitus the 
preposterous statement that only those who die in bat- 
tle or by torture live hereafter. That is to say, it does 
not follow, from the historian's mentioning the hopes 
held out to* those who die in battle or torture, that all 
other persons were to fail of immortality : he evidently 
means simply that special promises of future blessing 
were held out to them, — assurances of pre-eminent re- 
ward, privilege, or exemption ; while the question, how 
it would be with other parties, is .met only in his fuller 
statement afterwards, which covers the whole ground. 
Indeed, the phraseology of Tacitus was perhaps pur- 
posely chosen to indicate the notion of special privi- 
lege in the other world. He does not employ the word 
" immortal" {immortalis)y nor the term which denotes 
simply perpetual existence (sempitern/us^j but the pe- 
culiar word " eternal " (cetemus^^ which (though fre- 
quently synonymous with immortal) is used to desig- 
nate the mode of existence belonging to the gods, and 
had already, at that period of the Roman language, be- 
gun to be sometimes specially limited to what is divine.f , 

* His entire quotation is this: that among the Jews " infanticide is a 
crime, and the souls of those dying in battle or by torture are eternal : 
hence a love of oflfspring, and contempt of death." Why does he arrest the 
passage there V 

t See Freund*s or even Andrews's Latin Lexicon under the words at/tr- 



184 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

There is therefore good reason to believe that Tacitus, 
who is remarkably precise in his use of language, by 
this carefully chosen word intended to designate special, 
and perhaps even, divine prerogatives promised to the ^ 
hero. At the very least, he testifies to the open fact 
that the daring of the brave among the Jews was pre- 
eminently sustained by the hope of future blessings ; * 
while he testifies with equal distinctness that, besides 
such special expectations, the Jews held a general the- 
ory of the future world similar to that of the Egyptians. 
They believed in a future state of rewards and punish- 
ments. 

The Jew Philo was bom at Alexandria, in Egypt, a 
few years before Christ. His own views are admitted 
to be strongly tinged with Platonism. Still he has left 
numerous remarks which bear on the subject under 
discussion. His testimony is to the same eflFect : — 

" Perhaps some one will say he [Cain] should have 
been put to death at once. This is a human mode of 
reasoning, fit for one who does not consider the great 
tribunal of all : for men look upon death as the ex- 
treme limit of all punishments ; but, in view of the di- 

«itea, cBtemus, Thus Cicero: "Deus beatus et aetemus," Fin. 2, 27; and 
again (Nat. Deor. 1, 8), " Nihil quod ortum sit, aeternum esse potest." Of 
course he means in the strictest use of the term; for he himself extends its 
application. Freuud defines the word cBtemus to differ from tempitemm 
(" that which is perpetual, what exists as long as time endures, and keeps 
even pace with it **) by denoting ** that which is raised above all time, and 
, can be measured only by eons." Of (Btemitas he says, " In the time of the 
emperors a title of the emperor, like divlmty^ majesty j"*^ etc. Pliny writes to 
Trajan, " Rogatus, Domine, a Nicensibus per cBtemiiatem iuam salutemque 
ut," etc., Pliny Ep. 10, 87. The reader will remember that the emperors 
were already flattered with ascriptions of divine qualities. 

• This term is a near approach to the New-Testament phrase, " eternal 
life." 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHRIST, 185 

vine tribunal, it is scarcely the beginning of them." * 
"The constitution of man [say the Scriptures] was 
compounded of an earthly substance and a divine, 
spirit ; ... so that, if man is mortal as to his visible 
part, he is immortal as to the invisible. Wherefore we 
may truly say that man stands upon the border-line of 
a mortal and immortal nature, participant of each as 
was needful, and that he was made at the same time 
mortal and immortal ; mortal as to his body, immortal 
as to his mind."t " Death is twofold ; one of the man, 
the other of the soul. Death of the man is the sepa- 
ration of the soul from the body ; but death of the soul 
is the destruction of virtue and the assumption of vice. 
. . . The one, as it were, conflicts with the other ; for 
the former is a separation of things conjoined, of body 
and soul : the latter, a conjunction of both ; the inferior, 
the body, gaining the mastery over the superior, the 
soul. J " But, to me and my friends, death with the 
pious would be more acceptable than life with the impi- 
ous ; for those so dying immortal life receives, but those 
so living eternal death awaits." § The true proselyte 
" receives the most fitting gift of a secure place in 
heaven, such as one may not describe ; but the repro- 
bate of noble birth is dragged down to the lowest depths, 
being cast into tartarus and deep darkness." || " He 
that is driven forth by God suffers eternal (aibwv) ban- 
ishment ; for while one who is not yet firmly held by 
vice, may, upon repentance, return to virtue, the native 
land from which he roved, he who is seized and subju- 
gated by great and incurable disorder must to all eter- 

* Philo Judfflus, ii. 421. t lb. i. p. 82. 

I lb. i. p. 65. § lb. i. p. 233. || lb. p. 433. 



186 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

nity bear the dire penalties, immortally degraded to 
the place of the impious, that he may suffer unmixed 
and continual calamity." * These and many other 
utterances leave no doubt of the views which Philo 
represents, — the inunortality of all souls, and an end- 
less retribution of blessedness or suffering. 

Perfectly coincident with these statements, and there- 
fore fully corroborating them, are the brief allusions 
to the prevalent Jewish views found in the New Testa- 
ment itself. 

In Paul's defense of himself before Felix, he most 
distinctly declares the doctrine of a " resurrection of 
the dead, both of the just and unjust," to be held by 
him and his Jewish accusers in common : " And have 
hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that 
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the 
just and unjust" (Acts xxiv. 15). 

Other passages, though less explicit than this con- 
cerning the future separate destiny of the wicked, yet 
involve the general doctrine of a future existence, and 
abundantly confirm the fuller statements of this pas- 
sage and of Josephus. Thus, when the Sadducees came 
to try the Saviour with their puzzle concerning the 
resurrection, the question evidently assumes that the 
then common notion of a future life included the in- 
discriminate resurrection of all. The question takes 
for granted that the seven brethren and the one wife 
all alike participate, as matter of course, in the resur- 
rection (Luke XX. 27-88). 

So likewise in repeated instances in which the pecu- 
liar views of the Sadducees on this subject are spoken 

♦ lb. i. p. 139. 



JEWISH BELIEF IN THE TIME OF CHEIST. 187 

of in contrast to those of the Phaiisees, the difference 
is never given as a difiference only of degree, — the 
one as holding that a part only of the race will exist 
hereafter, and the other that none of them will con- 
tinue, — but as a difference of kind ; the one affirming, 
the other denying, a whole invisible world, a whole fu- 
ture existence. In the presence of the Sanhedrim 
(Acts xxiii. 6-8), " when Paul perceived that the one 
part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried 
out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, 
the son of a Pharisee : of the hope and resurrection 
of the dead [not merely the righteous dead] I am 
called in question. And when he had so said, there 
arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sad- 
ducees : and the multitude was divided. For the 
Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither 
angel nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both." 
Here Paul advances the imrestricted proposition of the 
resurrection of the dead ; and the explanatory remarks 
of the sacred writer also state the dissent of the Sad- 
ducees in the same sweeping form. In the same manner, 
though more briefly, the Sadducees are mentioned by 
each of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke 
(Matt. xxii. 23 ; Mark xii. 18 ; Luke xx. 27), as those 
" which deny that there is any resurrection." 

How completely does Martha's reply to the Saviour 
(John xi. 24) assume the undoubted fact of a future 
existence : " I know that he shall rise again in the 
resurrection at the last day." 

The undoubting hold which the doctrine of a con- 
tinuance after death, and of a resurrection, had on the 
whole mass of the Jewish people, is well exhibited in 



188 LIFB AND DEATH ETBRKAL. 

the opinions entertained by the multitude concerning 
our Saviour. When he asked his disciples, " Whom 
do men say that I am ? " they inform him of three or 
four dififerent opinions (Matt. xvi. 14 ; Mark viii. 28 ; 
Luke ix. 19) ; and every one of those opinions supposed 
him to be a deceased person re-appea/ring on earth. 
Even Herod Antipas, the murderer of John, when he 
heard the fame of Jesus, " said unto his servants, This 
is John the Baptist ; he is risen from the dead ; and 
therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in 
him " (Matt. xiv. 2) . It matters not for our present pur- 
pose that this future existence is mentioned in the form 
of the resurrection, the completed aspect of the future 
life. Enough that a belief in the continued existence 
of man, of all men, after death, appears clearly "to 
have been the general belief of the Jews at the time 
of Christ. And the testimony as clearly shows that 
there was to be a resurrection both of the just and of 
the unjust, — a future existence both of happiness and 
of misery. 

Other testimony might be added, as from the first 
and second books of Maccabees, and from the book of 
Enoch, the last of which is admitted by such men as 
Dr. Davidson, and Dillmann, the learned editor and 
translator of the book, to be singularly clear on the 
subject.* The Christian bishop Hippolytus, of the sec- 
ond century, reiterates all the assertions of Josephus 
so remarkably, though in different phraseology (Liber 
ix. 28-30), that he has been supposed either to follow 
Josephus, or the same authority from which he drew ; 
but to avoid collateral discussions, we content ourselves 
with the testimony we have cited, which is authentic, 

clear, and to the point. ^ee Appendix^ Note /. 



CHAPTER in. 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. — IMMORTALITY. — IMMEDI- 
ATE DESTINY. 

WE have seen the indications that the Jews from 
ancient times held the belief of a future state 
of retribution. We have also seen, that, in the time 
of our Saviour, the prevalent opinion of the nation 
recognized that state as one of happiness or of suffer- 
ing. We find no trace of cmy denial of fatwre suffer- 
ingj except on the part of those who denied all ftUure 
existence. 

. The Saviour and his apostles were therefore not 
called upon to propound the doctrine of suflTering here- 
after with the formalities of a new and before unheard- 
of announcement. There was no pressing occasion for 
them to insist with peculiar prominence on the fact or 
the duration of that two-fold retribution, but rather 
on its application. It was natural for them, when they 
spoke of the subject, to dwell chiefly on the characters 
to which those rewards and punishments should be as- 
signed. This is, in fact, the more common form in 
which these instructions are given ; although they do 
at the same time very clearly state that the duration 
of that doom is eternal, and that it consists in holy 
blessedness on the one hand, and sin and misery on 
the other. 

180 



190 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

It was not the mission of Christ and his apostles to 
expatiate upon any abstract or naked doctrine of 
immortality, — an immortality considered irrespective 
of all its moral relations and tremendous issues. In- 
asmuch as no such meaningless immortality exists un- 
der the government of God, as it would be of no 
account whatever to man, and as these messengers 
came on an errand most intensely practical, they, in 
accordance with the universal custom of God's Word, 
speak simply and always of the great moral and prac- 
tical aspects of that immortality. While, therefore, 
they abundantly assert the doctrine, — an immortality 
both for the good and for the evil, — it is always in the 
form of the actual^ concrete immortality which those 
two classes will positively experience, rather than in 
propositions of some abstract unreal immortality which 
no one ever will experience, and which, as being shorn 
of all moral relations, is of no account. On such 
propositions they waste no breath. 

Here, then, we readily dispose of an objection on 
which some have endeavored to place much stress. Mr. 
Hastings, with great industry, and with a liberal dis- 
play of italics and capital letters, large and small, sets 
forth the number of times that the word " soul " oc- 
curs in the Scriptures, and triumphantly inquires why 
we never find this particular word (for he ingeniously 
avoids alluding to other words descriptive of the soul's 
destiny) coupled with the epithet " immortal," and the 
like, in such phrases as " immortal soul," " never-dy- 
ing soul," " undying spirit." * Mr. Hudson employs a 
similar mode of argument : " But if the soul's immor- 

* Pauline Theology, pp. 70, 71. 



NB IF TESTAMENT TEACHINOS. 191 

tality were so marvelously clear a postulate of hum,an 
reason, it must be a most cherished sentiment, and 
must give rise to many common expressions, house- 
hold words of natural theology. In fact, whenever and 
wherever this doctrine has obtained, it has created va- 
rious modes of expression that reveal the sentiment. 
Why, then, are these expressions altogether avoided or 
ignored in the Bible ? Why should the Holy Spirit, 
so ready to catch the language of the mortals who 
were to be taught the way of life, have failed to con- 
form to their style of thought in this most important 
item of their own immortal nature ? Why, if God 
has told men that they must enjoy or suffer for ever, 
has he never urged his invitation or his warning in the 
name of the immortality he has given them ? Such a 
gift, surely, would be pre-eminently worthy of mention 
to those who think and say so much of their supposed 
possession of the boon." * 

The question is. Why does not the Bible deal in such 
phrases as " the immortality of the soul ? " — phrases of 
so frequent occurrence in human compositions. The 
answer is short and simple. It is not alone because 
the fact was admitted and might be assumed, but also 
because they were charged with messages of such tre- 
mendous import concerning the character and condi- 
tions of that endless existence, as quite threw into the 
background the abstract proposition of the soul's im- 
mortality. K they had been mere human teachers, 
very possibly they might have indulged in sentimental 
dissertations and romantic speculations on the great- 
ness and the immortality of the human soul. But 

* Debt and Grace, p. 166. 



192 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

they came as divine teachers, to teach men concerning 
their present and eternal relations to the government of 
God, to proclaim endless holiness and well-being, or 
everlasting sin and woe, as pending on faith and re- 
pentance here. To them the naked question of im- 
mortality, aside from these relations and issues, was of 
no account at all, — no more than the life of an oyster. 
They therefore addressed themselves to their divine 
mission, and told men always of the actual immortali- 
ty before them. They never tell men so little as the 
bald fact that they shall exist hereafter: they tell them 
a great deal more ; they tell them abundantly how they 
shall exist. The remark is true in regard to the right- 
eous as well as the wicked. Indeed, the objector is 
obliged to make this fatal admission in the statement of 
his objection : " Why, if God has told men that they 
must enjot/ or suflFer for ever, has he never urged his 
invitation or his warning in the name of the immortal- 
ity he has given them ? " And yet the righteous are 
admitted to be immortal by special provision, if not by 
native gift. 

Such is the Scripture mode of speech on this sub- 
ject. It does not discourse of the immortal being or 
existence of either class of persons, nor say that they 
shall never cease to be; but it speaks of the everlast- 
ing life of the one class, the eternal weight of glory ; 
their glory, honor, incorruptibility (dipd-agoiav') ; their 
incorruptible crown; their inheritance incorruptible, un- 
defiled, and that fadeth not away ; their shining as the 
stars for ever ; their state in which they shall hunger no 
more, neither thirst any more, where there shall be no 
more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor any more 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 198 

pain. Precisely so, on the other hand, if there is no 
metaphysical statement concerning the " never-dying 
spirit," or the " eternal existence j^^ of the wicked, there 
are the most positive and awful assertions of their ev- 
erlasting punishment^ their never-dyijig worm and un- 
quenchable fire, their never receiving forgiveness in 
this world or the world to come, their eternal damna- 
tion, the smoke of their torment that ascendeth up for 
ever and ever, their shame and everlasting contempt, 
their departure into everlasting fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels, everlasting destruction from the 
presence of the Lord, their being destined to the black- 
ness of darkness for ever, and receiving from God in- 
dignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, at the 
day of judgment. It is therefore little more than a 
quibble to argue that the phrases " immortal," " never- 
dying," and the like, are not applied to the soul itself, 
when they are abundantly applied to its destiny and 
condition. " It matters not that the Bible does not 
know the phrase ' immortal soul,' when it so mani- 
festly knows the thinff,^^ And, indeed, so perfectly in 
keeping with the whole practical method of God's Word 
is its entire abstinence from all utterance concerning 
the mere " immortality of the soul," that, had it been 
otherwise, very likely the present objectors might have 
been first to question the genuineness of the passages, 
and to insinuate that they were " evidently of foreign 
origin, of a philosophic cast, and, so to speak, un-Jew- 
ish," at least unscriptural. 

The Scriptures, then, describe the actual fate and 
condition of both the righteous and the wicked, as they 
continue in conscious joy or woe for evermore. 

13 



194 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

The Scriptures affirm the conscious existence of both 
classes of men during the period after death and prior 
to the resurrection of the body. 

It is a somewhat logical portion of the common doc- 
trine of annihilation to deny the active and conscious 
existence of the (fead prior to the resurrection. Many, 
if not most, of its advocates hold to an actual extinction 
of being, from which men are resuscitated only at the 
resurrection. The tendencies of a system which re- 
volts from the idea of endless sufferings inflicted on 
the impenitent, naturally recoil also from admitting 
the continuance of those sufferings for an unknown 
time, protracted certainly in some cases many thou- 
sand years ; while consistency requires, that, in deny- 
ing the conscious activity of the wicked, that of the 
righteous should be also denied or questioned. The 
exclusive stress which the scheme lays upon the resur- 
rection indicates the same felt necessity. 

It is freely conceded and maintained by us that the 
Scriptures contemplate the entire consummation of 
human destiny as taking place when soul and body 
are re-united in a future world. The body, which 
shared the soul's probation, must also share its retribu- 
tion. Towards that state of re-union most of the ut- 
terances of God's Word on this subject are directed, just 
as most of its declarations concerning Christ's king- 
dom view that kingdom, not in its progress and inter- 
mediate state, but in its thorough consummation. It 
lays a very marked stress on the resurrection and its 
sequel. Intent on the final issue, the retribution of 
the complete man, it says comparatively little upon 
the intermediate state of the soul previous to. the res- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 195 

urrection of the body. Still, the Scriptures do speak, 
in our judgment, distinctly and emphatically upon the 
immediate doom of both classes of men on passing 
from this life. Such has been the clear and general 
understanding of the Christian Church. Out of the 
immense throng of Christian writers, however, it is 
easy to cite occasional instances of men who, pressed, 
as they supposed, by the prominence of the resurrec- 
tion, and the imagined incompatibility of the public 
doom then to be pronounced with a previous retribu- 
tion, have endeavored to explain away these teach- 
ings. Still the declarations of the Scriptures on this 
point are perfectly level to the common apprehension. 

A considerable portion of the teachings already ad- 
duced from the Old Testament have a bearing on this 
subject. To those remarks the reader is referred. We 
proceed to show that the New Testament teaches the 
conscious activity and retribution of the soul on pass- 
ing from the body. 

^ First, in regard to the righteous. Here we find 
clear though brief declarations that cover every aspect 
of the subject, and show that to the believer the alter- 
native condition is either to be in the body below or 
with the Lord above. 

• 1. It is taught that the soul without the body might 
enjoy celestial glories and communications. In 2 Cor.> 
xii. 1-4, Paul says, " I will come to visions and reve- 
ations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 
fourteen years ago (whether in the body I can not tell, 
or whether out of the body I can not tell : God know- 
eth), such a one caught up to the third heaven. And 
I knew such a man (whether in the body or out of the 



196 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

body, I can not tell : God knoweth), how that he was 
caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, 
which it is not lawful for a man to utter." Here the apos- 
tle, while informing his readers that he was " caught up 
to the third heaven," " caught up into paradise," also 
twice solemnly reiterates the declaration, that, "whether 
in the body or out of the body," he can not tell. In his 
view, then, it was possible for such experiences of 
heaven to take place " out of the body ; " and the very 
fact that he raises the suggestion, and repeats it so ear- 
nestly, shows that he judged it to be " out of the body." 
Alford remarks thus : "If in the body,' the idea would 
be that he was taken up bodily ; if ' out of the body,' 
to which the alternative manifestly inclines ^ that his 
spirit was rapt from the body, and taken up disem- 
bodied ; " but, whichever might be his decision between 
the two modes, he clearly affirms the possibility of a 
man's being taken to the third heaven, to paradise, and 
hearing unspeakable words there, while out of the 
body. # 

2. It is also taught in the New Testament that not 
only the soul of the Christian might, but that it would^ 
enter and enjoy the presence of Christ at death ; and 
that the continuance of its life here in the body actu- 
ally delays its enjoyment of Christ's immediate pres- 
ence in glory. "For to me to live is Christ, and to die 
is gain; but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my. 
labor : yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am 
in a strait betwixt two [literally " the two "], having a 
desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far bet- 
ter : nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful 
for you" (Phil. i. 21-24). 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINOS, 197 

In the previous context (verses 19, 20), the apostle 
declares that even the hostile preaching of his oppo- 
nents "shall turn to my salvation;" "according to my 
earnest expectation, and my hope, that in nothing I 
shall be ashamed [or brought to shame], but that with 
all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be 
magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by 
death." He knew so well that God would cause even 
the malice of foes to redound to his salvation, that he 
hoped to be perfectly undaunted in devoting his body, 
with all its powers, to the honor of Christ, whether it 
were to be " by a life " of labor, or " by a death " of 
martyrdom. " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is 
gain ; " i.e., while 1 live, I live in Christ, and when I 
die, I go to live with him, as the thought is more fully 
evolved in the subsequent verses : " What I shall choose 
I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt the two, hav- 
ing a desire to depart and be with Christ [the one al- 
ternative], which is far better: nevertheless, to abide 
in the flesh [the other alternative] is more needful for 
you. Aiid having this confidence, I know that I shall 
abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and 
joy of faith." The passage clearly affirms, not only that 
his death would be to him a gain, and the better alter- 
native, but that his continuing to live and labor for the 
Philippians was a detention from the immediate presence 
of Christ ; the attractions of that presence being so 
strong as to put him in a great strait whether he should 
desire to live and labor, or to die and go home to his 
reward. 

The only objection that deserves attention is this : 
That, though the period from death to the resurrection 



198 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

should be one of total insensibility, the apostle might 
properly speak of passing directly from death to heaven, 
because, " in respect of his own perceptions, the moment 
of his breathing his last in this world would be in- 
stantly succeeded by that of his waking in the presence 
of his Lord." * But this explanation wholly fails to 
meet the point. The apostle was perplexed between 
his earnest longing to be with Christ and his desire to 
stay longer here and do good to the churches. ' But, 
if death were succeeded by a long unconsciousness, a 
speedy death would bring him no sooner to Christ, and 
could hold out no inducement such as to place him in 
a strait. It was no alternative betwixt two. Let him 
have both privileges. They did not interfere in the 
slightest degree. Let him live Christ a hundred or 
eighteen hundred years, and then depart ; he will be 
just as near the joys of Christ's presence then, and no 
nearer. The alternative that Paul makes between 
these two strong desires is entirely fatal to the attempted 
evasion.! 

To the same eflFect is the passage in 2 Cor. v. 1-9 : 
" For we know that if our earthly house of this taberna- 
cle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. . . . 
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst 



♦ Whately's Future State, p. 87. 

t Ellis and Bead make a characteristic and noticeable comment: " He 
was perplexed between the two, whether to choose life or to choose death; 
they were both equally indifferent to him " (p. 139). He must have been 
thus in the state of a worn-out man of the world, who has nothing to hope 
•^er in life or in death, — a sort of ancient Chesterfield. 

Mr. Hudson's attempts on the passnge hardly deserve attention, but may 
be found in a note in the A:),>etidix. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 199 

we are at home in the body, we are absent from the 
Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight) : we are 
confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from 
the body, and to be present with the Lord." Here are 
the same alternatives presented in double mode : To 
be at home in the body is to be absent from the Lord ; 
and to be absent from the body is to be present with 
the Lord ; and the latter was the thing which the apos- 
tle was " willing " to do. It is difficult to see how any 
honest interpretation can escape the meaning. Life in 
the flesh detains the Christian from Christ's immediate 
presence ; and death introduces him there. 

3. It is affirmed that the believer upon the death of 
the body actually does eater heavenly blessedness at 
once. The penitent thief on the cross " said unto Je- 
sus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy 
kingdom. And Jesus said unto him. Verily, I say unto 
thee. To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise " (Luke 
xxiii. 42, 43.) 

The meaning of this declaration, which has been the 
common apprehension of the Church, lies plainly on 
the face of it. To the prayer for a gracious remem- 
brance at the future unknown coming of Christ in 
glory, "when thou comest in (iv) thy kingdom," — 
whenever that may be, — Christ replies with the prom- 
ise of immediate blessedness, — '^to-day with me in 
paradise." And this interpretation will sustain the 
most rigid examination, and repel all attempted eva- 
sions. 

" Paradise " is mentioned in but two other passages 
of the New Testament. In 2 Cor. xii. 2, Paul first 
speaks of having been " caught up to the third heaven," 



200 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

and, in verse 4, repeats the statement thus: "He 
was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable 
words," where it is a place of blessed consciousness 
and communion with God. In Rev. ii. 7 occurs the 
promise unto the fiiithful : " To him that overcometh 
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst 
of the paradise of God," — where paradise includes the 
joys which are elsewhere (Rev. xxii. 2, 14) described 
as the full fruition of God's immediate presence.* It 
was to be " with Christ.'' This confirms and fixes the 
general meaning of paradise. " To be with Christ," 
it will be remembered, was the end of Paul's own 
highest longing (Phil. i. 23). This was to take place, 
not at some dista,nt vague futjire, but " to-day." That 
day, then, the dying penitent was to meet the dying 
Saviour beyond this world in conscious blessedness in 
the immediate presence of God. 

That this passage declares precisely what it appears 
to signify — the presence of the crucified malefactor 
with Christ in paradise on thai very day — is the united 
voice of modem critics and commentators. No mod- 
ern commentator or editor of respectable scholarship is 

* Such being the actual and indisputable New-Testament usage, the his- 
tory of the word is of no special account. It is supposed to be foreign to the 
Hebrew or Greek ; an Eastern Asiatic word employed to describe the parks and 
pleasure-grounds of oriental monarchs (Neh. ii. 8; Eccles. ii. 5), used also 
in the Septuagint of the Garden of Eden (Gen. ii. 8, 9, 10, 15, 16; iii. 1, 2, 8, 
10, 23;. Hence, like Zion and other words, it became elevated, and desig- 
nated the blissful region filled with the presence of the Monarch of heaven. 
No questioning whether this was (in the present case) in or out of hades can 
evade that plain fact of the New Testament It includes the region to 
which Paul was taken when caught up, while living, to the third heaven ; 
it comprehends the region of future joy to all the redeemed of the Apoca- 
lypse at last; it comprises the place where Christ went when he prayed, 
" Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 201 

known to defend a diflFerent view ; and most commen- 
tators in strong terms denounce the futility of all at- 
tempts to tamper with the passage, or its plain mean- 
ing. So Bengel, Olshausen, Kuinoel, De Wette, Meyer. 
Alford, and numerous others of less commanding emi 
nence. So such editors as Ejiapp, Hahn, Lachmann, 
Tischendorf.* 

There have, however, been attempts to tamper with 
the passage, from the days of Marcion the heretic, who 
adopted the summary method of rejecting the whole 
verse. This method was much the easiest, as appears 
from the variety and awkwardness of the subterfuges 
employed by others. It was only open to one objeo- 
tion, that the verse is found in all manuscripts. 

Ellis and Read f prepare the way for their exposi- 
tion, by certain objections to the conunon interpretation. 
Among theni the most noticeable are these : 1. That 



* Ellis and Read (p. 161) make this deceptive statement: ''In the 
margin, Griesbach puts the stop after ' to-day.' " The fact is that he did it 
in the margin becanse (bold as he was) he did not dare to do it in the text 
He was a yentnresome man, who never hesitated to introduce changes in the 
text when he saw what he deemed a good reason. Accordingly, he often xm- 
hesitatingly inserted words and phrases in the body of the text, and struck 
oat others ; he also indicated words that ought, in his opinion, probably, 
though not certainly, to be inserted or onu'tted; he specified what readings 
seemed to him of equal authority with those in the text, or perhaps prefer- 
able, those which seemed to himr requiring tcf be added, though not with- 
out some doubt, and those which deserved ftirther consideration. For 
these various methods of dealing with the text, he had twelve different signs 
to signify the state of the case. But there were certain other emendations 
which he somethnes chose to indicate in the margin, but to which he did 
not venture to commit his scholarship or his judgment by expressing any 
opinion whatever. The present case is of this last description. Griesbach 
does not venture to change the punctuation of the text, or even openly to 
question it. He throws an irresponsible suggestion into the margin. 

1 rages 169-161. 



202 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

paradise is " a location on the nevr earth ; and how could 
either Christ or the thief be in paradise that day, when 
paradise does not yet actually exist ? " To which a 
sufficient answer is found in Paul's statement in 2 Cor. 
xii. 4, that he himself had been already caught up into 
paradise. 2. " How could Christ be in paradise that 
very day he was crucified, when, on the third day after, 
he said to Mary, ' Touch me not, for I have not yet as- 
cended to my Father ' ? " Answer : Christ himself 
makes it perfectly plain, when, in his dying prayer, he 
said, '^ Father, into thy hands I conmaend my spiriV^ 
His spirit was with God at death ; his re-animated 
body did not ascend till forty days after its resurrec- 
tion and re-union with his spirit on earth. 3. The soul 
of Christ, when he died, was " in a state of death ; " 
then " how could any part of him, whether soul, body, 
or spirit, as a living thing, be with the living thief in 
paradise on that day, while both were dead?" — an 
inquiry that may have some force with those who be- 
lieve that the whole spiritual being of the God-man 
was extinct, annihilated, during the interval between 
the dissolution and resurrection of his body. 4. The 
thief, it is said, did not die till the next day or the day 
after, therefore, " how could the thief, while hanging 
alive on the cross, and Christ, who was dead during the 
tliree remaining hours of that day, be in any other 
place than on the cross ? " The assumption made 
simply on the ground of the alleged practice of not 
breaking the legs of the crucified till after the lighting 
of Sabbath candles, and this taking place not till '^ an 
hour and a quarter, or, according to some, till twenty- 
five hours, after the expiration of that day," would be 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS, 203 

characteristically bold in any case when adduced to 
settle a question of fact, but becomes idle in face of the 
direction (Deut. xxi. 22, 23) to take down the cruci- 
fied on the same day, the declaration of Josephus 
(War, iv. 5, 2), that, in his day, it was the custom to 
take down and bury the crucified before sunset, and 
the special assertion of John (xix. 32) that the legs 
of the thieves were broken to insure their being taken 
away before the coming-on of the [Jewish] Sabbath, 
i.e. before night of the day of crucifixion. 

The first evasion (proposed and apparently preferred 
by the same writer) is this : " The thief prayed. Lord, 
remember me in the day of thy coming.* And Jesus 
said unto him. Verily, I say unto you, this day (the 
day of my coming) shalt thou be with me in my king- 
dom." And on the next page he explains, that, by 
" this day, the day of my coming," is meant the day 
of ''Christ's second coming," " to be remembered when 
Christ came, not when he went away," — a period in 
the then distant future. In other words (if we rightly 
understand an exposition sufl&ciently vague in the ex- 
pression and connection), the real meaning is, " in theU 
day thou shalt be with me in paradise." On this at- 
tempt only two remarks are called for. 1. The first 
step is the arbitrary change of the previous verse, des- 
titute of all valid foundation.! 2. The second step is 
a still more violent change of meaning in the word " to- 

* The reader will observe the change of the text, " when thou comest 
in thy kingdom," to " in the day of thy coming^ 

t Among all the Greek manuscripts, the reading, " in the day of thy com- 
ing," is not known to have been found in more than one (Codex D), and 
that one remarkable for the capricious alterations which cause it to rank 
lowest of the five older manuscripts. 



204 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL^ 

day " to make it really mean " that day," a distant fu- 
ture day ; a signification of which the Greek word 
(cfnuQov) no more admits than does the plain English 
word " to-day." 

A second evasion (also suggested by the same writer), 
and perhaps the most common, is to connect thus : 
" Verily I say unto thee to-day, thou shalt be with me 
in paradise ; " that is, I say it to-day. 

The first and obvious suggestion is the absurdity of 
putting in his mouth the idle statement that he says a 
thing " to-day," when every thing that is said, is and 
must be uttered on the speaker's " to-day." To avoid 
this absurdity, Mr. Hudson endeavors to find a special 
emphasis for the word, thus : " I say unto thee, even 
this day, when all seems so unlikely, thou shalt be with 
me in paradise when I enter my kingdom." To this 
we reply, — 

1. The mode of conception, " when all seems so un- 
likely," is entirely alien from our Lord's method of 
view and speech. When did he deem it needful, even 
in declaring his most stupendous future doings, to lower 
the Godlike certainty of his assurances by any such 
deprecatory remark as " strange as it may appear to 
you," or, " though it may seem so unlikely " ? The 
Saviour had made much more astounding predictions 
than the simple promise that a penitent and forgiven 
sinner should join him in heaven, and deemed it need- 
less to allude to the seeming difl&culty of the case. It 
may be the method of a common man, struggling hope- 
fiilly under difiiculties, to say that, incredible as it may 
now appear, he shall still be able to redeem his prom- 
ises. It was not the manner of the Saviour. 2. There 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 205 

was no call for such an allusion. The penitent thief had 
no occasion for it. He expressed himself with the full- 
est confidence in Christ. He did not say, " Help me if 
thou ever hast the power;" but, " Lord, remember me 
when thou comest in thy kingdom." To have replied 
to him, " Improbable as it may seem, I will," would 
have been simply to suggest a doubt to a dying man 
who had no doubt before. It would have been as un- 
suitable to the state of mind in the one party, as it 
would have been out of character in the other. 3. This 
interpretation destroys the chief point and force of 
Christ's words, as a gracious reply. The petition was, 
" Remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom," 
the distant and unknown future. The answer assures 
him, not alone of a distant future remembrance, but of 
an immediate blessing, " To-day shalt thou be with me 
in paradise," as a sure pledge of all that he asks for 
the future. Our Lord grants even more than he asks, — 
he shall enter to-day with Christ on a state which is it- 
self the pledge and the intermediate introdtcction of the 
whole grand consummation which was asked. The 
other explanation, so far as this word is concerned, 
wholly misses this point or any particular point. All 
reference to the actual request disappears, and that, 
too, notwithstanding the elaborate solemnity of a double 
assurance. 4. But a decisive objection is found in the 
collocation of the Greek. The representation is some- 
times made, that, so far as the language is concerned, 
this is a simple question of punctuation ; whether a 
comma shall be put before or after " to-day " (c^iabqop). 
This is a mistake. It is a question of Greek colloca- 
tion under emphasis. The Greek language does not in- 



206 HFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

» 

volve the ambiguity which exists in the English in this 
respect. It is admitted on both sides that the ci^fUQov 
(to-day) is strongly emphatic. Indeed, this is the only 
justification which Mr. Hudson can find for his inter- 
pretation. Very well, then. As a strongly emphatic 
word, according to the usages of the Greek language, 
its position conclusively determines that it does not 
quiJify the words, " I say," but the words, " thou shalt 
be with me ; " the strongly emphatic word in any 
clause preceding the less emphatic. In the Greek, it 
occupies precisely the position to be the most emphatic 
word of the last clause ; but if transferred to tlie first 
clause, to be the least emphatic of the whole. And, as 
both sides admit its highly emphatic character, the case 
is settled.* 

On this attempt to join " to-day " with " I say unto 
thee," Alford strongly remarks, " Considering that it 
not only violates common sense, but destroys the force 
of our Lord's promise, it is surely something worse 
than silly." 

But Mr. Hudson has, as usual, a second resort: 
" Or the term * paradise ' may denote the state of the 
saints in the under-world." This virtually concedes 
the point we argue. That " state " was to be at- 
tained " to-day." Either, then, it was to be a state of 
conscious well-being, or the promise of the Saviour 
entirely evaded the petition, and was itself both mean- 

* The Greek now reads, 'A/i^ Xeyw aoi oi^fiepov fief tfuov kay ev r^ 
napadeio(f). Whereas, if the meaning were as Mr. Hudson and others 
claim^it should read, 'Afo^v aiffiepov ooi Xeya, fief ifiov h tcjj napadeiacf). 
The only exception to the principle is when sometimes an emphatic 
word is reserved to the end of a clause, for the sake of some appended 
explanation or evolution, which is here not the case. 



w 



NE IF TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 207 

ingless and delusive. For, 1. To promise a man that 
he shall be to-day in a state either of entire extinction 
or of blank and indefinitely prolonged unconsciousness, 
was a singular boon to declare with such solemnity. 
2. To describe an unconscious state as being " in par- 
adise," a place which, even in its lowest physical mean- 
ing, was a garden of delight, and as " being with 
Christ," a phrase continually used to describe the high- 
est blessedness of the saints in heaven (John xiv. 8 ; 
xvii. 24 ; 2 Cor. v. 8 ; 1 Thess. iv. 17 ; Phil. i. 23), 
would be preposterous. 3. To say, in answer to a pe- 
tition to be remembered in glory, " I most solemnly 
declare unto thee I will this very day (or, on this day 
when it seems all so unlikely, I will) introduce thee 
into a state of extinction, impaired mental activity, or 
entire insensibility to last for some thousand years," — 
this would indeed be asking for bread, and receiving in 
the gravest form of mockery a stone. If paradise does 
denote even the state of the saints in the under-world, 
it is still paradise^ and paradise with Christ. 

Accordingly, such a writer as Archbishop Whately, 
disdains all these subterfuges, though inclining to ad- 
vocate an intermediate state of unconsciousness, and 
plants himself chiefly on the position that " this case 
is a very peculiar case, and therefore can hardly be 
regarded as decisive as to what shall be the lot of other 
men." He argues that this man's faith was peculiar 
and pre-eminent, as was also the time of his deaths 
occurring at the time of Christ's death, and attended 
with many miraculous circumstances. But that there 
was any thing in either of these facts to warrant the 
slightest belief, that, for these reasons, God in his single 



208 LIFS AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

instance broke through the grand economy of his deal- 
ings with the pious dead, the archbishop does not and 
can not show. And the man who asserts this treat- 
ment to be different from that of other eminent saints 
is bound to prove his point. 

Enough for the present that the penitent thief was 
that day received to blessedness. Let his case take its 
place with other evidences. 

Almost equally decisive is the case of Stephen (Acts 
vii. 56-60). As the mob were about to rush upon him, 
" he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly 
into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus 
standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, 
I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing 
on the right hand of God." The mob immediately 
hurried him to the fatal spot, and there " they stoned 
Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, re- 
ceive my spirit." Now, who can doubt what was the 
expectation of this man, "full of the Holy Ghost," who 
had just been looking straight into heaven, and seeing 
"Jesus standing on the right hand of God," when, im- 
mediately after, he addresses that same Jesus with his 
dying breath, and as his body falls, prays, " Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit " ? Can there be a reasonable doubt 
that he expected his spirit at once to join at God's right 
hand that Saviour on whom he had just been gazing, 
towards whom his spirit was even then yearning with 
ineffable love, and to whom he was speaking as one 
already in liis presence ? 

The reader will not fail to observe that the language 
of Stephen is substantially the same with that addressed 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 209 

by the Saviour himself to the Father at the very mo- 
ment when his divine spirit passed from its crucified 
body, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit " 
(Luke xxiii. 46). Stephen evidently expected to ex- 
perience the same immediate condition which Christ 
expected. Whoever is prepared to believe that he who 
claimed to have shared the glories of the Father before 
he " became flesh," expected, when he laid down that 
flesh, to be for a time either extinct or unconscious, 
upon the utterance of these words, can also believe 
tliat such was the expectation of Stephen.* 

4. The Scripture furthermore teaches that spirits of 
believers long since departed are living, and with God. 
" The spirits of just men made perfect" are enumer- 
ated in this sense unmistakably in Heb. xii. 23 : " But 

* In connection with this passage (Acts vii. 69), a singular piece of effron- 
tery deserves mention, as showing the nourishment on which a large portion 
of the believers in annihilation are fed. It occurs in Ellis and Bead*s Bible 
V8. Tradition, sixth edition. The writer begins by saying, " The grammar 
of the text charges the saying, * Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,* upon the 
wicked Jews, and afterwards records what Stephen did and said.'* The 
reader who will examine the Greek text will see at a glance the astounding 
impudence of the statement; for the Greek can by no possibility be so 
translated or interpreted. 

But the writer proceeds : " We waive this, being willing to allow that 
the translators were fallible, and attribute both sayings to Stephen. Dexai 
\6e^aL\ means the right, AanJ being xmderstood; metaphorically it meaas 
assistance, aid, strength, courage, and is equal to the expression, * Lord Je- 
sus, strengthen my spirit,' or * nerve me up to endurance.' " Here this writer 
apparently confounds even the spelling of the Greek words ((Je^to and 6e^ai\ 
and mistakes the adjective " right " for the verb " receive " in the imperative 
mode. The error is made additionally ludicrous by his attempt to translate 
a sentence, which, according to his text, would admit no translation or mean- 
ing. It is needless to add that the verb means " receive ; " and that no in- 
stance can probably be found in the Greek language where it even ap« 
proaches the meaning "strengthen." Ellis and Bead's book is understood 
to be a favorite treatise with a certain class of annihilationists. 
U 



210 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innume- 
rtible company of angels, to the general assembly and 
dhurch of the first-born which are written in heaven. 
And to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just 
men niade perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the 
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which 
speaketh better things than that of Abel." 

The apostle is here enumerating the inviting and at- 
tractive features of the Christian's present connections 
in contrast to the terrors of the dispensation of law. 
They are associated with the heavenly Jerusalem and 
all the holy^ viz. (to follow in the main the excellent 
exposition of Alford), the great host of angels, the 
church (on earth) of the first-born (i.e. heirs, see i. 14) 
who are destined to life, and have their names regis- 
tered in the book of life above (see Luke x. 20), and 
with God himself the judge (and deliverer) of all his 
people, and with the perfected spirits of the righteous 
already ransomed and gathered round him, and with 
Jesus the great Mediator and atoning Saviour. 

For the details of the exposition, we must refer the 
reader to the commentators (particularly Alford, who 
is. very clear on this passage). Still the intelligent 
reader will see, in the first place, that the language it- 
self — " the spirits of just men made perfect " or con- 
summated, advanced to glory — requires this as the ob- 
vious meaning. The apostle speaks of the just, not in 
their complex nature, but of their spirits : just as in 1 
Cor. ii. 11, where " the spirit of man which is in him" 
is specially designated and distinguished from the whole 
man ; and in Luke viii. 55, where it is said of the dead 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 211 

maiden restored to life by Christ, that " her spirit came 
again." In 1 Pet. iii. 19 also, by general admission, " the 
spirits in prison" are the disembodied spirits in confine- 
ment. The same word (7tv&f[ia) is a common word to 
designate those spirits that the Saviour cast out so 
often, — spirits that had no body of their own. 

The word, then, is carefully chosen. But here we 
have the spirits of the just ; and not only so, they are 
the just " made perfect " (rcr6A«M»^aw). This is the 
word used by the same writer, ch. ii. 10 (comp. v. 
9), to describe the advancement of Christ to glory, — 
" make the Captain of their salvation perfect through 
sufferings," — and, as if to indicate clearly that it so sig- 
nifies in the present instance, the very next words in- 
troduce that glorified ^' Mediator of the new covenant." 
Were we to translate the word "made sinless," — which 
is contrary to usage, and to the fact that the apostle 
speaks not of the spirits, but of the just^ as having at- 
tained this condition, — we still have a state of things 
belonging only to the other world.* Moreover, the 
completeness of enumeration clearly requires tlie in- 
terpretation here maintained. We have God and Christ, 
and the angels and the church of those who are written 
in the book of life, and, besides them, the spirits of the 
just men made perfect. Now, in what way can we un- 



* The word TeT^toa has for its broad and radical meaning to cozisam* 
mate, or make complete. In the passive voice (as here), to be consummated 
or completed, as, 1. a prophecy in its fulfillment (once only, John xix. 28). 2. 
a principle or power when it is fully developed or exhibited; e.g., strength, 
love (2 Cor. xii. 9; 1 John ii. 5, iv. 17; Jas. ii. 23). 8. persons, when folly 
attaining (1) to a goal in view, perhaps Luke ziii. 82; (2) to a character re- 
quired (Phil. iii. 12); (8) to a condition in pnwpect (John xvii. 28) — pa;)r- 
ticularly the condition of future glory (Hob. v. 9; vii. 28). 



212 MFB AND DEATH ETBBNAL, 

derstand this latter clause, except in the obvious and 
simple way ? Accordingly, though there are some minor 
diversities of conuection and interpretation, as, for ex- 
ample, on the question whether these spirits are those 
of the Old or the New Testament saints, or of both alike, 
nearly all respectable interpreters, from the Greek fa- 
thers to the present time, with one accord, agree that 
they are the disembodied souls of the righteous in 
heaven. Thus Calvin : " Holy souls, which, having put 
oflF the body, have left behind all the filth of the flesh," 
and now " live with God." Bengel : " Separated souls," 
who, " after their own death, are receiving the fruit of 
the consummation achieved by Christ's death and the 
righteousness thence arising." So Alford, De Wette, 
Ebrard, Huther, and a large number of the most emi- 
nent expositors quoted by them, and diflfering among 
themselves only on the point previously indicated, — 
whether these are the spirits of the Old-Testament or 
the New-Testament saints, or, as Alford and others 
understand, both together. 

Similar is the teaching of Heb. vi. 12, " That ye be 
not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith 
and patience, inherit the promises. For when God 
made promise to Abraham," etc. Two questions arise : 
First, Who are the persons referred to as inheriting ? 
Second, What is meant by " inherit the promises " ? * 
That the persons chiefly in view must be those believ- 
ers who have passed from this life would appear, be- 
cause (1) we can be exhortedrto be followers [imita- 
tors] properly only of those who precede us ; (2) none 
but those who have actually completed the life of fi- 
delity, and gone to their reward, can be properly held 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINQS. 21S 

up for the encouragement of Christians still struggling; 
(3) the " faith and patience " seem to be mentioned 
as accomplished facts ; (4) the inheritance of the prom- 
ises constitutes a diflFerence between them and the 
still living Christians whom he addresses ; (5) and the 
writer immediately proceeds to specify Abraham as an 
example in his mind. What is it to " inherit the prom- 
ises " ? " The promise," in the New Testament, very 
often means the thing promised, the fulfillment of the 
promise. Such, according to almost all interpreters, says 
De Wette, is the meaning here (see Gal. iii. 22 ; Acts i. 
4 ; Luke xxiv. 49, etc.). To " inherit," in the New 
Testament commonly means to possess (by the firmest 
title). These persons of whom we are to be follow- 
ers, including Abraham, are described as now inherit- 
ing the promises. The translation accurately expresses 
it, " who inherit the promises." The original Greek 
does not speak of men who inherited, or were to in- 
herit, or who shall inherit, but (with the present tense 
of the participle denoting primarily, present, continu- 
ous action) " who inherit the promises " (rc3r xhjQovofjuMf' 
toav). 

Thus the most obvious meaning of the passage is an 
exhortation to imitate the faith and patience of Abra- 
ham and believers like him, enforced by the thought 
that they are now reaping the promised rewards of 
that faith and patience. The only plausible objection 
is, that, in Heb. xi. 89, it is said, " And these all, hav- 
ing obtained a good report through faith, received not 
the promise," etc. The objection is only specious. 
This last passage simply asserts, that, during their life 
here below, they did not receive the fulfillment of the 



214 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

promise, that is, of Christ. The promise of his coming 
and redemptive work was not fulfilled, as the next verse 
explains, till the times of the apostle, " God having 
provided some better thing for us." 

Another passage, apparently announcing the imme- 
diate blessedness of the dying saint, is found in Rev. 
xiv. 13, " Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow 
them" (literally follow with them). Some diversity 
of interpretation exists as to the connection in the first 
clause, — whether it means blessed from henceforth, or 
blessed those who die from henceforth. De Wette, in- 
different to all theological aspects of the case, and 
viewing it merely as an acute scholar, understands it, 
"Blessed from now onward," and adds, "it would 
promise them immediate blessedness." The reason im- 
mediately rendered in the following clause certainly 
seems decisive, and at least asserts the fact by its own 
force: "Yea, that they may rest from their labors 
{jiOTtcov wearisome, painful toils] ; and their works do 
follow with them." Such was the blessedness of dying 
in Christ, — to rest from vexatious toils, and to have 
their works (i.e., by a common metonymy, the fruit or 
reward of their works) accompanying them when they 
die. This is not the description of a state of extinc- 
tion or unconsciousness, but of active enjoyment. His 
works do not " follow with " a man lost to all con- 
sciousness. 

To these passages some would add very positively 
Rev. vi. 9-11, though others object : "And, when he 
had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 215 

Bouls of them that were slain for the word of God, and 
for the testimony which they held : and they cried with 
a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord holy and true, 
dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that 
dwell on the earth ? And white robes were given unto 
every one of them ; and it was said unto them that 
they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow- 
servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed 
as they were, should be fulfilled." We certainly should 
be cautious in drawing doctrinal statements from a pas- 
sage so highly figurative. We may freely admit that 
the location " under the altar " is symbolical, and 
that the prayer and the reply is dramatical. Still it 
remains that the souls, or disembodied spirits, of the 
holy martyrs are here distinctly recognized ; that they 
are spoken of as having earnest desires for the consum- 
mation of their blessedness and of God's absolute reign; 
this, too, while their murderers still " dwell upon the 
earth ; " as being meanwhile clad in " white robes " of 
purity and joy (see chap. iii. 4 ; vii. 13), •nd bid to 
rest (i.e., as some say, to restrain their petitions, or, 
as others, rest in blessedness — see xiv. 13) till their 
brethren are gathered with them. The " white robes " 
given to them of course are not literal garments ; but 
they represent a fact : in the words of Alford, " the white 
robe, in this book, is the vestment of acknowledged and 
glorified righteousness in which the saints walk and 
reign with Christ," and indicates that individually they 
are blessed in glory with Christ, and waiting for their 
fellows to be fully complete." 

The Scriptures, secondly, aflBrm the conscious exist- 



21C LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

ence of the wicked after death and previous to the 
judgment. The case may be considered as settled by 
that of the righteous, unless it can be positively shown 
from the Scriptures to the contrary. So far from this, 
however, the Scriptures, as we shall see directly, recog- 
nize the continued consciousness of the wicked after 
death and before the resurrection. 

Judging by the fate of the fallen angels also, we 
should expect the continued existence of Ipst men un- 
til the judgment. For we are told (Jude 6) that " the 
angels which kept not their first estate, but left their 
own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day;" 
and again (2 Pet. ii. 4), that " God spared not the an- 
gels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and de- 
livered them into chains of darkness to be reserved 
[being reserved] unto judgment." They, then, though 
cast down to hell, are still reserved in chains unto the 
judgment. Others of them apparently were indeed at 
liberty fo*a time to roam the world on their work of 
evil, but still looking forward to a time when they shall 
be ordered into the " abyss " (S§v<j6ov, Luke viii. 31), 
and to a " time " of " torment " (Matt. viii. 29). 

In the same mode, and by similar phraseology, does 
the New Testament describe the immediate portion of 
the wicked. It describes the dying transgressor as 
passing to his peculiar place or abode, recognizes the 
disobedient of former times as in a state of imprison- 
ment and consciousness, and speaks of the immediate 
fate of the dying sinner as at once in " hell " and " in 
torments," even while the living were on earth. 

In Acts i. 25, we read, " That he may take part of 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 217 

this miaistry and apostleship from which Judas by 
transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." 
The statement implies a departure from the position to 
which he did not belong, at once to the place that prop- 
erly belonged to him. Several diverse vagaries have 
been advanced as to thispZace to which Judas went; 
but the best modern scholarship seems to agree on 
that view which suggests itself at once to the common 
reader, and which the scholarly rationalist, De Wette, 
has expressed when he says it was his " merited place, 
his place of punishment in hell." So also Alford. So 
Meyer, " The context requires us to understand ge- 
henna. ''^ 

The passage, 1 Pet. iii. 18-20, bears still more dis- 
tinctly on this subject, where we read of Christ " being 
put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 
by which also, he went and preached unto the spirits in 
prison, which some time [once] were disobedient, when 
once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of 
Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that 
is eight souls, were saved by water." 

In reference to this passage, there are some ques- 
tions still unsettled, but with which we have no pres- 
ent concern. The points to which we call attention 
are somewhat generally conceded by the best modern 
scholarship. For the purposes of this argument, it is 
of no importance what was the nature of the preaching, 
nor perhaps, even, whether it was done by Christ in per- 
son, or by Noah the preacher of righteousness ; al- 
though, if the more common view of later scholars be 
received, that it was by Christ in person, the case is 
more thoroughly decisive. It may be considered as 



218 IJFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

admitted that the persons here spoken of are the diso- 
!i' bedient of Noah's time. It is also settled that " in 

prison " means, what it seems to mean, in a place or 
state of imprisonment, penal confinement. The phrases 
" in prison " and " into prison" (iv g)t;>laxg and iig (pvlaxt^v) 
occur in the New Testament twenty-six times, invaria- 
bly in this sense. The Greek word (gw^xjj) prison is 
also used in Rev. xx. 7 to denote the bottomless pit 
(verse 3) in which Satan was to be confined.* And 
the parties thus in penal confinement, in the home of 
the lost, are the " spirits " (departed spirits, De Wette) 
of those once disobedient when the long-sufiFering of 
God waited in the time of Noah : tlie word is carefully 
chosen, and the statement clear. Here, then, the Scrip- 
ture calls those who died impenitent in former days, 
" spirits in prison "or in penal confinement. If the 
preaching was through Noah, then they are spirits now 
in confinement ; if by Christ in person, then they were 
in confinement when he went and preached to them, 
that is at the time of his death. 

Another important passage is found in the account 
of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke xvi. 19-31). The 
entire passage should be carefully read in connection. 
The principal statements, however, are found in verses 
22 and 23 : " And it came to pass that the beggar died, 
and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. 
The rich man also died, and was buried ; and in hell 
he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth 
Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." 

On this passage, Universalists and annihilationists 

♦ The Church fathers Use the word for &dtii, and the Syriac translates 
lt«ft«o?(De Wette). 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 219 

alike have exhausted their ingenuity to evade fche clear 
teachings which the plain reader of the Bible and the 
unprejudiced scholar equally find in the narrative. 

The question whether this is a history or a parable, 
it is not necessary to discuss. In either mode, the 
Scripture teaches truth, — important and often vital 
truth. The chief diflFerence is, that the one mode as- 
serts what has occurred, the other " what does occur." 
Grant it to be a parable. The notion that a parable 
does not convey important and even definite truth, will 
be maintained by no intelligent reader of the Bible. 
Thus, for example, some of the most striking facts in 
regard to Christ's kingdom, its methods, progress, and 
relations, are conveyed in that remarkable group of 
parables, — the tares and wheat, the growing corn, the 
mustard-seed, the leaven, the hidden treasure, the costly 
pearl, the fisherman's net. Dr. Whately, while endeav- 
oring to cut down this passage to the minimum of 
teaching, is obliged to say, " The only truth that is es- 
sential in a parable is the truth or doctrine conveyed by 
it.^' * Mr. Hudson not only admits the same view, 
but is constrained to mention one doctrine that actually 
is taught in this passage : " We therefore freely say, 
that the parable, whatever it may or may not teach, 
assumes and implies a judgment^ or some kind of retru 
btUian after death.^^ f Very well ; and now the plain 
reader will say, " If it teSrChes any retribution after 
death, that is,if it, in fact, involve that truth at all, then it 
also involves with equal distinctness the statement, that 
that retribution is one of conscious joy or woe, and 

* Future State, p. 69. f Rich Man and Lazarns, p. 8. 



220 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

commences at death." And such a sharp-sighted scholar 
and rationalist as De Wette perfectly accords with the 
view of the plain reader : " The rich man makes an 
idle, self-seeking use of his property, which may seem 
to correspond to the ' wasting ' of verse 1 ; and the 
consequence is, that he, in return therefor (anstatf), 
reaches the place of torment ( Qual) in the eternal fur- 
nace." 

As various attempts have been made to transfer the 
plain meaning of this narrative to some " abolition of 
the Jewish priesthood," and what not, it is important 
for the reader to observe that the connection itself pre- 
cludes such a perversion, and clearly fixes the refer- 
ence to the subject of individual retribution after death 
for the use or abuse of the bounties of this life. Not 
only have scholars like Alford, De Wette, Olshausen, 
and others, pointed out the close connection of this 
passage with the earlier part of the chapter, the stew- 
ardship, but the reader may see for himself that one 
connected subject runs through the chapter, — the right 
or wrong use of riches, and the consequence hereafter. 
The chapter opens with the parable of the steward, 
who, being charged with wasting his lord's money, im- 
mediately set about so skillful (though unprincipled) 
an application of it, that he made friends for the hour 
of need, and that even his master admired his adroit- 
ness ; closing with Christ's own injunction to his hear- 
ers so to use their riches in this life, that they them- 
selves may be received into " everlasting habitations " 
(verse 9). The same exhortation and encouragement 
is repeated in verse 11. In verse 13, he warns them 
against the attempt to idolize wealth, to " serve Gk)d 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS, 221 

and Mammon." In verse 14, we are informed how the 
Pharisees, " who were covetous," derided him for these 
words ; and, after three or four intermediate verses of 
general rebuke for their hypocritical pretenses, he pro- 
ceeds to meet their derisive spirit, and crown his teach- 
ing with this terrible utterance on the abuse of riches. 
The context thus holds the passage fast to the theme 
of personal retribution after death. The offense of 
the rich man is not brought to sight except in connec- 
tion with the previous warnings in regard to the use 
and abuse of riches. 

Indeed, certain TJniversalist writers have attempted, 
by cutting off the connection between this passage and 
the previous part of the chapter, to deny that any 
moral quality is implied in the case of the rich epicure. 
The statement is not alone in conflict with the whole 
spirit of Christ's teachings as to the supreme folly of 
him who " layeth up treasure for himself, and is not 
rich towards God : " it is refuted by the previous full 
teachings of this same chapter, and the closing direc- 
tion how to escape the place of woe by " repenting." 
" They have Moses and the prophets : let them hear 
them." In truth, there can be no mistaking the sketch 
of the rich man, as of a selfish sensualist, absorbed in 
pampering his owq body, and leaving the poor and suf- 
fering Lazarus to such a living as the dogs pick up 
(see Matt. xv. 27), and to the tender mercies of the 
dogs themselves (verse 21). As the stress of the pas- 
sage lay in its warning to the evil-doer, the moral char- 
acter of the 'good Lazarus is barely indicated by his 
final reception to the companionship of Abraham, the 
father of the faithful ; but our Saviour's explicit teach- 



2'22 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

ings as to that companionship, and who shall enjoy it, 
leave no doubt hanging over the case (see Matt. viii. 
11 ; Luke xiii. 28, 29). 

The passage, then, teaches, first (in Mr. Hudson's 
words), " some kind of retribution " to the wicked after 
death. The rich man ^' died and was buried ; and in 
hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." To die^ 
then, is not extinction : it is here the passage to a 
state of anguish. It teaches, further, that the retribu- 
tion consists in conscious suffering. This fact lies all 
along the narrative as an emphatic portion of it. He 
lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments : " I am 
tormented in this flame ; thou art tormented ; this 
place of torment." Mr. Hudson even admits this mean- 
ing of the language, remarking that " the torment of 
the rich man here described is not that otgehenna^ but 
that of hades J^ * And the reader will not fail to ob- 
serve, that the flame is here beyond all question the 
symbol, not of extinction, but of suffering : " I am tor- 
mented in this flame." The passage teaches, thirdly, 
that this suffering follows death at once. (1) This is 
the obvious connection of the transactions. The one 
person died, and was carried by the angels into Abra- 
ham's bosom : the other died, and was buried ; and in 
hell he lifted up his eyes. (2) The suffering was tak- 
ing place while probation was continuing on earth, and 
five brethren of the sufferer were still living. And if 
any one should insist that this is only dramatic cos- 
tume, we add, that (3) The suffering is cotemporaneous 
with the joy of paradise ; and the latter, as we have 

* Debt and Graoe, p. 21<r. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 228 

shown, commences at once. Indeed, it is not only ad- 
mitted, but is strongly insisted on, by Mr. Hudson, that 
the representation in this passage " belongs to the in- 
termediate state ; " that is, to the immediate state of 
the dead previous to the resurrection of the body.* 

This important passage, then, shows that the punish- 
ment of sin consists in continuous suffering, entered 
upon at death. Nowhere do the Scriptures imply any 
subsequent change of condition ; but this very parable 
aflSrms that " there is a great gulf fixed " between the 
sinful and theholy, which, as Mr. Hudson admits, " fairly 
implies that the case of the rich man is hopeless." f 
He also says, " The rich man is there and 4n torments,' 
as if that were ' his own place ; ' while Lazarus is car- 
ried to Abraham's bosom, as if that were his proper 
home : and this would be the just inference^ if the 
Scriptures told us nothing else concerning hades.^* J 
This is admitting all we ask. This passage, as a 
whole, teaches these states of suffering and of joy to be 
the immediate and " proper homes "respectively of the 
wicked and the good. Let us also add, that, as the 
time thus elapsing prior to the resurrection of the body 
must in many cases be many thousand years, all ar- 
guments against the Scripture doctrine from the long 
duration of the penalty fall to the ground. 

If it be asked, with what consistency, while we re- 
tain these teachings of the passage, we fail to receive 
literally the circumstances of dipping the tip of one's 

* Debt and Grace, p. 210 ; Christ our Life, p. 131 ; Rich Man and Laza- 
rus, p. 8. 

t Rich Man and Lazarus, p. 8. 

X lb., p. 12. The word occurring in Luke zvi. 28 is hades, not gdwmck 
On this subject, see Appendix, note G. 



224 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

finger iu water and cooling the tongue, the flame, the 
lymg in Abraham's bosom, the gulf, and even the oral 
communications between Abraham and the rich man^ 
we reply, 1. The conditions of the narrative rule out 
a literal conception of these particulars by assigning it 
to a time when the parties must have been disembodied 
spirits. They had died, and been buried ; while the liv- 
ing were supposed to be still on earth. It was there- 
fore subsequent to death, and prior to the resurrection. 
This fact determines the particulars to be figurative 
representations. 2. These modes of representation, 
figuratively employed, are conunon in the Scriptures. 
The joys of heaven are the marriage-supper of the 
Lamb ; sitting down with Abraham ; God feeding his 
saints, leading them to living fountains, wiping away 
their tears ; drinking from the river of life. God him- 
self, the bodiless Spirit, is constantly spoken of with 
fingers, mouth, and all the portions of the body. Any 
endeavor of Universalist or annihilationist to set aside 
the reference of these teachings to the spirit-world, be- 
cause of their costume, must also annul most of the 
declarations concerning God and heaven. 3. Further- 
more, this mode of representation is employed from 
necessity. We have no language, nor modes of con- 
ception, with which to speak of God and heaven and 
spiritual beings, except the language and conceptions 
drawn from earth and sense. The method is inevita- 
ble ; and any argument founded upon it is, therefore, 
of no account. 

There is, therefore, no reason for rejecting the obvi- 
ous teaching of this passage, tliat the wicked pass &om 
this world at once to a state of conscious suflFering. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 225 

The reader will appreciate the case more readily on 
seeing some of the conflicting attempts of annihilation- 
ists to dispose of the passage, as well as some of their 
reluctant admissions. 

The account of Lazarus and Dives has been as trou- 
blesome to annihilationists as to Universalists ; and 
some of the former have borrowed the methods of the 
latter. 

H. L. Hastings summarily sets aside the whole pas- 
sage as incapable of teaching any thing : " Of course flie 
parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not reckoned as 
teaching doctrine ; for all the laws of criticism^ forbid 
that parables be made use of to teach doctrines." * 
Ellis and Read find, however, very decided doctrine : 
" In this parable, the Jewish priesthood, personated by 
the rich man, died, the priesthood being abolished; 
and while in hades, the dominion of death, he saw [s09 
then, death is not extinction of consciousness] the pecu- 
liar privileges of the Abrahamic covenant in the pos- 
session of the formerly despised Lazarus, who person- 
ated the Gentiles." f These writers prudently refrain 
from any remark on the phrases, " tormented in this 
flame," etc., except to say, that inasmuch as hades , in-a 
large number of instances, denotes a " state of death, 
it would be strange indeed if in our text it should im- 
ply a state of life and torment ; " and yet in that very 
state they make the rich man " see." 

J. Blain finds still more abundant and curious doc- 
trine. He sees rather the political than the ecclesiati- 
cal condition of t;he Jews described, but liberally al- 

• Pauline Theology, p. 40. 
t Bible M. Tradition, p. 214. 
16 



226 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

lows a choice of either or both. He also, with curious 
iuconsistency, finds protracted misery in the flames: 
"The rich man denoted the Jewish nation or the 
priesthood, or both combined. His death symbolized 
the death (destruction) of their political and ecclesi- 
tical state : torment in flames denoted or predicted the 
misery they would endure as a nation. It is a fact, 
that they have been in torment by persecution ever 
since they ' died ' as a nation. Their looking to Abra- 
ham for relief may denote their relying on the law in- 
stead of on Christ, or grace through him. They have 
been ' buried ' as to nationality and a priesthood. The 
poor man symbolized the Gentiles and publicans, who 
were looked upon as 'dogs' by the Jews, and lay at, or 
oould only come to the ' gate ' of the temple for 
. * crumbs ' of light. * Abraham's bosom ' meant the 
gospel church; and when the Gentiles ' died,' or changed 
their former sickly state, they were not buried as were 
the Jews, but ' carried by angels ' (messengers) into 
the gospel church. Peter and Paul were special ' an- 
gels ' to thus transport them." * In this sad jumble, 
besides denying his own principle as to the office of 
the flames, the writer makes Abraham denote, fir^ the 
law, and then the gospel church ; while death at first 
denotes " destruction," and again the " changing of 
their former sickly state " for a sound one. 

Mr. Edwin Burnham gets so far as to locate the 
scene apparently after death, and before the judgment ; 
but he can see in it only " some transaction." " The 
parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus proves nothing 

• Death not Life, p. 58. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 227 

to the point of eternal torment ; for that parable refers 
to some transaction before the judgment." * 

George Storrs discerns a little more than " some 
transaction " after death. He admits hypothetically 
that it teaches suffering : " Suppose the rich man to 
be actually in a conscious state after death, and in tor- 
ment: it does not prove him immortal, or that his con- 
scious suffering is to be eternal ; for the advocates of the 
immortality of man admit that the state, of the rich man 
spoken of was immediately after death, and before the 
day of judgment. Hence, whatever his state is now, it 
is not his proper punishment ; that may be utter anni- 
hilation, for all there is in the text to prove the con- 
trary : he has not yet passed the judgment. When he 
has, then comes the real punishment, and the Scrip- 
tures elsewhere must determine what it is. We have 
positive testimony that the wages of sin is death." f 
But the writer apparently admits, in these very sen- 
tences, the fact of conscious suffering " after death." 

Dr. Whately finds retribution " very plainly " im- 
plied in this passage : " It seems to imply, indeed very 
plainly, that there is a future state of rewards and pun- 
ishments, . . . and also that those who have been de- 
voted to the good things and enjoyments of this world 
will have no share in those of the world to come, and 
will regret when it is too late their not having laid up 
for themselves treasure in heaven." % This is certainly 



* Anti-Eternal Torment, p. 5. 

t Storrs's Six Sermons, p. 164. Mr. Storrs promises some fdller discus- 
Bion ; but this is all we find in two of his works. 

X We reckon Dr. Whately in this connection because his entire mode of 
putting the case is to question the received doctrine. 



228 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

a mild mode of interpreting the passage, but yields 
the principle. 

Mr. Hudson is at first constrained to admit every 
thing we claim concerning the passage ; and then, in 
one of his later treatises (the Rich Man and Lazarus), 
he retracts it all with his favorite prolepsis and " dra- 
matic" element. He indeed strenuously asserts that 
the transaction is in hades rather than gehenna. He 
admits that it takes place after death, " in the interme- 
diate state," and is a " retribution ; " that it " implies 
that the rich man's case is hopeless ; " that " the rich 
man is there and in ' torments,' as if that were ' his 
own place ; ' while Lazarus is carried to Abraham's 
bosom, as if that were his proper home : and this would 
be the just inference if the Scriptures told us nothing 
else of hades.^^ * Then, after spending four pages in 
elucidating the difierence between Aades andg'eAewn<x,he 
suddenly sets aside his whole discussion by one of his exe- 
getical somersets, and declares that it really refers not to 
the intermediate state at all, but to the final judgment: 
" How then shall we explain the drapery which in Luke 
xxi. is thrown around the intermediate state, making 
it look so much like a world of retribution ? I think 
there is an easy solution of this diflBculty, without re- 
gard to the question of consciousness or unconscious- 
ness in the disembodied soul. It is simply this : The 
final judgment is anticipated. This anticipation may 
be either actual in the expectant thoughts and feelings 
of the rich man and Lazarus ; or it may be dramatic, 
transferred to the dead from the thoughts of the liv- 

* Debt and Grace, p. 210; Christ our Life, p. 131; Rich Man and Laza- 
rus, pp. 8, teq. 



NEWTESTMiENT TEACHINGS. 229 

ing." * We care not to follow this tortuous course of 
exposition and argument, except to call attention to its 
admissions concerning the plain teaching of this whole 



H. H. Dobney unequivocally admits all that we claim : 
" Our Lord shows an ungodly man in a state of wretch- 
edness after death. How long it would last is not in- 
timated. It is true, there was no hope for him. He 
could not buoy himself up with the prospect of restora- 
tion. But whether that torment should endure for 
ever, or would ultimately destroy him, the parable does 
not intimate. It teaches a terrible and hopeless state 
for the wicked after death ; and that is all." f 

And that is all we are at present seeking to prove, — 
" a state of wretchedness after death," immediately con- 
sequent upon it ; and whether we look at the plain as- 
pect of the passage itself, at the discordant perversions 
of one class of annihilationists, or the reluctant admis- 
sions of another class, the case is a clear one. 

The fact that the wicked are in a state of sufiFering 
after death, and prior to the judgment, is also clearly 
taught in 2 Pet. ii. 9 :^" The Lord knoweth how to de- 
liver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the 
unjust under punishment unto the day of judgment." 
Such is the correct translation, rendered in the Eng- 
lish version " to be punished." So Alford most de- 
cidedly, and Huther ; while Winer, who took the other 
view in the fifth edition of his grammar, seems to have 
abandoned it in the sixth. The Greek does not fairly 



* Bich Man and Lazaras, p. 12. 

' Dobney*8 Future Punishment, p. 239. 



230 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

admit any other rendering.* Says Alford, " under 
punishment, not to be punished, but, as in verse 4, 
actually in a penal state, and thus awaiting their final 
punishment." 

We think we have suflBciently maintained from Scrip- 
ture the continued consciousness of both the righteous 
and the wicked after death, and previous to the resur- 
rection of the body, — the one in conscious joy, the 
other in conscious suflFering. 

♦ ^kdUovQ (J^ elg iifdpav Kpiasog Ko^o/ievovc TTjpelv, literally " to re- 
serre the tuiKodly, being punished, to the day of judgment.** 



CHAPTER IV. 

NEW TESTABIENT TEACHINGS CONTINUED. — ^A RESURRECTION 
AND A JUDGMENT FOR THE WICKED. 

THE souls of both the righteous and the wicked, it 
appears, enter at death upon a conscious state of. 
happiness and of sufiFering respectively. The event 
called death, is to the wicked, not the termination of 
existence or of consciousness, but the beginning of 
conscious retributive suffering. 

This does not prove, indeed, their eternal existence : 
it is not adduced for that purpose. But it does dis- 
prove one important position of the theory of annihila- 
tion. The dead, as we call them, still live. They ex- 
perience a continued existence and activity beyond the 
grave, — an existence continued certainly to a very 
protracted extent. If continued till the resurrection, 
then it must be in many instances for some thousand 
years. Such a fact is of itself suflScient to invalidate 
the fundamental reasonings of annihilationists. 

But the Scripture does not leave the subject thus : 
it makes further disclosures concerning their future 
history. The next step in these disclosures is the 
Scripture doctrine concerning the resurrection and the 
general judgment, and the formal sentence of retribu- 
tion, in which the wicked as well as the good will ap- 
pear. 

231 



232 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

It is the clear doctrine that full and final sentence of 
retribution takes place at the general judgment, that the 
judgment is preceded by a general resurrection of " all 
that are in their graves," and that this last event ac- 
companies the second coming of our Lord with power 
and great glory.* The spirit then resumes the bodily 
form. 

For those who read and submit to the plain teach- 
ings of God's word, it can not be necessary for me to 
argue at great length, that all men, the wicked as well 
as the good, are to be raised from the dead, and to stand 
in judgment before God. Still a brief sketch of those 
teachings may be in place. 

And, first, of the judgment and retribution. It is 
even a teaching of the Old Testament, though less mi- 
nute than the New, that the wicked and the good alike 
shall stand before God in judgment. Such is especially 
the drift of the book of Ecclesiastes, as indicated, for 
example, in chap. iii. 16, 17, xi. 9, and conclusively 
summed up in chap. xii. 13, 14. The thought is 
more or less distinctly alluded to in numerous passages 
like Ps. i. 6, 6, although often in such a mode, that 
we can not say certainly that the ^«a/ judgment is in- 
tended. 

It was reserved for the New Testament to reveal the 
fact in its fullness, that " after death," at the " last 
day," the " day of judgment," when " the Son of man 
shall come in the clouds of heaven," all the dead alike 
shall stand beforehim to receive their sentence. 

* The question, whether there is a literal and bodily " first resurrection " 
of the holy previous to the general resormotion of all the dead, is not ma- 
terial to the present discussion, and is therf^fore omitted. The simple fact 
of a universal resurrection is all that here concerns us. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 233 

Thus it is after death, not at death nor in death, that 
judgment and a final retribution come. " It is ap- 
pointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg- 
ment " (Heb. ix. 27). " Be not afraid of them that 
kill the body, and after that have no more that they 
can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : 
fear Him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast 
into hell ; yea, I say unto you, fear him " (Luke xii. 

The particular time is designated as the last day, 
the time when the Son of man shall come ; and at that 
time the foes of Christ as well as his friends shall re- 
ceive their sentence. "He that rejecteth me', and 
receiveth not' my words, hath one that judgeth him: 
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him 
in the last day " (John xii. 48). " Or what shall a 
man give in exchange for his soul ? For the Son of 
man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his an- 
gels ; and then shall he reward every man according to 
his works " (Matt. xvi. 26, 27). " Whosoever shall con- 
fess me before men, him shall the Son of man also con- 
fess before the angels of God ; but he that denieth me 
before men shall be denied before the angels of God " 
(Luke xii. 8, 9). See also Jude 13, and 2 Pet. iii. 7. 

To this day of judgment are all transgressors re- 
served ; and then shall they, as well as the righteous, 
receive their public sentence. " For if God spared not 
the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and 
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved 
unto judgment ; . . . the Lord knoweth how to deliver 
the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust 
unto the day of judgment to be [being] punished " 



234 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

(2 Pet. ii. 4,9). " And whosoever shall not receive you 
nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house 
or city, shake oflF the dust of your feet. Verily I say 
unto you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of 
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for 
that city " (Matt. x. 14, 15). In like manner, the sen- 
tence ofxfhorazin, Bethsaida, Tyre, Sidon, Capernaum, 
Sodom, is referred to " the day of judgment " (Matt, 
xi. 20-23). "I say unto you, that every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof 
in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt 
be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned " 
(Matt. xii. 36, 37). " But now commandeth all men 
everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a 
day, in the which he will judge the world in righteous- 
ness by that man whom he hath ordained " (Acts xvii. 
80, 31). "For we must all appear before the judg- 
ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the 
things done in his body, according to that he hath done, 
whether it be good or bad " (2 Cor. v. 10, 11). The 
twofold retribution so fully described in the second 
chapter of Romans is referred to " the day when God 
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ " (verse 
16) ; and it is said to the wicked, " But after thy hardness 
and impenitent heart treasurest [thou] up unto thy- 
self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of 
the righteous judgment of God." In 2 Tim. iv. 1, we 
read of " the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." 
The solemn account of the judgment (Matt. xxv. 31-46), 
describing it as taking place " when the Son of man 
shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 235 

him," also declares that " before him shall be gathered 
all nations," and represents the wicked as being present 
with the righteous to receive their final sentence. In 
2The8s. i. 6-10, the recompense, "tribulation," "tak- 
ing vengeance," and punishment " with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord," is made 
cotemporaneous with the recompense of " rest " to be- 
lievers ; and both are assigned to the time " when the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels," — " when he shall come to be glorified 
in his saints." 

It is needless to accumulate other proofs ; for if 
these do not show that at the last day, the day of final 
judgment, the day of Christ's coming in glory, all the 
wicked as well as the good will stand before him in 
conscious activity to receive public sentence, nothing 
can show it. 

The Scriptures also declare a general resurrection, 
in which the wicked as well as the good shall come forth 
from their graves preparatory to the judgment : " Mar- 
vel not at this : for the hour is coming, in the which all 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth, — they that have done good, unto the resur- 
rection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the 
resurrection of damnation" (John v. 28,29). These 
are the words of Jesus Christ. They are uttered as 
the sequel of the statement, that " authority to execute 
judgment " is committed to the Son of man ; and the 
whole as the grand climax of the great work which he 
was then performing on earth. They describe the resur- 
rection of the wicked in the same terms with that of the. 
righteous. To leave no room for doubting that the res- 



236 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

urrectiou of the body is iiiteudod, he says, '' Tliey that 
are m the graves" [or tombs]. To anticipate a low 
modern cavil, that they shall be brought forth as dead 
persons or corpses, he declares " they shall hear his 
voice, and shall come forth." To cut off the allegation 
that a transient or momentary revivification is described, 
he announces it as only preliminary to the execution 
of judgment ; and, in case of the wicked, it is here not 
even a resurrection of death, but of condemnation, 
" damnation." All attempts to pervert this passage 
from its plain meaning may be considered as now ex- 
ploded. No respectable commentator, of whatever 
school, can probably now be found to lend his name to 
them. 

The bodily resurrection of the wicked is also implied 
very fully and unquestionably in Christ's warning: 
" Pear not them which kill the body, but are not able 
to kill the soul ; but rather fear him which is able to 
destroy both soul and body in hell " (Matt. x. 28). 
Paul asserts the same fact, " And liave hope toward 
God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall 
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and un- 
just" (Acts xxiv. 15). Here he uses the same words 
to express the resurrection of the righteous and the 
wicked ; and it will be observed that he testifies dis- 
tinctly that this was alike his own belief and that of 
his Jewish opponents. This statement is in such terms 
as to admit no cavil. It is met, so far as we can learn, 
only by open denial. Thus to quote from one who, 
though an annihilationist, yet argues for the resurrec- 
tion, and represents the reasoning of his associates, as 
follows : " It is said Paul koped for the resurrection of 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 237 

the dead. Hope is made up of desire and expectation. 
Could Paul desire to see the wicked all in one vast 
company, weeping, wailing, crying for mercy^ and 
mercy deaf to all their sorrows, anguish, and despair ? 
Could he desire to listen to the curses and blasphemies, 
and witness the rolling sea of wickedness, that would 
pour forth from all the resurrected wicked in that day ? 
Certainly not." * This matter may be left to be settled 
between these reasoners and the apostle. 

The same fact is involved in the passage (Rev. xx. 
11-15) : " And I saw a great white throne, and him 
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven 
fled away ; and there was found no place for them. 
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; 
and the books were opened; and another book was 
opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the 
books according to their works. And the sea gave up 
the dead which were in it ; and death and hell [hades'] 
delivered up the dead which were in them ; and they 
were judged, every man according to their works. And 
death and hell [hades'] were cast into the lake of fire. 
This is the second death. And whosoever was not 
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
of lire." Here the reader will observe, 1. The scene 
described is clearly the general judgment. Various 
circumstances fully identify it with that transaction as 
elsewhere described. 2. It is preceded by a universal 
resurrection of the body. It is '' the dead, small and 

* H. L. Hastings's Retribation, p. 148. Three other forms of denial 
are quoted by him from other advocates of annihilation, still more abmpt 
if possible ; bat no attempt to interpret away the language. 



238 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

great ; " those in " the sea," and those elsewhere in 
charge of " death and hades ; " * men of diverse char- 
acters, to be judged, " every man according to their 
works." Not only the good were there, those whose 
names were in the book of life, but those who were 
" not found written in the book of life " were there 
also. 

As the reader may like to know what objections are 
raised against such a passage by a portion of the anni- 
hilationists, — the more materialistic portion, — we an- 
nex them as stated by H. L. Hastings, who represents 
a diflferent phase of the system.f It is alleged, — 

1. The passage " is in Revelation, and Revelation is 
an obscure book." To which we need only say that, 
whatever may be the obscurity of any other portion of 
the book, this is a distinct account of the general judg- 
ment, fully confirmed and explained by abundant other 
passages of Scripture. 

2. " The whole is a dramatic representation." But 
this statement when intended as a denial of the resur- 
rection of the wicked, would cut up the whole doctrine 
of a future life ; for this passage declares as clearly 
as any portion of the Scriptures, the great fact of a 
judgment and a just retribution. It is here stated just 
as distinctly concerning the wicked dead as concerning 
the good, that " they stand before God " to be judged 
and doomed. 

3. *^^ It is said that the dead stood before God, and 

* " Hades ^* may be considered as the impersonation of the grave, the 
place of the dead; " death,'* ahready personified as riding on the pale horse, 
perhaps as the keeper or ruler of the realm. AH the dead of the ocean and 
the land are there. 

t Retribution, by H. L. Hastings, pp. 119, 120. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 239 

were judged, and so they were dead when they were 
judged ; and hence they will never know any thing 
about the matter, nor undergo any further conscious 
punishment, but will simply be left alone in the grave 
where they are." We will not delay to dwell upon 
Christ's declaration, " They that are in their graves 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come 
forth," nor upon the fact that " the dead " here in- 
cludes both classes alike; for it is hardly supposable 
that a man who could descend to such egregious trifling 
with God's Word is to be satisfied, and have his quib- 
bles silenced, by any forms of speech. 

4. " Those found written in the book of life are made 
alive^ but those who are not found written there do not 
live nor know nor suflFer ; but, if they are raised at all, 
they are simply so many lumps of clay, images, or car- 
casses, not raised ' to life,' but raised ' without any life.' " 
No reply is called for here. Waiving those other rep- 
resentations which describe the conscious state of the 
wicked at the judgment, any man who could allege 
that the Scriptures describe the judgment-scene as in- 
cluding the solemn mockery of summoning, by a vast 
miracle, millions of unconscious corpses before God to 
be tried, and sentenced, and executed with the forms 
of punishment, will not be likely to have his opinion 
changed by argument or Scripture. 

5. "It is finally said that wicked men can not 
die a second time, and hence the ' second death ' is 
a mere figure, which means no one knows what ; be- 
cause it is said that death and hell died the second 
death too, and there is no account of their having died 
a first death before." Here, again, we waive all other 



•240 LIFE AND DEATH ETEIiNXL. 

discussion simply to remind the reader that the objec- 
tion, in short, is just this : We deny the plainly asserted 
fact of a resurrection of the wicked, because we are 
puzzled as to the nature of the punishment described 
as following their resurrection and judgment. 

The doctrine of a general resurrection of both classes 
of men is even declared in the Old Testament. "And 
at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince 
which standeth for the children of thy people ; and 
there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since 
there was a nation even to that time ; and at that time 
thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be 
found written in the book. And many of them that 
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the 
brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many 
to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever " (Dan. 
xii. 1-3). This passage appears to be a glance down 
to the " time of the end," which is specified in the 
verse following; and announces the resurrection of 
two classes of men, that " sleep in the dust of the 
earth," to two opposite destinies. On this point the 
sober class of modern scholars are apparently becom- 
ing agreed ; e.g., Alford (on John v. 29), Stuart, Ha- 
vernick, Auberlen. Even such rationalists as Maurer 
and Hitzig, though endeavoring to refer it to an earlier 
period, admit the fact of a twofold resurrection to be 
here asserted ; and " the book " (verse 1), to be the 
" book of life," " the list of the citizens of the Messi- 
anic kingdom" (Hitzig). The second verse, would 
perhaps bo more correctly translated, "multitudes of 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACBmOS, 241 

sleepers in the ddst of the earth shall awake." ^ Those 
who, like Hitzig, insist on the partitiTe force of " m%ny," 
limit the resurrection here spoken of to the Jewish na- 
tion. But even this narrowed application still leaves 
the parties divided into two opposite classes, the second 
of whom, in Hitsdg's own words, " arise to judgment 
(John V. 29), awake to the punishment of eternal fire- 
torment (compare Isa. Ixvi. 24 with BeV. xx. 14, 15), 
and become, by this their fate, an object of abhor- 
rence." t 

In view of the clear teachings of Scripture, espe- 
cially the New Testament, concerning the resurrection 
and the judgment, Mr. H. L. Hastings, himself an an- 
nihilationist, warmly declares, ^'The same perverse 
logic which proves no resurrection of the wicked, proves 
no resurrection of any one, no pre-existence of Christ 
before his birth, no Holy Spirit but the Word, no bap- 
tism but the Spirit, no Lord's Supper, no future pun- 
ishment, no second coming of Christ, no inspired rev- 
elation ; " J and another writer of the same school de- 
clares, "The method of interpreting Scripture on 
which this theory depends unsettles all faith in the 
Bible, and saps the foundations of Christianity." § 

This fact, then, is settled. Not only do the wicked 



* Stuart and others take the Hebrew ti'^^las equivalent to the ^ mX^ 
of Bom. v. 16, 17, and meaning multitudes, the mas^. Reference to other 
passages is hardly necessary if we carefully translate our text, which con- 
tains neither article nor relative corresponding to the English ** them that** 
Very literally, it reads thus : " Manies [or multitudes] of sleeping [onef] of 
earth's dust slfall arise.'* 

t See note D, Appendix. 

I H. L. Hastings's Retribution, p. 160. 

§ Bible Examiner, quoted ib. 
16 



242 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

as well as ihe good consciously exist after the death of 
the body, but their history can be followed to the re- 
surrection and the judgment-day. 

Thus, after the dissolution and slumber of ages, by 
the grandest display of miraculous power which the 
world will have witnessed, acting instantaneously at 
every portion of the earth's surface, all human beings, 
the wicked as well as the good, will be re-instated in 
the full condition in which they wrought their works 
of holiness or sin. Why, now, this amazing prepara- 
tion ? Is this grandest of God's miracles, so far as 
the wicked are concerned, a mere abortive flourish ? 
or is it the actual preparation for some proportionate 
result ? The body had gone to dissolution. So also, 
according to these theorists, was the soul extinct, at 
least unconscious. The threatened death had done its 
work. The penalty had been fully executed. What 
more is required ? " They are ' dead : ' why not let 
them remain dead ? " * 

Such are the inquiries which are raised not alone by 
opposers of the theory, but are urged even by the more 
radical annihilationists. The latter class oflFer these 
plain inferences from the doctrine, in order to deny 
the Scripture doctrine of a resurrection of the wicked ; 
and their more careful and conservative associates 
are exceedingly pressed with the diflSculty. And mean- 
while every thoughtful observer of God's revealed 
methods must feel the entire incongruity of such a 
stupendous miracle, wrought simply to do over again 
a thing already done ; wliereas, when viewed as the 
inauguration of such a retribution as the Scriptures 

* H. L. Hastings's Betribution, p. 162. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 243 

are commonly understood to announce, the reason and 
propriety of the preparation require no showing. 

How, now, do these writers deal with this miracle of 
the resurrection of all the wicked ? how meet the 
difficulty of this mighty, but, on their showing, abor- 
tive preparation.? 

Mr. Hastings alone, of those whom we have con- 
sulted, fairly acknowledges the fact and the difficulty. 
He admits that he has no answer to give. He simply 
says, " Let us carry the question farther back. Why 
did God make the wicked to live at all ? . . . If Gtod 
has wisely allowed the wicked to exist for centuries in 
sin, blasphemy, and rebellion, certainly his wisdom will 
not further suflFer serious impeachment, even though 
he should perpetuate [!] or restore their existence for 
another period sufficiently long for purposes of justice, 
judgment, and retribution." The statement, certain- 
ly, is valid ; but it is valid to the extent of overthrow- 
ing all Mr. Hastings's objections to the eternal existence 
of the wicked, — the " perpetuation " of their lives. 
Accordingly, Mr. Hastings falls back upon the simple fctci 
of the resurrection, disclaiming all power to render a 
reason or explanation. '' The sum of the argument is, 
Grod will do as he pleases, purposes, and promisiBs ; nor 
can men, who ' are as grasshoppers before him,' stay 
his hand. Whether we can comprehend or explain it, 
whether we believe or doubt it, he will fulfill his 
word." * Assuredly there is no difficulty here in the 
fulfillment of God's promise, nor in understanding 
why the promise was made : the whole' difficulty is 
with the human theory, which makes one of his most 

* Retribution, p. 158. 



244 LIFK AND DBATH ETERNAL. 

solemn assurances, concerning one of the most remark- 
able transactions in the universe, so wholly futile. 

Other writers positively deny that the wicked will be 
raised. Mr. Hastings testifies to the wide prevalence 
of this view. ^' Besides various publications teaching 
the doctrine referred to, one periodical has been largely 
devoted to its advocacy ; and one or two weekly reli- 
gious journals are edited by men, who, though forbid- 
den by their positions to speak fully upon it, yet make 
no secret of their denial of the resurrection of the 
wicked, and inculcate it, either publicly or privately, as 
opportunity may be presented." * Edwin Burnham 
enumerates this as one of the views entertained on the 
destiny of the wicked : " When the wicked die in this 
world, they die soul and body, and will never be raised 
from the dead to all eternity ; and this will be their 
final punishment." f Ellis and Bead, in answer to the 
question, "Will the wicked dead be raised to life 
i^in ? " declare it to be " quite certain that the res- 
urrection of the wicked is not taught in the Old Tes- 
tament;" | and they carefully refrain from admitting 
tiiat it is taught in the New. 

Another resort i^ the doctrine already quoted, that 
the wicked dead are raised simply as dead men, corpses, 
or clods of inanimate earth, and in that condition are 
brought to judgment, and receive their sentence. 

Closely akin to this last-mentioned evasion of the 
plain New-Testament teaching is Mr. Hudson's theory, 
which, as to conformity to the Scriptures, hovers per- 

* BetribatioD, p. 165. 

t Anti-eternal Tonnent, p. 1. See note p. 248. 

t Bible «t. Tradition, p. 284. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 245 

haps half-way between the theory which denies a res- 
urrection and that which admits the raising of a corpse 
to judgment. Mr. Hudson holds that the body makes 
an attempt to come to life, starts to do it, but can not 
quite succeed. His theory has already been cited ; 
but we will here give it entire as a curiosity: — 

" To endeavor after a philosophy of the resurrection, 
we may add a thought respecting that of the unjust. 
It is hard to believe that they are raised up by a miracle 
that ends in their destruction, or that accomplishes 
nothing but a judgment, which, in this view, must ap- 
pear simply vindictive. If they hjive no immortality, 
why are their slumbers disturbed ? But, if their res- 
urrection is connected with the redemption by a law 
that finds illustration in analogous facts, this diflSculty 
may be removed. Damaged seeds that are sown often 
exhaust their vitality, and perish in ^germination ; and 
we have noted the fact, that of insects which pass 
through the chrysalis state to that of the psyche or but- 
terfly, many, from injuries suffered in their original 
form, utterly perish in the transition. Now, the glad 
tidings of the redemption, quickening and invigorating 
the soul with new life, may so far repair the injury 
done it in the fall, that even the unbelieving, who de* 
rive many benefits therefrom in this life, may not alto- 
gether perish in the bodily death. Not to say that the 
average duration of life is greater for the goHpol, it 
seems certain that life is of a higher type. Even bad 
men in Christendom are familiar with moral scntimenti, 
great truths of humanity, which the heathenlMh intol- 
lect has not conceived. May not sucli truthH, aH ftxKl to 
the souls even of those who do not cleave to Him who In 



240 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

the Truth and the Life, cause death itself to be divided 
as the proper eflFect and token of the redemption ? And, 
for judgment, it is as if the unjust, hearing the voice of 
God in the last call to life, should be putting on a glori- 
ous incorruption, and should perish in the act." * 

And this is the resurrection, and " a philosophy of 
the resurrection " ! The reader will please bear in 
mind that it purports to relieve the diflSculty of a 
"wtracZe;" viz., the instantaneous resurrection, and res- 
toration to life, of millions of dead and decomposed 
human frames. And he v^ill observe, 1. The careful 
under-statement of tiie case, so as to miss the chief dif- 
ficulty. The author calls it simply '' a miracle that 
ends in their destruction ; " whereas it would be, on 
his theory, a vast miracle of construction for the sake 
of destruction alone, — an unparalleled display of mi- 
raculous power v^ order to do over again a thing al- 
ready done and finished; a re-creation of the body 
already destroyed, solely to annihilate it again. It is 
for the reflecting mind to consider whether God is 
wont to lavish miracles in such modes. 2. The confu- 
sion of things wholly different. Certain workings of 
natural law are cited as " analogous facts," analogous 
to an objectless miracle. The only analogous fact 
would be another equally objectless miracle. Let it be 
produced. 3. The noticeable inconsistency. (1) Mere 
superficial contact with " the glad tidings of the re- 
demption " is here endowed with a preserving power 
over the body after death, — a preserving influence 
which the author's system distinctly restricts to a liv- 
ing faith. (2) The prolongation of " the average du- 

* Debt and Grace, p. 264. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 247 

ration of life " in this world through outward virtue 
and prudence without faith is also by implication qui- 
etly extended into the other world, and after the full 
infliction of the penalty of death on the body. (3) 
The alleged resurrection hovers uncertainly between a 
miracle and a natural phenomenon, with a strong ten- 
dency to the latter. 4. The entire degradation 'of the 
New Testament doctrine of the resurrection. It is re- 
duced to a bad seed, sprouting, but failing to grow ; a 
hurt insect, not quite able to pass from a chrysalis to a 
butterfly : " As if the unjust, hearing the voice of God in 
the last call to life, should be putting on a glorious incor- 
ruption, and should perish in the actJ^ In other words, 
he is never quite raised at all. And this is Mr. Hudson's 
'' philosophy " of the Scripture doctrine, that " they 
that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall 
come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrec- 
tion of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resur- 
rection, of damnation;" that they " must all appear be- 
fore the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
receive the things done in his body adbording to that 
he hath done, whether it be good or bad." It would 
be simpler and fairer to deny the resurrection of the 
wicked outright; for the statement is equivalent to 
that. 

This writer well exemplifies his own remark, that "it 
is hard to believe that they are raised up by a miracle 
that ends in their destruction." And the difficulty 
which this class of writers find on the subject indicates 
the great significance, in this connection, of the doc- 
trine of the resurrection preceding the general judg- 



248 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

ment. That great event not only marks another dis- 
tinct stage in the existence of man after death ; it also 
fitly introduces, equally in the case of the wicked as 
of the good, the opening of another great epoch in 
their history. 

* W]^le these sheets are passing through the stereotyper's hands, we 
learn that Rev. Edwin Bumham, whom we have quoted in this and other 
chapters, has renounced his heresy, and is now an accredited Baptist 
minister. But his tract is still in circulation, and will be read by many 
who, like ourselves, will not have seen his refutation of his own argu- 
ments. The antidote will never neutralize the poison. There is there- 
fore no occasion, were it now practicable, to -withdraw our allusions to 
his annihilationist utterances. '* The evil that men do lives after them.'* 
While answering his arguments, however, we give him personally the 
benefit of this notice ; the statement resting on the authority of A. 
K. Potter, in '' The Christian Era," of Boston, some time in Mardi, 1866. 



CHAPTER V. 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONTINUED. — SHAKING THE 
DOOM OP THE FALLEN ANGELS. 

WE have traced the course of the wicked, by the 
light of the Scriptures, to the resurrection and 
the judgment. They hear the voice of the Son of God, 
and come forth from their graves ; they appear in com- 
pany with the righteous, before the judgment-seat, to 
receive their sentence. 

Now, we find the Scriptures teaching that they shall 
have certain superhuman companions of their doom, 
and that the two classes shall share the same fate. It 
will form a strong link in the chain of evidence if we can 
ascertain what is the Scripture doctrine concerning the 
fate of those companions of theirs. We refer to the 
fallen angels, evil spirits. Here we shall find the ut- 
terance of Scripture clear and emphatic. 

It is the Scripture doctrine, that wicked men share 
the same doom with the fallen spirits ; and the doom 
of the fallen spirits is represented in the same Scrip- 
tures, not as annihilation, but as conscious existence, 
and endless continuance in suflFering. 

I. The unjust shall share the fate of the fallen an- 
gels. On this point, Matt, xxv, 41 is decisive. In that 

249 



250 LIFE 'AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

great representation of the general judgment, when 
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all nations 
shall be gathered before him, after the King has ad- 
dressed those on his right hand, " the righteous," with 
a welcome to the kingdom prepared for them from the 
foundation of the world, the narrative proceeds (verse 
41), "Then shall he say also unto them on the IdTt 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting^ire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels ; for I was an 
hungered," etc. To the same efiFect the statements of 
Rev. XX. 10, 15. In the 10th verse, we learn that " the 
devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire 
and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet 
are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and 
ever." In the 15th verse, we learn, as the result of the 
judgment, when all the dead, small and great, stand 
before God, that " whosoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 

The doom of the two parties is thus the same in 
kind. We might, perhaps, have drawn a strong pre- 
sumptive argument from the fate of the fallen angels, 
to that of lost men, had there been no disclosure on 
the subject. We might have reasoned, that if it ap- 
peared that those beings, who fell before the fall of our 
first parents, were not, and were not to be, struck out 
of existence, but to be continued under the anger and 
vengeance of Grod, so also, most likely, it would be 
with human evil-doers. Certainly any rational argu- 
ment to prove the extinction of sinners from the uni- 
verse would be overthrown by finding that Satan and 
his companions were to continue in existence. But 
we are n6t left to inferences. The Word of God posi- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 251 

lively assigns the same final doom to wicked men as to 
evil spirits. What is that doom ? 

II. The fate of the fallen angels is not annihilation, 
but conscious existence, and endless continuance in 
suffering. 

No doubt, many things in regard to the condition and 
history of the apostate angels remain in obscurity. 
Some things, however, are definitely revealed and set- 
tled. It is certain that their fall had taken place be- 
fore our first parents were placed in the garden. It is 
certain, therefore, that Satan (and probably otliers of 
them) has existed in a state of the most vehement sin- 
ful activity for several tliousand years already. It 
does not appear that any opportunity of recovery ever 
has been, or ever will be, offered to them. The con- 
trary appears to be declared in 2 Pet. ii. 4 : " For if 
God spared not the angels tliat sinned, but cast them 
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of dark- 
ness, to be reserved unto judgment," etc. Also Jude 
6 : " And the angels which kept not their first estate, 
but left their own habitation, lie hath reserved in ever- 
lasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of 
the great day." Meanwhile, by an arrangement and 
for reasons of which we have no explanation in the 
Bible, a portion at least of these hopelessly lost beings 
Tiave been for a time suffered to leave their confine- 
ment, and mingle in the concerns of this world, wliere 
they kre restlessly, malignantly, and powerfully active 
(Matt. xii. 43 ; 1 Pet. v. 8 ; Eph. vi. 12, etc.). We 
learn, furthermore, that the time is coming wlicn Satan 
shall be bound " a thousand years," so that during the 
time " he should deceive the nations no more " (Rev. 



252 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

XX. 2, 3) ; and after that, and bofore the judgment, ^^ he 
must be loosed a little season," and shall again ^^ go 
out to deceive the nations " (Eev. xx. 8, 7, 8). The 
details of this economy, so as to combine these 
representations, if we were able to find them, would 
be of no special account for our present purpose. It 
is, however, important to observe, in passing, that 
these beings thus reserved unto judgment, though 
not prisoners of hope, are in the full possession of 
their activities for thousands of years prior to the final 
overthrow. 

What, now, is the final doom which the Scriptures 
assign to Satan ? It is, in the plainest terms that lan- 
guage can furnish, torment, — endless torment. The 
closing statement concerning his fate is this: ^^And 
the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of 
fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet 
are, and [they] shalL be tormented day and night for 
ever and ever " (Rev. xx. 10). The passage expressly 
and unequivocally declares three things, — sufiering, 
incessant, eternal. 

The Greek verb "tormented" (^aaaipujd^aovtou) occurs 
twelve times in the New Testament, with the rmvarying 
meaning of harassed, pained, or tormented ; except- 
ing, for the present, its application to the lost. It is 
the word which describes the suffering of a woman in 
travail Q^ pained to be delivered," Eev. xii. 2) ; the 
suffering of severe sickness (" grievously tormented," 
Matt. viii. 6) ; the suffering by a terrible plague (" tor- 
mented five months," Rev. ix. 6) ; a suffering so- great, 
that it is compared to the pain [" torment "] inflicted 
by the scorpion, and that the victims desired death. 



NEW TBSTAMBNT TBACEINQS. 258 

It describes the ment(J suffering of just Lot among 
the wicked Sodomites, when that "just man vexed 
(l^cMxawfey) his righteous soul with their unlawful 
deeds " (2 Pet. ii. 8) ; and the bodily exhaustion and 
mental anxiety of toiling mariners (Mark vi. 48), 
" toiling^^ harassed, or tormented, " in rowing." In 
Rev. xi. 10 (" the two prophets tormented them ''), it 
describes the sufferings brought upon the earth by the 
prophets who had " power to shut the heaven that it 
rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power 
over the waters to turn them to blood, and to smite 
the earth with all plagues." In Eev. xiv. 10, it de- 
scribes the punishment of those who worship the beast: 
" He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone ; " and 
in the next verse (11) the explanation is added, " They 
have no rest day nor night." In one instance only, it 
is by a strong figure applied to an inanimate object, a 
" ship tossed [tormented] with the waves " (Matt. xiv. 
24), just as we in like manner should describe it as 
racked by the sea. In every other instance it is ap- 
plied to the treatment of ^vil spirits, either as threat- 
ened by God in this instance, or as apprehended by 
themselves (Matt. viii. 29 ; Mark v. 7 ; Luke viii. 28). 

Such being the case, the word " torment " (^aaavil^y 
being in every other instance, when applied to a living 
being, expressive of positive suffering, it would require 
a degree of hardihood on which all argument is loit 
to deny that meaning when it is found applied to the 
fate of lost spirits. Their fate is suffering. 

Incessant suffering : " Shall be tormented day and 
night." The phrase " day and niglit " requiroH no ox- 
planation to the common reader. It duerU that tiie 



254 LIFE JKD DEATH ETERNAL, 

Buffering is not a momentary pang^ once felt and ended, 
but a constant, continuous woe. We need hardly sus- 
tain this meaning of the phrase by such references as 
1 Thess. ii. 9, iii. 10, or remind the reader that it is 
employed (Rev. vii. 15) to describe the ceaselessness 
of the service of the ransomed martyrs in heaven. 

Endless suffering : " For ever and ever," literally to 
the ages of the ages (jdg xovg auavag rmv auaptov). On this 
phrase, little need be said. It is the strongest form in 
which the idea of eternity is conveyed in the Bible. It 
is the most emphatic mode in which the duration of 
the life and glory of Jthe righteous is expressed (Rev. 
xxii. 5), in which the continuance of God's glory is 
prayed for (Gal. i. 5, Eph. iii. 21, Phil. iv. 20, 1 Tim. 
i. 17, 2 Tim. iv. 18, Heb. xiii. 21, etc.), and in which 
the duration of God's or of Christ's own existence is 
asserted (Rev. i. 18, iv. 9, 10, x. 6, xv. 7). 

How, now, do the advocates of annihilation dispose 
of this declaration ? No two of them, apparently, can 
agree. It is worth while to take a glance at some of 
their methods. 

Mr. Dobney, as usual, is the most candid. He seems 
to admit (pp. 227, 229) that " the devil shall be tor- 
mented day and night for ever," without denying the 
plain meaning of the language ; but he argues (I) 
that " this text says nothing at all about sinners of the 
human race." Very true ; but other texts already 
cited do say that they shall experience the same fate. 
Indeed, he finds himself obliged to meet the passage 
occurring five verses later in the same chapter (verse 
15), which declares that " whosoever was not found 
written in the book of life was bast into thd lake of 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 255 

fire,' — into the same lake of fire already mentioned. 
In view of this difficulty, he takes the ground (2), that, 
" because in the lake of fire the devil shall be tor- 
mented for ever, it dpes not necessarily follow that 
quite another race of intelligences cast into the same 
lake must therefore exist as long as he does, and en- 
dure the saine torment : " " it may produce diflFerent 
effects ; it may torment the one, and destroy the other." 
A man who can construct such an argument is cer- 
tainly hard pressed ; and a man who rests his belief of 
annihilation on such a basis is a bold man. The effect 
of being cast into the " furnace of fire '' is elsewhero 
described as being, in the case of the wicked, " wail- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth." But (3) he maintains that, 
in verse 14 (" death and hell were cast into tiie lake 
of fire "), the punishment means extinction ; therefore 
it may iii verse 15. This, however, can not be shown. 
Death and hades being, as Alford well says, " the oflF- 
spring of and bound up with sin," are viewed as alike 
" the enemies of God," and terrors of man. In God's 
victory over his foes, they, too, are overcome, and turned 
into the place of punishment. In verse 10, the beast 
and the false prophet (both, probably, impersonations) 
are included among the parties tormented for ever. 
It is only to the redeemed that there shall be no more 
death (xx. 4) : to the lost it is nothing but death, — 
the second death. There is nothing inconsistent with 
other representations in the supposition that these en- 
emies of God are here described as shut up with their 
victims, punished and punishing, in other forms to 
worry them for ever. If it were understood that they 
eciisc to be, this would come fn»m thn \\\\t]Mrmi nfKMM* 



256 LIFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Bity of the case, as mere personifications ; and the dif« 
ference between the fate of an impersonation and an 
actual living being would afford no ground for a simi- 
lar conclusion in reference to the latter. 

Mr. Blain says, among other things (1), that ^^ the 
events here told are symbolic ; and such prophetic lan- 
guage is hard to be understood, and is no proof of a 
doctrine when unsupported by other Scripture." In 
his exposition, however, almost the only thing which 
he finds hard to understand is that this very plain lan- 
guage can mean what it says. He proceeds (2) : " Only 
earthly events are told in this chapter till we come to 
the 11th verse. * Day and night' are, in this ' for ever,' 
(age) : and they are not to be in the future world ; * for 
there shall be no night there.' " That is, he must af- 
firm (a) that there are " two lakes of fire and brim- 
stone " referred to in this chapter, within five verses, — 
one in this world, the other hereafter. And (6) the 
attempt to withdraw the scene from the future world 
on the strength of the phrase " day and night " would 
also withdraw " the great multitude " of the redeemed 
and glorified in heaven, " which no man could number," 
back to earth ; for, while they are " before the throne 
of God," the next words, declare that " they serve him 
day and night.^^ The obvious fact is, that the language 
of time is almost necessarily transferred to the scenes 
of eternity ; and the phrase "day and night" clearly 
bears its frequent meaning continually. The argument 
of Mr. Blain is worthy of the Universalists, with whom, 
we believe, it originated. But (3) he affirms that 
" the literal devil is not here meant." The Bible, he 
admits, " fully reveals a literal devil ; but his name is 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 257 

only used figuratively in Rev. xii. and x^x." If so, wo 
can only say that the apostle has labored very hard and 
to very little purpose to make his own meaning plain ; 
for he very particularly and emphatically describes him 
(verse 2), as " the dragon, that old serpent^ which is 
the Devil and /Satow." 

Ellis and Read have a very marvelous criticism of 
the passage, containing the following statement : '' The 
word basinisthesontai is the future tense plural of 
basanoSy* a touch-stone to try metals, and means a 
trial, inquiry, or examination, to ascertain the genu- 
ineness or purity of any thing : hence, mefaphorically, 
the word is used for an examination to obtain proof, to 
confirm any fact, torture employed to obtain evidence 
or extort truth, a proof given or obtained, a pledge,'' 
etc. After an equally luminous discussion of the phrase 
" for ever and ever," he concludes that " the verse will 
mean that whatever is symbolized by the beast and the 
false prophet and the dragon shall be tried till the end 
of the age." Most likely, to " ascertain their purity." 

But the most amazing interpretation of all is that of 
Mr. Hudson, who, without deigning to offer a word 
of criticism or explanation on the phraseology, summa- 
rily converts this declaration of eternal torment into 
an assertion of final extinction. Hear him : '^ But 
why are they said to be ^tormented day and night, for 
ever and ever ' ? This might be said of the beast and 



* This is given exactly from the sixth edition oi Bible vs. Tradition; the 
first Greek form misspelled, and the second confounding the noun paaavoc 
with the verb paaavi^* The whole criticism is not an unfair specimen of 
the learning of the book. It is not probfvbly a lapse, but tbfi real measure 
of the learning. 

17 



258 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

the false prophet as impersonations, henceforth without 
power ov- worshipers. [Observe the admission.] Com- 
pare what is said of Babylon (chap. xviii.'T, 8, 19). 
But we think the language describes their utter and 
irrevocable destruction [annihilation], in a dramatic 
form, which is quite consistent with the general struc- 
ture of the book." * Singularly dramatic ! That " the 
language " which asserts, in the plainest, simplest form, 
suflFering constant and eternal, should be summarily 
declared to assert the cessation of all suffering and 
all existence, — is there the instance of equal audacity 
on record ? 

One redeeming feature appears in these several ar- 
guments, — that no one of these four writers is willing 
to adopt the other's exposition. 

But Mr. Hudson, after citing several "dramatic" 
passages, none of which has any relation whatever to 
this phraseology, leaves the passage for some general 
considerations on the destiny of Satan. " But will 
Satan actually cease from b^ing? Is he, indeed, 
mortal ? The prophecies all look that way. Our 
translators have indeed dealt somewhat tenderly with 
the great adversary in Gen. iii. 15, where the true 
sense is, that the seed of the woman shall crush the 
head of the serpent. The words in Heb. ii. 14, and 1 
John iii. 8, express indeed the dispossession of Satan, 
rather than his final destruction. But that doom, in 
common with the destruction of every power hostile to 
God, is told in Daniel : ' I beheld then because of the 
voice of the great words which the horn spake : I 

• Debt and Grace, p. 216. We find in Christ our Life a more protracted 
discussion; for wiiich see Appendix, Note E. 



NEW TESTAMEJ{T TEACHINGS. 259 

beheld even t^l the beast was slain, and his body de- 
stroyed, and given to the burning flame. As con- 
cerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion . 
taken away ; yet their lives were prolonged for a season 
and a time ' (vii. 11, 12). See also Matt. xxv. 41.'* 

So, then, these " prophjecies " which " all look tha.t 
way," are reduced to two (Gen. iii. 15, and Dan. vii. 11, 
12). In Genesis, the translators have shown no partic- 
ular tenderness in the translation.* The word (tlio) 
occurs in only three verses of the Old Testament; being 
used, however, four times, twice in the present passage. 
In three instances it cannot possibly mean annihilate, 
as will presently appear ; aj^d the one in question is 
the fourth. In this particular passage, it has been, 
perhaps, as well translated as was practicable. As the 
Hebrew uses the same word in both clauses, so the 
translators, — "*' bruise thy head, bruise his heel." To 
translate it " crush " would make no essential difference ; 
for the second " crush " is evidently a biting of the Iftel 
by the serpent. Aimihilation certainly does not lie in 
the expression " crush " or " bruise." The only other 
places where it is used are Job ix. 17, where a living 
and suffering man exclaims, " He breaketh me with a 
tempest ; " and Ps. cxxxix. 11, " If I say. Surely the 
darkness shall cover (C)^23, fall upon, overwhelm) me, 
even the night shall be light about me," where it is 
again uttered of a person supposed to be still living. 
The reader will thus see that tlie attempt to find anni- 
hilation of Satan in the word " crush " is futile. If it 
should be persisted, that to bruise or crush the head is 

* This sneer at "our tender translators" is repeated in CSirist our Life, 
p. 146. 



260 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

to iuflict a fatal wound, we need only remind the read- 
er that this language, as well as the whole curse on 
Satan, is applied to him under the likeness of a crawl- 
ing serpent; and that, when such a figure is employed, 
this is the only mode of describing a complete victory 
over and subjugation of Satan, and is not in the slight- 
est degree incompatible with the distinct statement, that 
" the devil " " shall be tormented day and night for 
ever." 

The other prophecy cited as foretelling Satan's anni- 
hilation is in Dan. vii. 11, 12. But the reader who 
will examine the passage in its connection will look in 
vain for the slightest allusion to Satan, express or im- 
plied. The beasts there spoken of are four great hu- 
man monarchies, or world-powers, repeatedly described 
in Daniel. The 11th verse probably refers to the fourth 
of these (so Hitzig), and the 12th to the preceding 
ones, which were perhaps, as dependent kingdoms, to 
be . " prolonged for a season," after their dominant 
power was overthrown. But, whatever may be the 
meaning of the minor expressions, we know no respect- 
able commentator who ventures to maintain that here 
is a reference to Satan, or indeed to any other " beasts " 
than those great worldly powers just described in the 
same chapter. 

Mr. Hudson also adds, " See Matt. xxv. 41." But 
that passage speaks of '^ eternal fire prepared for the 
devil and his angels," and certainly offers no help iu 
the effort to deny the eternity of the torments here 
described. 

As these writers are fond of referring to the peculiar 
character of the book of Revelation in order to invali- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 261 

date the force of its testimony, we may add, that pas- 
sages in the Gospels fully corroborate the plain mean- 
ing of the text we have considered. In the remarkable 
narrative of the evil spirits and the herd of swine 
recorded by three evangelists (Matt. viu. 28-34, Mark 
V. 1-20, Luke viii. 26-34), the correspondence is very 
close. Each evangelist has retained the same strong 
word, " torment " ((3a<Tawt(»), as expressing the punish- 
ment which the demons dreaded at the hands of Christ : 
" I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not " 
(Mark v. 7) ; " I beseech thee, torment me not " (Luke 
viii. 28). Matt. viii. 29 makes their meaning clear by 
giving an additional phrase, identifying this dreaded 
torment with their final punishment : " What have we 
to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God ? Art thou 
come hither to torment us before the time ? '^ Luke, 
by a further statement of the conversation, identifies 
the place of the torment as the " pit " or abyss where 
Satan is to be confined (Rev. xx. 1, 8), and whence 
the diabolical powers are let loose and come forth 
(Rev. xi. 7, xvii. 8). Thus Luke records (viii. 31) : 
" And they besought him that he would not conmiand 
them to depart into the abyss " (jdg t^ a^aaw amWiiii). 
Many readers probably receive a wrong impression from 
the common version of the last few words ; viz., " to 
go out into the deep," as though the request were that 
Christ would not send them into the waters of the lake. 
But the error is obvious in a moment ; for, when the 
devils received permission to enter the swine, they 
actually impelled the herd directly into the lake. Be- 
sides, the request itself would seem unaccountably 
trivial But the word translated " the deep " is deci- 



262 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAIr. 

sive. It occurs iu eight other instances in the New 
Testament. In one only of these cases is it applied to 
the region of the departed in general (Rom. x. 7) : 
in every other instance it is the " pit," " the boltomless 
pit ; " the latter phrase being a translation of the same 
one word. Thus Rev. ix. 1,2: "To him was given 
the key of the bottomless pit; and he opened the bottom- 
less pit, and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the 
smoke of a great furnace." (The reader will remem- 
ber the "furnace of fire," Matt. xiii. 42, 50; the "lake 
of fire and brimstone," Rev. xx. 10 ; arid " the smoke 
of their torment," Rev. xiv. 11.) And again (ix. 
11) : " And they [the pests that came to " torment " 
the earth] had a king over them, which is the angel of 
the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue 
is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name 
ApoUyon." Again, Rev. xi. 7 : " The beast " that kills 
the two witnesses " ascendeth out of the bottomless 
pit ; " and " the beast " that carried the scarlet woman 
(Rev. xvii. 8) " shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, 
and go into perdition." And Rev. xx. 1, 3 : The angel 
that had " the key of the bottomless pit " laid hold on 
Satan, and " cast him into the bottondess pit, and shut 
him up " for a thousand years. 

Thus, then, the place where these evil spirits dreaded 
being sent to be tormented before their time was no 
other than " the pit," the home of ApoUyon and the 
great diabolical powers that war against Christ, the 
abode in which Satan is to be confined for a thousand 
years previous to the millennium. On this point, there 
is, we believe, no diversity of opinion among expositors ; 
indeed, the case admits of none^ Thus says Alford : 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 263 

" This word is sometimes used for had^s in general, 
but more usually in Scripture for the abode of damned 
spirits. This last is certainly meant here ; for the re- 
quest is co-ordinate with the fear of torment expressed 
above." * 

The "pit," then, the home of Satan and the evil 
spirits, is a place of torment, not of extinction ; where 
Satan can be bound a thousand years, and still come 
forth in all his power and malignity : and the lake of 
fire, whether precisely identical with it, or denoting 
" a further and more dreadful place of punishment " (as 
Alford suggests), is a place where they " shall be tor- 
mented day and night for ever and ever." 

It is thus the Scripture doctrine, that Satan (in 
company with the evil spirits) shall experience eternal 
punishment, and that that punishment consists in suf- 
fering. It is the Scripture teaching also, that, at the 
last day, all the wicked shall experience the doom pre- 
pared for " the devil and his angels." 



CHAPTER VI. 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONTINUED. — DIBECT DECIiA- 
RATIONS. — FUTURE PUNISHMENT CONSISTS IN SUPPBRING. 

THUS far we have traced in the New Testament 
teachings a continuous history of the soul after 
death. It passes at once to a state of conscious joy 
or sorrow. At the closing of this remedial dispensa- 
tion, it is joined by the body, now roused from the 
sleep of ages, and in company with the whole human 
race, simultaneously clothed with flesh again by a mira- 
cle of inconceivable grandeur and extent, is summoned 
before God in preparation for a sentence still, more 
formal and complete. The sentence assigns to the one 
class the eternal companionship of God and all holy 
beings ; to the other, the society and the doom of the 
devil and his angels, — a doom elsewhere described as a 
perpetual and miserable existence. 

But the New Testament does not leave the subject 
thus. It teaches in very express forms that the final 
doom of sin is, not insensibility and non-existence, but 
positive suflFering, and that protracted and eternal. The 
attempt is continually made by annihilationists to fore- 
stall and rule out all this testimony by accumulated 
quotations concerning " death," " destruction," " per- 
ishing," and the like. But, as we have seen, these lat- 

204 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 265 

ter expressions have no such force. There is no col- 
lision between the two modes of statement : the one is 
only explanatory of the other. The passages which 
we are about to quote simply show what the Scriptures 
mean by death, perishing, and destruction. As, in the 
Bible, life is more than existence; so is death more than 
non-existence, and yet less. As, in this world, men 
often witness the ruin of a living man, which, as they 
say, is worse than death ; so, in the other world, there 
is a destruction, which, by the confession of annihila- 
tionists themselves, is more terrible than extinction. 

It is one of the commonest and simplest principles 
of interpretation, in secular as well as in sacred writ- 
ings, to explain the briefer phraseology by the fuller 
descriptions of the same writers. To be saved by the 
grace of God, we find elsewhere. includes the specific 
human acts of repentance and faith. To be justified 
by faith, without the works of the law, we learn does 
nevertheless comprise those very exercises of holy liv- 
ing which might at first seem to be excluded. The 
real meaning of the divine names applied to Christ is 
made absolutely certain by the fuller ascription of di- 
vine attributes, works, and worship. It is therefor© 
both legitimate and indispensable to learn the force of 
the briefer terms of the Bible by the fuller statements 
which unfold them. Now, on the nature and duration 
of the punishment of the wicked, the Scriptures are 
consistent, uniform, and explicit. 

I. First, The Scriptures, whenever they speak in 
detail, under a variety of forms, invariably describe 
future punishment as consisting in the infliction of suf- 
fering, aiid not in the arrest and cessation of it. No- 



260 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

where can the statement be found, that God's great and 
ultimate vengeance upon the sinner will consist in the 
final annulment of the woes that his sin has wrought. 
Everywhere, on the other hand, it is both implied and 
asserted that the penalty of sin is the letting loose of 
woe upon the transgressor's head. " There is no peace, 
saith my God, to the wicked." 

Let the reader clearly mark the issue. Does the 
main stress and crowning stroke of divine punishment 
consist in the final extinction of the wicked, or in the 
tremendous pressure of suffering and anguish upon 
the sinning soul ? The annihilationists maintain the 
former ; the Scriptures, most abundantly and unequiv- 
ocally, the latter. 

1. This doctrine is contained in the assertion, that 
there are grades of punishment. The New Testament 
plainly declares that there shall be diflFerent degrees of 
penalty inflicted at the final judgment. " It shall be 
more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah 
in the day of judgment than for that city " which 
should reject Christ's messengers (Matt. x. 15). " It 
shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day 
of judgment than for you," Chorazin and Bethsaida. 
" More tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of 
judgment than for thee," Capernaum (Matt. xi. 22, 
24). "And that servant which knew his Lord's will, 
and prepared not himself, neither did according to his 
will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that 
knew not, and did commit -things worthy of stripes, 
shall be beaten with few stripes" (Luke xii. 47, 48). 
" Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for 
ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make 



NEW TESHAMENT TEACHINGS. 267 

long prayers ; therefore ye shall receive the greater 
damnation" (Matt, xxiii. 14). In thase and other 
passages, the Saviour clearly affirms diverse degrees of 
severity of punishment proportioned/ to the aggrava- 
tion of guilt. 

Mr. Dobney freely admits the fact. " Let it be ad- 
mitted that there are, as we easily perceive there ought 
to be, degrees of punishment. ... To the fact of 
degrees of guilt we must adhere ; and then the con- 
sequence is inevitable." * 

This teaching is entirely incompatible with the the- 
ory that extinction is the doom of sin. There are no 
degrees of extinction. Of a doom which consists in 
conscious suflFering there can be greater or smaller 
inflictions ; but of annihilation there can be neither 
more nor less ; it is simply annihilation. It can neither 
be doubled nor halved, increased nor diminished. The 
Sodomite can be no less annihilated, the Oapernaite 
no more, than, the multitude of sinning Jews. The 
very announcement of degrees in the final penalty of 
sin, therefore, disproves the doctrine that extinction is 
the penalty. 

Annihilationists have felt the force of the difficulty. 
To Mr. Dobney " it appears one of the very strongest 
of all objections " to his doctrine. The reply he makes 
is the following suggestion : " It is quite conceivable 
that the length of time which shall elapse ere the 
wicked utterly cease to be, and the degree of suflFering 
by which the final dissolution shall be preceded and 
accompanied, may be exactly proportioned to their va- 
rious deserts." Hudson more briefly says the same: 

* Future PuDishment, pp. 264, 266. 



268 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

" The pangs of tiie second death may be the measure 
of the sins ^f life." * Hastings likewise : " It took 
some six hundred and thirty years to execute the * death 
penalty ' pronounced on Adam : how long it may re- 
quire to execute the penalty of the ' second death ' upon 
individual sinners, I do not pretend to say." f 

Returning, now, to the fuller reply of Itfr. Dobney, 
we find it to be this ; viz., in proportion to the sinner's 
guilt, the longer he may be in dying, and the greater 
the attendant suffering. We think we can not mistake 
his idea of a lingering' death. He evidently means 
the suflFering is the more protracted and severe in pro- 
portion as the guilt is great. Mr. Hastings seems to in- 
dorse the view in the passage connected with what we 
have quoted. 

Perhaps this is the best reply that the case admits. 
But, specious as it may at first sight appear, it is thor- 
oughly suicidal. For (1), in supposing a. protraction 
of suffering (and therefore of existence) in proportion 
lo the aggravation of the guilt, the writer contradicts 
his own first principle by ascribing to sin the power 
to prolong existence. A degree of guilt immense and 
Satanic might thus have the power to extend the exist- 
ence beyond all conceivable limits. And as the sinful 
state continues even during the act of punishment, 
why, on the same principle, should not the successive 
degrees of ill-desert continue to protract the existence 
beyond each present infliction, till it becomes literally 
endless ? How much less than this is involved in Mr. 
Hastings's admission, that /' it took some six hundred 
and tliirty years to execute the death-penalty pro- 

* Debt and Grace, p. 400. f Retribution, p. 77. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 269 

nounced on Adam : how long it may require to execute 
the penalty of the^ second death upon individual sin- 
ners, I do not pretend to say " ? Surely these words 
contain a marvelous modification of the original aspect 
of the system, which describes the penalty of sin as 
being utterly exterminated, literally cut off, burnt up, 
brought to an end, and the like. But (2) this reply 
abandons the fundamental principle of the system; 
namely, that the one grand penalty of sin is extinc- 
tion. This is the one thing into which every form of 
Scripture threat is finally resolved : every thing means 
extinction. Much of the arguing of these writers re- 
quires, too, a rapid extinction. The whole analogy on 
which it turns fails them, except it be so understood. 
Thus all those phrases like " grinding to powder,'* 
" tearing in pieces," " cutting asunder," " burned up 
like chaff," if they could be validly used at all in the 
material sense in which annihilationists choose to take 
them, equally denote an instantaneous extinction. So 
these very writers elsewhere speak. Mr. Hastings asks, 
" What was the effect of casting bodies.into this fire ? " 
(the fire of Hinnom.) ..." They were entirely and 
totally burned to ashes, consumed^ burnt up^ devoured 
by fire " (the Italics are his). " Yvom' this considera- 
tion, we should conclude that the iwixivQ gehenna of fire 
would consume and destroy utterly every thing sub- 
mitted to its flames." * Ellis and Read say, " The 
punishments that have taken place iagehenna [i.e., the 
Valley of Hinnom] destroyed life, and the torment was 
never protracted beyond a day: so the punishment 
that will take place in gehenna will destroy life in a 

* Pauline Theology, p. 51. 



270 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

limited period." Again: "We have now examined 
every passage where gehenna is named ; and we find no 
expression indicating that the wicked will be kept 
alive in torment, but we do find a place where they 
will be miserably destroyed." Blain insists, with abun- 
dant reiteration, that " the fire that shall not be 
quenched " means " utter destruction." * Hudson, in 
speaking of these terms, " unquenchable' fire," says, 
" Any mode of reasoning which would infer from them 
the immortality of the lost must assume the indestruc- 
tibility of chaff, felled trees, and of the dry branches 
of a vine ; " and he quotes a scholiast on Homer as 
explaining a similar phrase to mean " that which burns 
down quickly, or is quenched with difficulty." 

Under all the forms of argument, indeed, the system 
puts forth this one prime fact, that the doom of sin is 
" destruction," — meaning, thereby, annihilation. Mr, 
Hastings even prints in small capitals the word "sud- 
den" in the passages that speak of" sud4en destruction" 
coming upon the wicked ; and, in the same connection, 
he lays down and earnestly maintains the proposition, 
that " punishment is not always in proportion to the 
pain endured," and that " the person punished may 
not endure torment at all." f He does indeed, else- 
where, and for another purpose, maintain that all the 
antecedent sufferings of Adam's life, for six hundred 
and thirty years, are included in the term " death." J 
Yet, if there be any specialty in the system at all, it 

* Bible vs. Tradition, pp. 84, 222, 226. 

t Pauline Theology, pp. 69, 60. 

I Retribution, p. 7^. The reader will perceive the bearing of this ad- 
mission on the system that elsewhere so narrows the moaning of the term 
"death." 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 271 

consists ill the pertinacious position, that extinction is 
the doom of sin. But here we have a sudden aban- 
donment of the position, and a recourse to the com- 
mon view, whicii locates punishment in suffering, — an 
abandonment so complete, that the extinction is but an 
incidental feature of the case, while the suffering in- 
flicted is the chief thing ; " the degree of suffering " 
being " exactly proportioned to their various deserts." 
Such is the dilemma in which annihilationists are in- 
volved in reply to the difficulty. 

In truth, the Scriptures in this respect make the 
punishment of the wicked correspond to the happiness 
of the righteous. The righteous are represented as 
entering on a state of blessedness, varying in degree 
with their Christian fidelity and attainments, and dif- 
fering as "one star differeth from another star in 
glory." The wicked enter on a state where their di- 
verse degrees of guilt shall be met by diverse degrees 
of suffering. 

2. The New Testament writers, in direct terms, con- 
stantly and chiefly represent the final doom of sin as a 
state of great suffering. This is the great emphatic 
fact which they put forth, the fore-front of their rep- 
resentation. It is described as a doom, terrific not 
merely in general, but specially terrific for its anguish. 
The utterances on this point are varied and abundant. 

Thus the writer to the Hebrews describes it as far 
more terrible than that natural death which many an- 
nihilationists declare to be itself the only doom. " He 
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under 
two or three witnesses : of how much sorer pimish- 
ment QntiQwog rifcoi^eiDe^*, vengeance), suppose ye shall he 



272 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the 
Son of God ? ... It is a fearful thing to fall into the 
hands of the living God " (Heb. x. 28, 29, 31). 

In Rom. ii. 5-9, Paul still more specifically defines the 
nature of that doom which makes it a fearful thing to 
fall into the hands of the living God, and informs us 
how the " wrath " treasured up " against the day of 
wrath " will express itself in the infliction of intense 
suffering : God will render " indignation and wrath, 
tribulation and anguish^ upon every soul of man that 
doeth evil." In a subsequent verse (12th), he uses the 
word " perish " as the brief equivalent of these specific 
statements ; just as in a previous verse the words 
" glory," " honor," " incorruptibility" (acjp^o^ta), find 
their synonyme in the phrase " eternal life.'' 

In 2 Thess. i. 6, again, he calls it tribulation : " See- 
ing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense 
tribulation to them that trouble you." This tribula- 
tion is the same thing which in verse 8 he phrases " in 
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not 
God ; " and, in verse 9, being " punished with everlast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power." In the last quota- 
tion, the expression, ''from the presence of the Lord," is 
understood by Alford, Liinemann, and others, as mean- 
ing " apart from " or " away from " the presence of 
the Lord. But, as the point is disputed, we need not 
insist upon it. 

So our Saviour, after having pronounced his blessings 
(Luke vi. 21-23) on those that hunger now and weep 
now, and are hated and reproached, because they shall 
be filled and shall laugh, and whose " reward is great 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINQS. 273 

in heaven," proceeds (verses 24, 25) to pronounce a 
woe upon those whose only portion is in this life, be- 
cause of the disconsolateness, destitution, mourning, 
and weeping hereafter: "But woe unto you that are 
rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe 
unto you that are full ! for ye shall hunger. Woe 
unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and 
weep." 

In the same strain, James (v. 1-6), anticipating the 
" miseries " of the ungodly rich in " the last days," at 
" the coming of the Lord " (verse 7), bids them weep 
and howl in the prospect, and warns them that those 
ill-gotten riches shall then prove a torture to them ; 
" shall eat your flesh as it were fire ; " where the reader 
will observe that fire is spoken of clearly as the agent 
of suffering : " Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and 
howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. . . . 
Your gold and silver is cankered ; and the rust of them 
shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh 
as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for 
the last days," etc. 

It is remarkable, how, under whatever image future 
punishment is set forth in the New Testament, the suf- 
fering of the state is almost invariably, thrust forth as 
the grand feature of the case ; sometimes even at the 
expense of perfect congruity in the representation. Is 
it a place of darkness, a furnace of fire, a debtor's 
prison, a banishment from the feast, a cutting-asunder, 
a lake of fire ? The perpetual comment and incessant 
burden of the strain is the resultant woe. Let us look 
at the subject in detail. 

In three several instances, our Saviour calls the state 

18 



274 MFB AND DEATH STERNAL. 

or abode of those who are finally excluded from the 
kmgdom of heaven " the outer darkness." In each 
instance, he adds the one fearful and emphatic descrip- 
tion of that abode, that ^^ there shall be weeping, and 
gnashing of teeth." Thus Matt. viii. 11, 12 : " And I 
say unto you, that many shall come from the east and 
the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac 
and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven : but the children 
of the kingdom shall be cast out into [the] outer dark- 
ness ; there [in that place, ixei] shall be weeping, 
and gnashing of teeth." Again, in describing the in- 
truding guest at the wedding-feast (Matt. xxii. 13) : 
" Then said the king to the servants. Bind him hand 
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into [the] 
outer darkness ; there [in that place] shall be weep- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth." In declaring the doom 
of the unprofitable servant (Matt. xxv. 30).: " And 
cast ye the unprofitable servant into [the] outer 
darkness ; there [txet] shall be weeping^ and gnash- 
ing of teeth." Such was our Saviour's sole and 
fearful comment on " the outer darkness." As this 
outer darkness unquestionably denotes the same thing 
with the " mist of darkness" in 2 Pet. ii. 17, and " the 
blackness of darkness," Jude^ 13, it certainly required 
no little hardihood in Mr. Hudson coolly to dismiss 
these plirases as simply synonymes of " non-existence," 
" blank nothingness." * 

Twice the Saviour terms the condition of the lost a, 
or rather the, furnace of fire. But, though the image 
is just the opposite of the preceding, he describes the 
nature of the abode each time by the same sole and 

♦ Debt and Grace, pp. 208, 209. 



■■ 



solemn characteiisdc. and in the same words: ^* Thei*o 
shall be wailing, and gnashing of teeth *' (^Matt. xiii, 
40-42). " So shall it be at the end of this world. The 
Son of man shall send forth his angels, and thej shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and 
them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a 
[the T^] furnace of fire ; there [«fr] shall be wail- 
ing, and gnasliing of teeth.' ' Verses 49, 50 : *' So 
shall it be at the end of the world : the angels shall 
come forth and sever the wickenl from among the just, 
and shall cast them into iha furnace of fire ; there 
shall be wailing, and gnashing of teeth." Certainly it 
requires some exegetical boldness to treat this repeated, 
deliberate, and solemn description — the sole summing- 
up of the whole state and condition '• — as a mere tran- 
sient incident in the case. But we have not done with 
these expressions. 

In Matt. xxiv. 50, 51, the Saviour describes their 
doom as having their " portion with the hypocrites," 
and adds the same sole characterizing remark : " The 
lord of that servant shall come in a day when he look- 
eth not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 
and shall cut him asunder \_dixozofjiTjGeiy cut him in two], 
and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ; there 
(suet) shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth." Here 
" the hypocrites " have a portion, — of which the one 
characteristic is that it is a doom of suffering, — to 
which, in conjunction with them, the unfaithful servant 
is consigned, after an infliction (" cutting asunder "), 
which, according to annihilationist interpretation, would 
be extinqtion. 

Yet once more^(Luke xiii. 28) our Lord describes 



276 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

the condition of those who are excluded from the king- 
dom of heavQn by the same terse and solitary com- 
ment. He had been exhorting his hearers, "Strive 
to enter in at the strait gate," and warning them of 
the hopelessness of their longing desires when once the 
Master of the house hath risen up and hath shut to 
the door ; and he proceeds : " There shall be weeping, 
and gnashing of teeth, wiien ye shall see Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the king- 
dom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." 

In another place, the Saviour represents the doom 
of the wicked under the form of an imprisonment in 
suffering, a delivering to " the tormentors." The par- 
able of the merciless servant concludes thus (Matt, 
xviii. 34, 35) : " And his lord was wroth, and delivered 
him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was 
due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do 
also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every 
one his brother their trespasses." The word translated 
"tormentors" (^aaavusxalg) is correctly rendered. It 
designated torturers, oflScers who inflicted or superin- 
tended the process of bodily torture. The word, it is 
believed, has no other known use. Some commentators, 
and with them Robinson's Lexicon, have endeavored 
to soften the term to a simple synonyme for prison 
keeper, but without any authority.* 

* On this whole subject of torture, see the article paaavog in Smithes 
Dictionary of Antiquities. The writer sets out with the word /Sdorovof, 
which he defines as " the general term among the Athenians for the ap- 
plication of torture." It was sometimes employed in punishment, and was 
invariably used in examining slaves. " Tlie parties interested either super- 
intended the torture themselves, or chose certain persons for this purpose; 
hence called paaaviaral.^^ Olshausen is constrained to admit the meaning 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS, 277 

In like manner, as we have already seen previously, 
the lake of fire in which all classes of evil-doers shall 
have their part (Rev. xxi. 8) is the place of " torment 
for ever and ever " (Rev. xx. 10). 

We are also assured (Rev. xiv, 9-11), " If any man 
worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark 
in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of 
the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out with- 
out mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and he 
shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the pi*es- 
sence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor 
night, who worship the beast and his image, and who- 
soever receiveth the mark of his name." Here the 
general statement of experiencing God's wrath be- 
comes particularized into the definite infliction of ter- 
rific and endless suffering, and this jnade still more 



of the word, though endeavoring to break its force. He renders it " the tor- 
mentors," and proceeds to say, " The paaavtaraiy torturers are, according 
to the connection, the guardians of the prison, who also were certainly em- 
ployed to inflict torture. There were, however, no special racks or tortures 
provided for debtors." Yes; but here was a mdUfjnant debtor, punished not 
for his debt, which would have been remitted, but for his malignity. Our 
Lord is representing a fTiora/ offense, — an offense against God; and, as 
usual, he molds the customs of men into such shapes as will express his 
higher principles. It was characteristic enough for Kuinoel, but unworthy 
of a commentator like Olshausen, to evade the acknowledged meaning of 
the language by such a remark. He might as well object to the teaching 
of the same parable concerning God's willingness to forgive, that there was 
no such custom among the Jews, Greeks, or Romans, as freely remitting a 
debt of ten thousand talents, — in truth, no such debts owed by servants 
to their masters ; or, in the parable of the laborers hired for a penny a day, 
that there was no such usage as paying men equally for one hour as for a 
day's work. It is a paltry objection. Accordingly, Bengel, Meyer, Alford, 
adhere to the only known meaning of the word *^ tormentors," or torturers. 



278 HFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

distinct by the statement that it is a suflfering from 
which there is no interval of rest. 

Messrs. Dobney, Ellis, and Hudson adopt the bold 
expedient of denying that this threat has any reference 
to the future world ; the last-mentioned writer aiding 
himself by citing, in his "Debt and Grace," only the last 
one of the three verses, and, in his " Christ our Life," 
the last two. The passage, he remarks, " refers to- the 
scenes of time, and not to the final judgment." 

It would certainly be far easier to show that the Sa- 
viour's threat (Luke xii. 9), " He that denieth me be- 
fore men shall be denied before the angels of God," 
refers to the scenes of time. No doubt the scenes and 
circumstances in which the oflfense is committed, are, 
as in all cases of sin threatened with future penalties, 
among the scenes of time. The punishment bears 
every mark of being the great final punishment,- 1. 
When we consider the character of the offense, one of 
the greatest description. The beast is now generally 
conceded to be the persecuting sacerdotal power,-^— the 
fiercest form of antagonism to Christianity. To wor- 
ship him, or to receive his mark, is, therefore, devoted 
adhesion to this fierce opposition. It is not merely to 
deny Christ before men, but to persecute him.* It is 
an offense committed, not by symbolical personages, but 
by individual offenders. Is there any thing in such an 
offense to justify or require our restraining the terrific 

* It makes no difference whether we understand this sacerdotal power as 
both heathen and Christian (with Alford and Auberlen),or as simply heathen 
(with De Wette, Hengstenberg, Diisterdieck, Stuart, and others). The force 
of the argument will not be destroyed, even were we to adopt Mr. Hudson's 
explanation, that the sin is " the conduct of idolatrous people,'* though the 
Interpretation is of the thinnest. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS, 279 

language of the threat from its full, tremendous sweep ? 
2. In the terms employed to describe the punishment, 
(a) it is eternal in duration, — "for ever and ever ; " 
and that the eternity is one of contirming sufferings is 
proved by the subsequent statement, " they have no 
rest day nor night." (b) The words " tormented with 
j&re and brimstone " manifestly refer to the same thing 
as having their " part in the lake which burneth with 
fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (c) 
The accumulation of the intensest expressions in four- 
fold mode, commencing with " the wine of the wrath 
of Grod, poured out without mixture into the cup of 
his indignation," is such as is nowhere surpassed, if 
equaled, in the Bible descriptions of future punishment. 
(d) The punishment is also clearly carried into the 
other world by the statement that it is " in the pres- 
ence^of the holy angels and^f the Lamb." 3. In the 
marked correspondence of the passage to numerous 
others which evidently refer to the other world. Be- 
sides those which have been mentioned, we are at once 
reminded of such passages as the promise (Rev. iii. 5), 
" I will confess his name before my Father and before 
his angels ; " of the general announcement of a final 
retribution (Matt. xvi. 27), " For the Son of man 
shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, 
and then shall he reward every^man according to his 
works;" and of the combined promise and threat 
(Luke xii. 8,9)," Whosoever shall confess me before 
men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the 
angels of God ; but he that denieth me before men 
shall be denied before the angels of God." Also 2 
Thess. i. 7, 8 : " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from 



280 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

heaven with his might/ angels> in flaming fire taking 
vengeance on them that know not God." In the in- 
tensity of its expressions concerning God's wrath, the 
passage also stands closely associated with those other 
passages concerning " the wrath to come," " the day 
of wrath," " the great day of his wrath," '^the vessels 
of wrath : " those assertions, that " the wrath of God 
abideth on " those who do not believe in the Son ; that 
he will render " indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish," in the day when he shall judge the world ; 
that " for these things the wrath of God cometh on 
.the children of disobedience," and the like. In short, 
if this passage does not refer to the punishment of the 
future world, it would be hard to find one that can be 
shown to have that reference. Accordingly, scholarly 
conunentators, rationalists included, almost without 
exception (such men, e.g., •as Bengel, De Wette, Heng- 
stenberg, Alford, Stuart, Diisterdieck, Graeber), have 
found this to be one of the clearest passages in the 
Bible on the subject of future suffering. 

All these utterances are unequivocal : they depend 
on no inferences from ambiguous terms ; but, in the 
most direct and emphatic manner, they set forth the 
final doom of sin under the one great aspect of suflFer- 
ing, woe. In the present connection, we cite but one 
mfore passage, somewtat less explicit in word, and yet 
equally clear and significant in fact. 

Mark ix. 42-48 : " And whosoever shall offend one 
of these little ones which believe oh me, it is better for 
him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee, 
cut it oflf: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, 



N^W TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 281 

than, having two hands, to go [depart outelJdtW] into hell 
\ykwav]^mio the fire that never shall be quenched 
[SuG^eG-tov unquenchable] (where their worm dieth not, 
and the fire is not quenched). And if thy foot offend 
thee, cut it oflF: it is better for thee to enter halt into 
life, than, having two feet, to be cast into hell (intoihe 
fire that never shall be quenched ; where their worm 
dieth not, and the fire is not quenched). And if thine 
eye offend thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee to 
enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than, 
having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire ; where their 
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 

To avoid all complication with any doubtful reading, 
we have marked with parentheses, and propose not to 
make use of, certain portions of this passage which are 
wanting in some four or five out of seventeen uncial 
manuscripts, and which are tlropped from the text by 
Tischendorf, though retained by Lachmann and Al- 
ford.* 

Here, again, no evasion can hide from the reader the 
fact, that the grand representation involved is the hor- 
ribleness of the condition into which the wicked must 
depart. First is the solemn warning, that it were far 
better to be drowned in the sea before committing the 
sin of misleading Christ's little ones. Then comes the 

* Alford insists on retaining the text as in onr version, and characterizes 
the omissions as corrections by the copyists, easily accounted for. The au- 
thorities are as follows : for retaining, uncial manuscripts A, D, E, P, G, H, 
K, M, S, U,V, X, T, most cursive manuscripts (a large number), most of the 
Latin versions before Jerome, the Vulgate, Gothic, Ethiopic, both Syriac 
versions, and others, Augustine, Irenseus; against it are only B^ C, L, A, 
with cursives 1, 28, 118, 251, 266, 2 pe, one Latin version (out of some sev- 
enteen), the Coptic and Armenian, to which must now bo added the Codex 
Sinaiticns. 



282 LIFE AND DEATH ETE^NA^. 

admonition to sacrifice, at whatever cost of pain and 
loss, rather than encounter the doom in question. And, 
finally, we have an accumulation of images of woe and 
terror connected with the doom itself: it is gehenna^ 
the gehenna of fire, the fire unquenchable, the death- 
les^worm, and the fire that is not quenched. 

The parallel passage in Matt, xviii. 8 has also " ever- 
lasting fire." Let now the reader bear in mind the 
Scripture's own corresponding phraseology, " tormented 
in this flame," " tormented with fire and brimstone for 
ever and ever," " shall eat your flesh as it were fire ; " 
let him observe the stress which is laid upon the 
interminableness here asserted in at least four different 
forms, — unquenchable, that is not quenched, ever- 
lasting, that never dies ; let him note the horror of 
the images employed in themselves, and their incom- 
patibility except as they are mag-es of horror, — un- 
quenchable fire and undying worm ; let him observe 
how this accumulated terror is addressed in solemn 
warning to the individual sinner, as a doom which he is 
not only to behold, but to experience, — and he can not 
doubt the aim of the passage as a declaration of dread- 
ful woe in the other world. 

The cavils against this obvious meaning rise through 
all grades, from the lowest. As to the endlessness of 
the infliction, among other things, Mr. Dobney (pa;ge 
208) suggests that the fire is called unquenchable, " not 
as absolutely and in itself inextinguishable, but rela- 
tively to the object cast into it ; " whereas Matthew ex- 
presses it in the parallel passage as " the everlasting fire" 
(to TtvQ TO otmvm). Ellis and Bead have a ready device 
to meet this diflBculty ; for, with their accustomed schol- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 283 

arship, they translate the latter phrase (p. 221), "the 
fire of the age." Not quite satisfied with this, they 
suggest (p. 222), that, "even supposing the original 
would bear this construction [namely, that of the com- 
mon translation], it would only imply that the instrur 
ment of the punishment would be perpetual ; " as 
though the Saviour had employed such reiterated and 
tremendous emphasis to establish in his solemn warning 
merely the proposition that a fire should burn on, and 
a worm live on, for ever. But here Mr. Hudson comes 
to the rescue : " It is not the immortality of the indi- 
vidual soul, but the muUitiide of those who finally per- 
ish, that challenges the unquenched fire and the un- 
failing worm " (Debt and Grace, p. 199). Without 
pausing to inquire into the consistency of the admission 
with some of his other arguings on the subject,* it is 
enough to say that this material conception is not only 
false to the original declaration, but just perverts the 
whole force of the passage from a terrific warning to 
the individual sinner into a general remark about the 
immense multitude of those who shall finally perish. 
To what purpose did the Saviour use that emphasis of 
threefold reiteration, " the unquenchable fire, the fire 
that is not quenched, the deathless worm " ? Was it 

* Three pages later (p. 202), this writer takes a different, and, it would 
seem, incompatible position. " The former {&opEarog) describes the fierce 
nets and all-consuming yiolence of the fire; the latter {6jjuv(joq\ its irrepara- 
ble effect. The et&mal fire is that whick destroys utterly and for ever." Thus 
an eternal fire becomes the briefest fire conceivable. Mr. Hastings advances 
an interpretation of the unquenchable or unquenched fire equally character- 
istic. The result he reaches makes it one of a class of fires which ^* have 
not been quenched^ but, having accomplished their end, have ceased to bum " 
(Pauline Theology, p. 52). And this equivocation we are to understand as 
exhausting tlie force of Christ^s solemn declaration ! 



284 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

to describe as matter of information the immber of the 
lost ? or was it to bring home the terror of future pun- 
ishment to the individual ? To ask the question is to 
answer it. There could not be a grosser deviation from 
the intent of the utterance than Mr. Hudson has ad- 
vanced. It is vain for him to say that his explanation 
brings home the terror of the scene to the individual : 
for his theory is that the individual is extinguished by 
the fierceness of the flame ; he is not there as a spec- 
tator to witness it. 

But a more specious objection is raised from the 
origin of the phraseology in question. It is alleged, 
truly, that the particular mode of expression is drawn 
from Isa. Ixvi. 24 ; and it is maintained that " the words 
by their own force can prove no more iu the one case 
than in the other. If they properly signify or imply 
immortality in the New Testament, they will do the 
same in the Old Testament " (Christ our Life, p. 97). 
The case is artfully stated ; for we never decide the 
meaning of declarations merely by " the proper force 
of the words," but also by the scope, connection, and 
' subject. 

But to go into the details of the argument. It is 
said (p. 98) : " As worms and fire utterly consume a 
dead body; so, if the antitype be true to the type, the 
two passages furnish the liveliest picture and the strong- 
est proof of the utter extinction of the lost." Here is 
the main argument of the whole body of annihilation- 
ists on this subject. It is the fundamental principle 
of the system. And its unsoundness appears at once 
from the fact that it necessarily cuts off the possibility 
of imaging forth any other penal transaction than a 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 285 

transient one/and forcibly turns all such representa- 
tions into images of extinction ; for the reason that 
every process in a temporal world is temporary, and 
each process here that is most terrific and painful is 
incidentally the most short-lived. Dissolution most 
speedily attends it. The system thus insists on drag- 
ging every thing to this material standard, and lays 
down a principle which beforehand precludes our find- 
ing any threat of punishment consistent with immor- 
tality ; whereas the Scriptures everywhere use and 
must use the imperfect types of this world to express 
the complete and perfect things of the other. As, on 
the one hand, a perishable city typifies a heavenly home, 
a passing inheritance in Palestine an endless possession 
of blessedijf ss, and the pleasures of feasting, which so 
soon reach satiety and loathing, continually represent 
those joys that never pall ; so, on the other hand, the 
abode, condition, sufferings, of the lost, are everywhere 
set forth in forms of horrors so intense, that, from the 
very constitution of things here, they are transient. But 
the Scriptures everywhere correct this incidental 
defect in the type by statements indicative of the 
eternity of the antitype; and these expressions of 
eternity the annihilationists continually overrule. They 
override them, and rule them out, on the ground that 
the figures connected with them, and which they en- 
deavor to extend, have these incidental defects. The 
words are not permitted to perform the use for which 
they were designed, simply because they have such a 
use. 

But to meet the objection directly. The original 
passage in Isa. Ixvi. 24 is not a picture of annihilation, 



286 UFB AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

but of visible continuous horror. 1. Such is the com- 
ment of the passage itself. After announcing that 
these victims of God's vengeance shall lie without 
the city, to be viewed by its holy inhabitants, while 
^Hheir worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be 
quenched," the next words are, " and they shall be an 
abhorring unto all flesh." 2. Such is the nature of the 
scene in which it is found : it describes a permanent 
state of things ; it is laid in Messianic times ; it is the 
holy mountain Jerusalem (verse 20) with " the new 
heavens and the new earth," and " a seed," which 
shall be equally permanent (verse 22). From month 
to month, and from Sabbath to Sabbath (a permanent 
arrangement), ^^ shall all flesh come to worship before 
me, saith the Lord " (verse 23). In connection with 
this everlasting state of things, the next announcement 
is, " they [the inhabitants of this holy mountain] shall 
go forth [non loco^ sed contempMione^ Calvin], and look 
upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed 
against me ; for their worm," etc. It is a sight coeval 
with the other facts and scenes of this Messianic state. 
3. The phraseology itself conforms to the connection, 
and compels this view. What need of an eternal 
agency to perform a work of dissolution that Nature 
alone quickly accomplishes ? A transient fire will soon 
reduce a body to ashes : the perishing worm is ade- 
quate to the work of speedy decay. But that " their 
worm that shall not die " can fairly signify here noth- 
ing short of an eternal corrosion ; and that " their 
fire shall not be quenched " can signify in this connec- 
tion no less than an endless combustion. The phra- 
seology employed precisely conforms to the perpetuity 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 287 

of the scene of which it describes a part. 4. The in 
terpretation of the Jews before Christ to this effect may 
be seen in the apocryphal books of Judith and Sirach. 
Thus (Judith xvi. 20, 21) : " Woe be to the nation 
that riseth up against my people ; for the Lord Almighty 
will take revenge upon them : in the day of judgment 
he will visit them ; for he will give fire and worms^into 
their flesh, that they may burn and may feel for ever " 
{liavaortcu ev aladtjaei tag amvog^ burn with feeling or in 
consciousness for ever). So, more briefly, Sirach vii. 
19 : " The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly is 
fire and worms." 5. The ablest modern conunenta- 
tors, especially those who are untrammeled by any con- 
sideration but the meaning of the text, take this view 
without hesitation. Thus Ejiobel, one of the latest and 
keenest of the German rationalists : " The bodies of 
the fallen remain unburied for their punishment ; and 
Jehovah will cause that they, still having feeling (Job 
xiv. 22), shall be incessantly and painfully eaten by 
worms, and that the fire by which he has slain them 
shall burn perpetually, and cause them lasting suffer- 
ing." Maiirer, also' a rationalist, simply quotes as his 
interpretation the two before-cited passages fi-om Ju- 
dith and Sirach of the Apocrypha. Eosenmiiller un- 
derstands, that, like dead bodies, the living shall be 
continually eaten by worms. He adds, however, that 
others, as Vitringa and Gesenius, hold that, to the gen- 
eral figure drawn from the fires in the valley of the 
sons of Hinnom, " the prophet adds another figure," 
of dead bodies gradually eaten and devoured by worms; 
and to these dead bodies themselves, sensibility is at- 
tributed. Certainly, in this sense, the passage is by 



288 LIFE AND DEATII ETERNAL, 

our Lord transferred to the punishment of the wicked 
condemned after death to eternal flames." Meyer, 
also, in his comment on the passage as it stands in 
Mark ix., fully sustains the view : " A figurative de- 
signation of most painful and endless hell-punish- 
ments (not merely pains of conscience) after Isa. Ixvi. 
24 ; compare Sirach vii. 19, Judith xvi. 21. Against 
the literal understanding of the worm and fire, it is 
conclusive that they are, in fact, incompatible together." 

The truth is, that the prophet, as in so many other 
instances, under the guidance of a higher power^ rises 
to a remarkable and unheard-of conception, and em- 
ploys language already fitted for the uses of the gos- 
pel ; and the Saviour needs make no change in the 
phraseology to express thereby the endless sufferings 
of the lost. That the Saviour does so* employ it, we 
have suflBciently shown. No tampering with the edges 
of the declaration can escape the emphasis of his repe- 
tition, — the use of the parallel word eternal, — and 
the point of his solemn warning addressed to the indi- 
vidual offender to escape such accumulated woo. Ac- 
cordingly, the great body of couUnentators who have 
any standing as scholars or critics, whether orthodox 
or rationalist, have recognized the Saviour's utterance 
as a clear designation, in word at least, of endless suf- 
ferings.* 

We cite one other passage. Matt. xxv. 46 : " And 
these shall go away into everlasting punishment ; but 
the righteous, into life eternal." In connection with this 

* An attempt to sustain the annihilationist view by a passage of Euse- 
bius in which -nvp aapearog occurs twice, and by other citations, is examined 
in Note F, Appendix. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 289 

must be taken the previous verse (41st) : " Then shall 
he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from 
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels." That the punishment {mhiaig 
du&pwg) is suffering, not extinction, will appear in sev- 
eral ways. 1. We might properly appeal to the very 
idea of punishment. It is in some way, always, the 
infliction of suffering. Deprivation is suflFering, while 
there is a living being to feel that suflFering. Death is 
suflFering, not alone in the pangs of decease, but in 
the extreme terror that it brings to the living in view 
both of those pains, and of the dread scenes that are 
to follow.* Even extinction, in so far as it would be 
punishment at all, would be so only in so far as the 
expectation of it, and the process, would be productive 
of suflFering. 2. Classic usage sustains this funda- 
mental idea. The verb to punish (xoXafoo) is used 
throughout the classics in connection with the agencies . 
of suflFering. Thus, Passow give instances of only 
these connections : to punish with words, with blows, 
with death, with the severest vengeance (t^mqicus)^ to 
be punished by one's sins. And the noun ^okousig in 
Plutarch is synonymous with tiiMoqia, — the two words 
being the two common words, if not the only ones, used 
to express the infliction of suflFering for wrong-dohig.f 



* Mr. Hudson endeavors to conceal this iinportant but palpable fact, and 
argues as though a case of punishment by death \(rere a refutation of the 
idea of suffering. See Reviewers Reviewed, p. 82, etc. ; Debt and Grace, 
p. 192. 

t As to the reading, there is no variation. The conjectures to which Mr. 
Hudson devotes half a page, while as usual protesting that he will not " raise 
any question of the genuineness of the text," have no foundation whatever, 
and are now rejected by all respectable authorities as baseless. 
19 



290 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

3. New Testament usage favors the meaning. The 
only other use of the noun Mlaaig occurs in 1 John ix. 
18: " Because fear hath torment," yiokousiv* Mr. Hud- 
son's statement that " the translation of the word 
[here] by * torment ' is nearly, if not wholly, without 
parallel, and is unsupported by lexicographers," has a 
verbal correctness, and no more. The word " torment " 
is perhaps not used ; but the idea of suffering inflicted — 
of chastisement — is supported by lexicographers, and is 
now defended in this particular passage by most of the 
latest and best scholars ; and his attempt to substi- 
tute " restraint " is, so far as we know, without sup- 
port either in form or in fact. Passow's only defini- 
tion of the word, as applied to men, is " chastisement, 
punishment, by words or acts." Huther (in 1861) thus 
sums up the case : " The word %okaaig always has the 
signification, ' punishment.' This Signification most in- 
terpreters firmly retain in the present instance, though 
they deviate from each other variously in the nearer 
determination of the thought. Thus Liicke explains, 
consciousness of punishment ; De Wette paraphrases 
*has,' by 'receives,' punishment; Diisterdieck, 'has 
already punishment, i.e. condemnation.' Ebrard trans- 
lates yioXaav; ' pain ; ' Lange, ' Fear is a painful feeling;' 
Besser, ' the pain of punishment ' " (Strafpein) : to 
which Huther himself accedes, explaining " the pain 
which one experiences in expectation of being punished 
by him whom he fears." So much for authorities on 
the meaning of the word in that passage. It occurs 
nowhere else in the New Testament. The verb 

* For a fhrther examination of Kokaat/g^ see Note 6, Appendix. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 291 

mkaCoimi is found only in Acts iv. 21 and 2 Pet. ii. 9 ; 
and in both cases has, by universal admission of com- 
mentators, it is believed, the sense of " punish." In 
both instances, very clearly in the former, it bears the 
aspect of the infliction of suflFering.* 4. The con- 
nected phraseology employed is decisive. It is ever- 
lasting fire, everlasting punishment. Instantaneous 
punishment, overwhelming fire, might be consistent 
with annihilation ; but the reiterated statement, that 
the process is eternal, agrees only with a punishment 
which consists in some form of suffering. The only 
mode of esca{)e is in the hardihood which vacates the 
word " everlasting," in both instances, of its legitimate 
meaning (as in all other cases of the kind)^ and makes it 
signify something else, as final, irreversible. The 
strength of the case is increased by the additional £sLct, 
that precisely the same phraseology is used in the same 
breath to denote the duration of the happiness of the 
righteous : it is in both cases cmmtog. Furthermore, 
both fates are alike described as states or permanent 
conditions " into " which the respective classes shall 
"depart "or "go away," — these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment; but the righteous, into life 
eternal. So verse 41, " Depart into everlasting fire." 
(So also Mark ix. 43 : " It is better for thee to enter 
into life maimed, than, having two hands, to go,[«««W«r, 
go away] into hell." 5. An additional consideration, 

* A characteristic specimen of Mr. Hudson's interpretation and argu- 
ment is found in the following: " In Acts iv. 21, the verb koW^o occurs 
and the context favors the sense of punishment wilh a view to * restraint ' 
and prohibition," i.e. to a resulting restraint; where he deliberately con- 
founds the punishment with its expected result — two things as distinct aa 
the discharge of a gun and the subsequent flight of a fHghtoned bird. 



292 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

absolutely conclusive, is the explanation which verse 41 
furnishes. This everlasting punishment is " the ever- 
lasting fire [to nvQ to auavm\ prepared for the devil 
and his angels." But that everlasting fire, as we have 
already seen in our remarks on Rev. xx. 10, and Luke 
viii. 28, 31, is the " abyss," or bottomless pit, the place 
of "torment," the "lake of fire" where "they shall 
be tormented day and night for ever and ever." To 
a Universalist or annihilationist, this passage may oflbr 
no diflSculty; but to most men it is final. 

Perhaps it may be advisable to attend briefly to cer- 
tain counter considerations alleged by the advocates of 
annihilation. 

Some of them (e.g., Storrs, Blain, Hastings) have en- 
deavored to maintain that the word '^okaai^ itself means 
annihilation ; derived, as they suggest, from xo^Jw* 
which has for a primary meaning to prune, curtail, 
dock : hence they say cutting off, or abscission, in their 
peculiar sense of extinction.* These widely circulated 
books are the foundation of the faith of a large portion 
of the annihilationists ; but unfortunately for them, 
the word has no such meaning anywhere in the Greek 
language, as extinction, annihilation, or abscission in 
any such sense. Mr. Dobney and Mr. Hudson are wise 
enough to avoid the gross error. The latter shrewdly 
remarks, that, " in pruning, the tree is not cut off, 
only the branches ; " and expressly admits that there 
is no proof that the word has the meaning claimed by 
bis associates.! 

* Storrs'B Six Sermons, p. 59; Hastings's Pauline Theology, p. 69; 
Blain^ Death not Life, p. 79. 
t Debt and Grace, p. 190. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHWQS. 293 

The latter writer, however, claims that non-existence 
is a state, and therefore may be " everlasting " (Christ 
our Life, p. 148). But this is only a play upon words. 
We may carelessly, and for want of language to talk 
about nothings J call non-existence a state ; but it is in fact 
neither state, attribute, nor condition. It is blank 
nothingness, — a no-state, a no-condition. Of what 
would it be the state or condition ? of the being who is 
non-existent ? But the state of a nothing is what ? 
Nothing, — no state at all. If non-existence is actually 
a state, then nothing has become something. How 
can we, except as we impose on ourselves, speak seri- 
ously of non-existence as actually an everlasting some- 
thing; as having any duration at all, any measure. 
Out on such nonsense ! The lapse of time after an ex- 
tinction may be longer or shorter ; but non-existence 
is neither longer nor shorter. There is no such thing 
as half nothing or twice notliing, or any multiple or 
extension of it. Annihilation is not an everlasting 
pimishment : * it is a transient punishment, having no 
duration beyond the instant of infliction ; although it 
may previously weigh upon the mind with dread. It 
avails nothing to quote careless admissions from able 
writers to the effect that final extinction is everlasting 
punishment. The very confusion in which, according 
to the quotation given, the younger Edwards involved 
himself, shows his error. He said, '^ Endless annihila- 
tion is an endless or infinite punishment," and ^^ on 

* It is apparently at the expense of consistency with himself that Mr. 
Hudson (Christ our Life, pp. 127, 148, etc.) maintains that ** utter extinc- 
tion " is " eternal punishment, an eternal state/*^ For, in all his special in- 
terpretations of the Scripture word " eternal," the eternity is not one of du- 
ration, but of effect. 



LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

this basis, says Mr. Hudson, he builds an argument 
for eternal suflFering, making free with infinitudes, 
as if a second might be added to the first." The 
statement is the suflBcient refutation of the basis it- 
self* 

But we are met with the same argument in another 
form ; viz., that privation is punishment, and annihila- 
tion is eternal privation, and, therefore, eternal punish- 
ment. But there is no privation except as there is 
some person to be deprived, and no eternal privation 
except as there is eternally some being deprived. We 
deem it important to remark, in passing, that the pun- 
ishment even of privation is a positive thing : it con- 
sists in the pain, mental or bodily, which that privation 
is fitted to produce and does produce. It is punish- 
ment because there is an existing person who feels it. 
The baffling of desires and hopes may be the keenest 
anguish. The privation exerts a positive and continu- 
ous eflfect. It is a punishment only on the condition 
and during the time that there is a conscious being to 
feel or to dread it. The souls which are not yet cre- 
ated are undergoing no punishment in not now pos- 
sessing the pleasures of life. The soul that has ceased 
to be, afterward suffers no punishment in not possess- 
ing those pleasures. All the punishment there is takes 
place while there is some one in existence to be pun- 
ished. There is no punishing further. To state the 
case clearly is to prove it. The punishment of anni- 

* Two quotations on the same page (Christ our Life, p. 152) from Bax- 
ter, and Grordon Hall, declare annihilation to be a severer penalty than end- 
less suffering; contrary to the fact, and contrary to Mr. Hudson's whole ar- 
gument 



^■■1 



N£W TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 296 

hilatiou considered as a privation is therefore transient: 
it continues so long as there is a person to feel or to 
shrink from that privation and no longer. To call 
the punishment of annihilation eternal is to impose on 
one's self with words. Annihilation is the end of pun- 
ishment. 

But it is thought by anniliilationists to help their 
argument by insisting strongly that death is punish- 
ment. True, death is suffering'^ both in the process 
usually, and always in the anticipation. And the ter- 
rors felt by anticipation are not alone or chiefly the 
pains of the dying hour ; but, as Shakspeare says, it is 
" the dread of something after death " which " makes 
us rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others 
that we know not of." Death is thus the most terrific 
of punishments ; in this life, and all through life, it 
presses with great power upon the soul. And beyond 
this life it introduces, as we believe the Scripture 
teaches, to still sorer suffering, and becomes an " ever- 
lasting punishment ; " otherwise it would be strictly a 
transient punishment. So annihilation, we grant, 
might be reckoned a punishment so far and so long as 
it causes pain and dread in the person who anticipates 
and should experience it ; and no longer. But since 
there is strictly no such thing as eternal annihilation, 
that is, a non-existence that has an actual and eternal 
existence ; since the annihilated being experiences no 
suffering beyond the moment of extinction, there is noth- 
ing in any of these suggestions to break the force of 
the Saviour's words, or to diminish the proof that the 
punishment here spoken of was a state of positive suf- 
fering. 



296 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Other passages, equally significant, should not be 
forgotten. Such are Matt. xxvi. 24, Mark xiv. 21: 
" Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is be- 
trayed ! 3t had been good for that man if he had not 
been born." So terrible is the doom awaiting him, that 
he had better never have been born than encounter it. 
But annihilation would simply restore things as they 
were before he was born. " Be not afraid of them that 
kill the body, and after that have no more that they 
can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : 
Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast 
into hell " (Luke xii. 4, 5). Physical death, then, is 
not worthy of consideration in comparison with the 
doom after death. "Fear not them which kill the 
body, but are not able to kill the soul : but rather 
fear him which is able to destroy [not now " kill "] 
both soul and body in hell ; " the ruin of both soul 
and body in hell being so fearful a fate that physical 
death is not to be dreaded in the comparison. The 
same fearfulness of its suflFering lies as the substratum 
of that gradation of penalties contained in Matt. v. 22, 
" Shall be in danger of the judgment — of the coun- 
cil — of hell-fire." * 



* In this passage, all these grades of condemnation are clearly to be un- 
derstood not as temporal penalties, but as transactions under the kingdom 
of Chrbt. The penalty in the previous versejjy Kpiat/Q^ the judgment) is, of 
course, literally, that of the lowest Jewish court. But in the next verse, the 
Saviour proceeds to say how diflferent it shall be in his kingdom, and trans- 
fers the KpiavQ and awedpiov to represent processes of condemnation in that 
kingdom. This is the clew to the interpretation. And the Saviour bo puts 
it as to begin where the common standard ended, attaching to the slightest 
shade of sinful anger as heavy a condemnation as the Jew did to murder; 
so rising from severity to severity, and crowning the whole with hell-fire, as 
out stripping all that was was conceivable, and having no parallel in human 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS, 297 

The future punishment spoken of in the Scriptures, 
clearly consists in intensity of suffering. 

tribunals. The word gehemna^ whatever its origin, so far as we can learn 
by carefnl examination, had in the Saviour's time no other meaning ihan 
heU, See Appendix, Note H. 



CHAPTER VIL 

NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS CONTINUED. — SUFFERING 
PBOTBACTED AND ENDLESS. 

WE have seen that the New Testament asserts 
future punishment to consist in suffering, and 
not in the cessation of suffering. Whenever it partic- 
ularizes in regard to the doom of the wicked, it dwells 
with great and even exclusive emphasis on the terror 
and suffering of that doom. Wlien, now, we further- 
more find that punishment described as not only pro- 
tracted, but endless and eternal, proceeding simulta- 
neously with the blessedness of the righteous and 
co-eternal with it, nothing would seem to be lacking to 
the completeness of the proof. Such is the fact of the 
case. The declaration is made in various forms. 

1. There are passages which involve the perpetuity 
of the infliction, although without the use of the word 
everlasting and the like. Thus the admonition (Matt. 
V. 25) given in allegoric form to become reconciled to 
the offended party, in order, as Meyer expresses it, 
" not to be cast into hell by God the Judge," closes 
with the solemn assurance, '^ Verily I say unto thee, 
thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast 
paid the uttermost fiarthing." In this is contained, as 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 299 

the same commentator well remarks, the endlessness 
of the state of punishment, since the removal of the sin 
of him who is in this (pvlaxtj^ or prison, is an impossi- 
bility. 

The same thought is conveyed at the close of the 
parable of the merciless debtor (Matt, xviii. 34, 35) : 
"And his lord was J^roth, and delivered him to the tor- 
mentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. 
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto 
you," etc. As the payment of such a debt, whether 
the literal ten thousand talents of the parable, or the 
sinner's debt to God, is impossible, the delivering to the 
tormentors * till he should pay all, is an endless con- 
finement in suffering. The comment is as old as Chrys- 
ostom, who says, " That is, perpetually ; for he will never 
repay : " and it is perfectly obvious to the plainest 
reader. 

Equally emphatic is the statement in Matt. xii. 31, 
32 : " The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not 
be forgiven unto men. . . . Whosoever speaketh a 
word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven 
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." 
The world to come requires no special explanation. In- 
terpreters understand it in the obvious meaning: it 
designates the state of things after the comhig of Christ 
and the judgment, onward. The two phrases, " this 
world " and " the world to come," cover the whole pres- 
ent and future. The Saviour not only first denies all 

* On this word ^aaavLardijg, Meyer explains " the Un'turers to torture 
him, not merely to confine him. So Fritzsche and most commentators. 
The idea of paaavi^iv is essential as an image of the fature Paaavog of 
gekenma.^* So Alford, Bengel, etc. 



300 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

future forgiveness to this kind of sin : he expands and 
explains his statement. By that expansion he assigns, 
by any fair interpretation of his words, a continued 
existence in the world to come as much as in this 
world, and declares that in that world, as in this, the 
sinner shall remain under the displeasure of (Jod, never 
forgiven. De Wette admits, against his inclination, 
that the phrase o aim 6 fielhov unquestionably covers 
eternity. He adds : " That, however, the eternity of 
hell-punishments is asserted in our text will be ad- 
mitted by us only when we are compelled to take the 
declaration of Jesus with verbal exactness,^^ Meyer 
says, " The eternity of the punishment here taught is 
not to be explained away." 

2. There are passages which in set terms describe 
this punishment as endless, eternal, lasting for ever, or 
for ever and ever. Some of them have been alluded 
to already for another purpose. It is well, however, 
to see them together, in order to appreciate the bold- 
ness with which the annihilationists, like the Univer- 
salists, deprive them of their established meaning, in 
all cases v)hen they refer to punishment. 

In Matt. iii. 12 is described the searching work of 
Christ: " Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thorough- 
ly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner.; 
but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 
Here the perpetual vigor and force of the instrument 
is unmeaning except as describing the perpetuity of the 
punitive agency it exerts.* 

In the passage quoted in the previous chapter (Mark 

* See the fuller examination of this phrase, " unquenchable fire," else- 
where. 



XEW TESTAMMST TEJKMUPQS, Ul 

ix. 43-48), we haTe at least a dueefidd reileratioQ of 
the same mode oi expressioa (after canoeliiig thoeB 
portions of the passage wfaidi some oontend to be an- 
supported): ^^the anqaenduible fire,'^ ''their worm 
dieth not," " their fire is not quenched." The reader 
will observe it is their worm that is deathless, indicate 
ing that not the general horror of die scene, bat the 
special relation of these horrors to the occupants of 
gehenna^ is in his mind when he describes it as end* 



In Matt. XXV. 41, the same fire is described as '' ev- 
erlasting ; " and in verse 46 of the same chapter, the 
punishment again is ^' everlasting." 

In Matt, xviii. 8, the same doom which in the follow- 
ing verse is called ''hell-^re," is designated as the 
" everlasting fire." 

The same phrase, " eternal fire," with the same sig- 
nification, is found, Jude 7: "Even as Sodom and Gto- 
morrha, and the cities about them, in like manner, giv- 
ing themselves over to fornication, and going after 
strange flesh, are set forth for an example, sufiering the 
vengeance of eternal fire." 

Some of the annihilationists have, however, adopted 
the position of the Universalists, that the fire hero 
spoken of had no reference to future punishment, but 
was simply the fire that destroyed those cities on earth. 
To the contrary, are (1), The usage of the phrase. 
In every other instance in the New Testament, the " eter- 
nal fire," "unquenchable fire," the "fire that burns 
for ever and ever," unquestionably refers to future pun- 
ishment. Rampf well remarks that this designation is 
characteristic. (2), The connection. The last state- 



802 JdFB AND DEATH STERNAL. 

ment previous (verse 6) is concerning the sinning an- 
gels reserved in everlasting chains under darkness ; and 
that statement is connected with this as a similar trans- 
* action, '' even as," etc. The subsequent verses also 
(verse 14) bring to view the future punishment of 
transgressors, " wandering stars to whom is reserved 
the blackness of darkness for ever." The representa- 
tion of final punishment alone meets the writer's scope. 
(3), The most scholarly interpreters, even though dif- 
fering in details, are agreed on this feature, that a fire 
outlasting the sudden destruction of those cities, an 
eternal fire, is meant. They understand that there is 
an allusion to the natural phenomena around the Dead 
Sea as still bearing witness to (" setting forth ") the 
continued vengeance of God on those cities, whose 
very mode of temporal overthrow — " fire and brim- 
stone" — became one of the images or types under 
which the eternal punishment of those wicked people 
is represented in God's Word. There is a slight differ- 
ence in the connection to which they refer the words 
" eternal fire." Some (as De Wette, Alford, Bruckner) 
connect as in our translation. De Wette, who takes the 
lowest view, understands a reference to the belief ex- 
pressed, for instance, by Philo Judaeus (ii. 21, 142), 
that the fire in which those cities were overthrown still 
continues to burn under the earth, eternally, and that 
they still sufler a " punishment of eternal fire." Bruck- 
ner maintains a double sense in itvQog odmiov^ includ- 
ing in one expression " the duration and type, or fig- 
ure of the punishment." Others (as Bengel, Huther, 
Rampf) connect thus : " are set forth sufiering ven- 
geance, an example [tather type or typical example] 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACBINQ8. 303 

of eternal fire." The Greek admits this reading per- 
haps more easily than the other. The translatioi^ suf- 
ficiently indicates the view of its advocates, which is 
very ably maintained by Bampf, one of the latest and 
most exhaustive commentators on this epistle.* But, 
whatever the mode of minor interpretation, these emi- 
nent expositors are agreed that the text refers unques- 
tionably to the fire that is strictly eternal, of which 
that earthly fire is here regarded as a symbol. 

To Bloomfield's similar exposition, that this doom 
was a faint type of the punishment inflicted by God in 
the next world, Mr. Hudson rejoins : " Very true : a 
fire that utterly consumes is a ' faint type ' of a de- 
struction ever going on and ever incomplete." f 

The sneer is pointless. That fire utterly consumed 
(amtihUated, he means) nothing. The sinners them- 
selves were but hurried to another severer doom ; while 
the annihilationist can not have the poor satisfaction cf 
saying, that even the material scenes in which they 
lived, though ruined and transformed, ceased abso- 
lutely to exist. The appropriateness of the type con- 
sists in the irresistible, terrific, and agonizing nature 

• <* In representing the paniflhrnent itself and its significance, Jude admi- 
rably chose TcpoKetvTcu instead of simple elaU In the Dead Sea Ue$, * is set 
forth,* the punishment of those cities before onr eyes. At a sight of that 
Salt Sea, the fearfal picture of the punishment which those cities under- 
went rises anew, living, as it were, before the human spirit. He views it 
as present. Suffering now, as they did, so terrible a punishment in fire- 
rain, iixfjv imkxovacu^ they are deiyfia irvpdc cduviov. This picture of the 
impure cities overwhelmed with fire is a living typical reference (Hinweis, 
index) to that other mysterious fire, which by the designation aluviov (Mat^. 
xviii. 8, zxv. 41) or aapearop (Mark ix. 48), is thoroughly characterized as 
that of bell."— Rampfs Brief JudsB in hco, 

t Christ our Life, p. 110. 



304 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

of the punishment, and its supernatural character as a 
direct and visible chastisement " from the Lord out of 
heaven ; " and in the permanence of its marks. (4), The 
symbolic use of that scene to represent tlie punishment 
of the lost is clearly sustained by various passages in 
Revelation ; the lake of fire (xx. 14) ; the lake of fire 
burning with brimstone (xxi. 8) ; fire came down from 
God out of heaven; the lake of fire and brimstone, where 
they shall be tormented for ever and ever (xx. 9, 10) ; 
perhaps also xiv. 10, 11, and xix. 3. The connection 
of the phraseology in these passages with the overthrow 
of Sodom and Gomorrha is not only admitted but 
maintained by Mr. Hudson.* 

The passage, then, refers distinctly to the future 
punishment of sinners, which is here termed eternal. 

In 2 Thess. i. 9, the punishment inflicted by the Lord 
Jesus, in flaming fire taking vengeance, is called an 
" everlasting destruction." 

In Jude 6, certain fallen angels are declared to be 
reserved in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the 
great day. The word " everlasting " here employed 
(aiduig) is used but once besides in the New Testament 
(Rom. i. 20), and is there applied to the power of 
God, — " the eternal power and Godhead." As wicked 
men are to share the doom of Satan and his angels, 
this designation equally applies to their term of pun- 
ishment, — as lasting as the attributes of God. 

Mark iii. 29 expresses the fact in a twofold form, 
with reiteration : ^' But he that shall blaspheme against 
the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness [literally hath 
not forgiveness to eternity dg thv awoya], but is in danger 

* Debt and Grace, pp. 212, 248. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 305 

of [subject to] eternal condemnation ; " i.e., the con- 
demnation of God will rest upon him eternally ; lie will 
be for ever in the state of condemnation, in which in- 
deed, the wicked already are (see John iii. 18). Such 
is the meaning according to the received text. But 
modern critics adopt a different reading of the Greek. 
Instead oi condemnation (x^wrgoa^) they read sin{dfmQti^fia- 
rog) ; " shall be subject to eternal sin," and its attend- 
ant guilt. The passage so amended contains the re- 
markable statement, that the wicked shall remain for 
ever sinful and for ever unforgiven. The manuscript 
authority on which this reading rests is such that 
Griesbach favored it, Lachmann and Tischendorf adopt 
it in their critical editions, and Alford and Meyer un- 
hesitatingly accept it.* 

Heb. vi. 1, 2 : " Not laying again the foundation of 
repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 
of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands, 
andof resurrection of the dead,and of eternal judgment" 
^jcQifiarog alfovicw, eternal retribution]. The last phrase 
has, by some commentators, been held to be the x^ifia of 
the wicked only ; but the majority of good commenta- 
tors are now agreed to take it as referring to the just 

* The authorities for it are manascripts B, L, A, Cod. Sin. 28, 33, 
2 pe; for dfiapriag (sin^ C, D, 13, 69, 346, Athanasias, Pseudo-Atha- 
nasius; the Latin versions (delicti, sin, except f.) Vulgate, Coptic, 
Gothic, Armenian, Saxon versions, Cyprian and Augustine. For 
Kpiaeac, A, C", E, F, G, H, K, M, S, U, V, T, the cursives generally, 
both Syriac versions and others ; while three cursive manuscripts read 
KoXaae<JC, with the Arabic versions. Thus it appears, that, of the five 
oldest manuscripts, four, comprising the very oldest and best of all, read 
" sin " {dfioprnfuxTos or dfiofyriac), supported by nearly all the older ver- 
ftionA. Trcgelles coincides with Lachmann and Tischendorl. 
20 



306 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

and unjust alike, guided rather by the scope than by 
the more common application of y^^ia. Either interpret 
tation bears on our argument, the latter even more de- 
cidedly than the former ; for in one case the reward 
of the wicked is called eternal, in the other it is spoken 
of as co-eternal with that of the righteous.* 

In Jude 13, certain evil-doers are spoken of as " wan- 
dering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of dark- 
ness for ever " Bigtov alma. The reader will remember 
"the outer darkness" (Matt. viii. 12, etc.), where is 
weeping, and gnashing of teeth. 

The same expression is found in 2 Pet. ii. 17, though 
with a change of the preceding figure : " These are wells 
without water, clouds that are carried about with a 
tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for 
ever," eis tov almva. 

In Rev. xiv. 11, the duration is expressed by the 
accumulated expression for ever and ever : The smoke 
of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, efe 
cutavag auovosv. 

The last-mentioned expression occurs also in Rev. 

^xix. 3 : " And her smoke rose up [rises up, dva^vei] 

for ever and ever,, elg toig aidivag tav aimfov. It is 

Dbjected, however, that this, being uttered concern- 

* The words KpiauQ and npifia by derivation would primarily denote, one 
the judicial process, the other the judicial sentence. They should apply 
indifferently to a favorable or an unfavorable case. But, as the judging of a 
sinful race is chiefly a condemning, the words are more commonly used in 
the adverse sense. In the New Testament also, not only is the distinctive 
use of the two terms frequently overlooked, but each of tiiem often includes, 
together with the judicial process or sentence, the award itself. See in- 
stances in Robinson^s New Testament Lexicon, under the words. Such is 
undoubtedly the case here. It is here almost precisely like our w<»d ^ ret- 
ribution.'* 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACMINQS, 307 

iiig Babylon, is merely a statement of its entire final . 
demolition ; and hence the eternity is merely an eter- 
nity of eflFect, — finality. But the reader will re- 
member it is not a literal city, but spiritual Babylon 
(perhaps Pagan and chiefly Papal Rome), which is 
here described under this figure, and in the previous 
chapter, as a woman ; the two representations being 
identified in xvii. 18. ''If the woman," says Alford, 
[and we add, if the city], " represents merely the stone- 
walls and houses of the city, what need is there of 
' mystery ' on her brow ? what appropriateness in the 
use of all the Scripture imagery, long familiar to God's 
people, of spiritual fornication ? " The city, in its es- 
sential meaning, can not be even an abstraction, but 
the actual persons on whom God charged (xviii. 24) 
the " blood of prophets and of saints." This mingling 
of the underlying meaning with the figure of the rep- 
resentation appears not only in the circumstances al- 
luded to, but also in the very description of the over- 
throw (verses 9, 10) ; where her " burning " is, in the 
same breath, identified with her " torment," thus : 
" Shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar oflF 
for fear of her torment " (^aavusiwv). The smoke was 
therefore the same which is elsewhere called " the smoke 
of torment," the mark of suffering ; and it rises up 
for ever and ever. Observe that the phrase " of her 
burning " is omitted in this closing statement, as though 
purposely to drop all connection with a literal confla- 
gration, and to make the expression broad enough to 
be, in the words of Alford, a designation " of hell in 
general." * 

* As this is not a material bnt a spiritual city, and the oyerthrow most 



308 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Ill Rev. XX. 10, the punishment of the devil, the 
beast, and the false prophet, is described as eternal suf- 
fering : " They shall be tormented day and night for 
ever and ever," elg tovg amvag rSv au6vmv. 

of course, be in keeping, the whole representation, though borrowed from 
material transactions of the Old Testament, is raised into an entirely differ- 
ent plane, like the paradise, Zion, temple, sacrifice, etc., of the New Testa- 
ment. Appeals, therefore, to such descriptions as Isa. xxxiv. 9, 10, do not 
settle the meaning of this. No doubt the language there employed to de- 
scribe the overthrow of Idumea is the basis, and only the basis, of the pres- 
ent prophecy , — as the valley of the sons of Hinnom famished the earthly 
image, and therefore one designation, of hell. Many commentators, however, 
have really missed the full force of the original passage in Isaiah, which 
describes, not merely a complete and final overthrow, but one whose marks 
and fearful tokens shall exist and display themselves through the ages, — 
therefore a fitting image of a niin whose continuance is eternal ; as much 
80 as the nature of the case admits. The 9th and 10th verses read thus: 
"And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof 
into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall 
not be quenched night nor day: the smoke thereof shall go up for ever; 
from generation to generation it shall lie waste : none shall pass through it 
for ever." Knobel, in the last edition of his commentary (1861), thus ex- 
plains the phenomena which perhaps the passage describes: " By volcanic 
revolution, the waters of the streams are changed to pitch (asphaltum), 
and the plains to brimstone ; fire kindles upon the land, and makes it 
a burning pool of pitch. This prophecy readily occurred to the author, 
since in similar mode had the neighboring Valley of Siddim once been over- 
whelmed ; and the nature of Idumea was similar to that of the valley. Hot 
springs are found there; modem travellers have found sulphur-springs 
(Burckhardt*8 Syria, pp. 731, 741), and volcanic cones with beds of lava 
(Bitter, Erdkunde xlv. p. 1045, xv. p. 769); Edrise even relates that the soil 
consists of pitch (Bosenm. Analecta Arab. iii. p. 4). Other Arabic writers 
give accounts of frightful fires in the earth, and outbursts of flame from it, 
which have been found in the State of Hedjaz, in the neighborhood of Me- 
dina (Seetzen, Correspondence, Feb. 1818, Burckhardt's Arabia, p. 547). 
Verse 10 is thus interpreted by Knobel: " The volcanic fire bums uninter- 
rupted, and for ever smoke ascends from the buming land, as for a long 
time in the Vale of Siddim (Gen. xix. 28). Eden becomes an unoccnpied 
desert. The fourfold designation of etemity, during which the desolation 
shall endure, intensifies the positiveness of the prophecy, and indicates deep 
displeasure." The reader will take notice that a land exUU to suffer this 
lasting desolation. 



KEW TESTAMEKT TEACHTKGS. 309 

Thus it will be seen that the endless duration of that 
panishment is asserted (1) in very numerous instances ; 
(2) by all the forms of phraseol(^y by which eternity 
is expressed in the Greek language ; (3^ by the same 
terms, equally varied and equally strong, by which the 
duration of the existence, attributes, glory, and wor- 
ship of Grod, are described. One of the terms, indeed, 
(atdia;^ is used but twice in the New Testament : in 
one case it is applied to the punishment of the wicked, 
in the other to the nature of God. 

Now, the terms which are translated " everlasting," 
" eternal," " for ever," " for ever and ever," and the 
other forms of expression by which this thought is ex- 
pressed, are just as direct and simple in the Greek as 
in the English language. They signify precisely the 
same things and are used in precisely the same troy, in 
these two languages. Much parade of learnuig has 
been made in regard to these terms. The unquestion- 
able fact is, that they mean the same in the Bible that 
they do in common life, and are used in the same way ; 
for the Bible uses the language and idioms of common 
life. Now, in common life, these terms are occasionally 
employed, no doubt, with some latitude ; and yet every 
one knows that the real meaning of those terms is end- 
less duration, and that meaning is not abrogated by 
occasional instances of careless use. 

The attempt is made to set aside this testimony in 
two modes. First, certain writers endeavor to em- 
barrass the question in the same mode with the Uni- 
versalists, by alleging that these terms are often used 
for limited duration. So Blain, pages 86 and onward ; 
and Hastings, Pauline Theology, pages 61. etc. ; Ellis 



810 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

and Read, pages 264, etc.* Thus the Aaronitic priest- 
hood is appointed to be an everlasting priesthood (Ex. 
xl. 15) ; the covenant with Abraham was an everiast- 
ing covenant, and the land of Canaan was an everlasting 
inheritance (Gen. xvii. 7, 8, etc.) ; certain servants were 
to serve their masters for ever (Ex. xxi. 6) ; Joshua di- 
rected that twelve stones from the Jordan should be a 
memorial for ever (Josh. iv. 7) ; and we read of the 
everlasting mountains (Hab. iii. 6), and the everlast- 
ing doors of Zion (Ps. xxiv. 7).t 

This whole matter is easily disposed of to the per- 
fect satisfaction of every man who is willing to be sat- 
isiSed, or who will, in this matter, abide by the same 
principles that unhesitatingly govern him in all other 
interpretations. 

1. The general and essential meaning and use of 
the words and phrases in question is clear. They mean 



* A mass of ignorant confusion, found in the latter writers, on pp. 267, 
etc., where the idiomatic phrase e/f rdv aluva is confounded with other uses 
of alCiv entirely distinct, we do not refer to. To a person familiar with 
the Greek language, it is transparent and contemptible. To a person not 
acquainted with the language, its folly can not well be set forth. We reto 
only to the words and phrases properly translated " eternal.** 

t Id the eagerness to find such passages, some singular errors are com- 
mitted. Hastings and Ellis and Read cite, as their first instance, Jonah 11. 
6, " The earth with her bars was about me for ever.** This " for ever,*' 
say the latter writers, only embraced a period of three days and three nights. 
A total misapprehension. The passage is a part of what Jonah thought and 
said of himself w\d\e in the belly of the monster, which then seemed to him 
the sure passage to death ; or, as he expresses it, the ** belly of sheol" The 
translation of Henderson better brings out the sense: ** As for the earth, her 
bars are shut upon me for ever.*' De Wette: " shut behind me for ever.** 
The meaning is, he felt that he was for ever shut out from the land of the 
living. So Henderson, Gesenius, Boseumnller, Hitzig. This, of coarse, 
without help from God; for he still trusted that God would deliver him 
firom his fears, as intimated in the close of the verse. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 811 

eternity, — the same in English as in Greek and He- 
brew. The fact is not affected by occasional instances 
in either language where impassioned utterance or pop- 
ular phraseology may apply them without rigid exact- 
ness ; where a speaker may call that eternal of which he 
can see no end, confounding the indefinite with the in- 
finite ; or where no termination is contemplated, even 
though as matter of fact it may speedily come. The 
meaning of the terms remains the same, notwithstand- 
ing the overstrained and careless use ; and, in calm and 
well-considered utterances, not the slightest doubt at- 
taches to the meanings. Thus men speak popularly of 
an eternal disgrace, an everlasting strife, an endless 
conflict ; and every deed of real estate, though the sa- 
ber language of a law-form, conveys the property to 
the purchaser, " his heirs and assigns /or ever.^^ The 
disgrace may be forgotten, the strife may cease, and the 
estate, for want of heirs or testament, may soon escheat 
to the state, without impairing the well-settled and 
legitimate meaning of those words in the English lan- 
guage. Precisely so in the Greek and Hebrew. 

2. A careful analysis will show that many of the alleg- 
ed deviations are more apparent than real ; that the Urn- 
guage employed has, in the intent of him who employs 
it, the usual signification : but he deliberately overlooks 
certain limitations, or suppresses certain implied condi- 
tions, or does not contemplate certain/ac^5, which inter- 
fere with that intent. The Hebrew poet, with the same 
flight of imagination with which he endows the moun- 
tains with life and motion, also prolongs their age from 
an indefinite to an infinite duration. The gates of 
Zion, as the house of the eternal Gk>d, he chooses also 



312 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

to invest with eternity by a poetic license.* The mon- 
ument of stones was, in Joshua's actual intent, proba- 
bly, a memorial for ever: he contemplated no removal 
or destruction of it. As matter of fact it was destroyed, 
we know not when ; but for that removal he made no 
provision, either in his plan or in his language. He did 
not prophesy that it would remain for ever, but di- 
rected that, so far as he and they could eflFect it, it 
should be perpetual. Precisely so do we understand 
the modern law conveyance to him, " his heirs and as- 
signs/or ever: " it indicates the intent of the grantor, 
a perpetual grant, never by him to be resumed but for 
aught of his interference, and so far as he can make it, 
to continue for ever. This condition is suppressed in 
the utterance ; but, as soon as it is supplied, the&tng'i^ag^ 
appears in its usual meaning, whatever may be the 
resulting /ac^ The same is the meaning of the legis- 
lation, " He shall be a servant for ever." The party 
renounces his right ever in all coming time to claim 
his freedom, and, if his earthly life were to last so long, 
remains a servant for ever. The condition is suppressed, 
and makes the language seem to have a limited mean- 
ing ; whereas it is only an intensive way of making a 
command or a prohibition. It is a perpetual ordi- 
nance. Even so modem and so precise a document 
as the Constitution of the United States, in one in- 

* Let U3 be understood. When the Psalmist declares that Lebanon and 
Hermon skip like a yonng anicom, that deep calleth unto deep, that the 
sea saw and fled, etc., we are not to maintain that the words " skip," " call," 
" sea," have lost their usual meaning, but simply that the poet, by a vivid 
and obvious stroke of imagination, chooses to attribute to those objects these 
living acts. So with the everlasting mountains. There were no such thing 
as poetic imagination if this principle were ruled out. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 318 

stance of special emphasis, rises from the level of a 
simple prohibition to incorporate the language of per- 
petuity : " No religious test shall ever be required as 
a qualification to any office or public trust under the 
United States." Now, suppose the Constitution were 
changed by a three-fourths vote of the States, or even 
violated in practice, would that affect the meaning of 
the original language as it came from the pen of Jeffer- 
son ? Not at all. To this same intensive utterance 
of legislation and legal conveyance, which naturally 
sweeps on without any limitation whatever, we might 
refer the appointment of an everlasting priesthood, the 
everlasting covenant, and the inheritance for ever; or 
perhaps we are to view this class of arrangements and 
appointments as called everlasting, because they are 
the germ of what became perpetual in the gospel dispen- 
sation, being in the New Testament directly or typically 
identified with its own perpetual arrangements, e.g., 
the promise to Abraham.* These instances, therefore, 

* This last view is not pecaliar to English theologians and expositors. 
Von Gerlach remarks thus on Gen. xvii. 7, 8: " Grod makes with Abraham 
and his posterity an everlasting covenant; since this covenant of grace was 
the first germ of the new covenant in Jesus Christ. . . . The eternal pos- 
session stands in the first instance in contrast to the present temporary 
abode of Abraham in Canaan. Yet at tiie same time is this laud, which 
God promised as an inheritance to Abraham and his seed, the visible pledge, 
the germ and prophetic type, of the new world which belongs to the church 
of the Lord : it is therefore called emphatically ^ an eternal possession.* The 
same holds good of all the divine ordinances, which, in the Old Testament, 
are declared to be everlasting ordinances ; and yet, in the New Testament, are 
in the letter abrogated, while in the spirit they have been fulfilled. So it is 
with circumcision, the passover, the priesthood, etc." Delitzsch says of the 
covenant of circumcision, " The circumcised man was to know himself as a 
member of a race-and-people union, with whom God has formed an ever- 
lasting covenant on the basis of promises which have the salvation of man 
for their contents, and whose offspring form a genealogical chain extending 



314 I^i^'E AND DEATIJ ETERNAL. 

when carefully considered, prove mostly, if not wholly, 
to be no exceptions in the intent of the speaker and 
the meaning of the language : the expressions are ac- 
tually, and we may say deliberately, broader than the 
literal fact ; (1) by a poetic embellishment, capable of 
no misunderstanding ; (2) by the onward sweep of legis- 
lation, purposely intensifying into an everlasting bond ; 
(3) by the designed and foretold absorption of a tem- 
porary, symbolic, or representative arrangement into an 
eternal economy, — as the Abrahamic covenant, the 
Aaronitic priesthood, the kingdom of David. 

8. The alleged exceptional instances are all of them 
from the Old Testament, with its more highly poetic 
style and symbolic utterances. Not an instance is 
alleged from the New Testament. With these it is 
attempted to overthrow the deliberate and repeated 
declarations of Christ. 

4. The alleged exceptions are adduced, not to show 
occasional exceptions in the absolute range of the 
words, but to destroy that meaning in one entire class 
of cases singled out for the purpose ; and in that alone, 
— a proceeding, as matter of criticism and argument, 
quite intolerable. 

5. The class of cases which it is thus proposed to 
isolate and exterminate is (1) numerous and varied 
in phraseology ; (2) it comprises all the ordinary forms 

forth to Jesus Christ, the salvation of the world." In the same strain, Heng- 
stenberg writes (" The Jews and the Christian Church*'): " According to 
the constant teachings of the Old and New Testaments, there is but one 
church of God, one Israel, one house under two administrations from the 
days of Abraham till the end of the world." Commentators are somewhat- 
agreed that the everlasting kingdom of David became everlasting only in 
the reign of the Great Anointed of whom he was the type and precursor. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINns. 815 

of designating eternity known to the New Testament,- 
or to the Greek language ; (3) it embraces all the 
terms which designate the eternity of God, of his attri- 
butes and glory, — one term (ai5w) which is used in the 
New Testament elsewhere of God only ; (4) it includes 
the same terms which — as will presently appear — des- 
ignate the eternity of future happiness ; (5) it in some 
cases, in the same text, applies the term alike to both 
retributions, so that objectors are driven to the mon- 
strous inconsistency of arbitrarily assigning two infi- 
nitely different meanings to the same word in the same 
sentence, uttered in precisely the same way on the 
same general subject ; and (6) it is supported, besides, 
by other modes of speech into which these terms do 
not enter. 

Accordingly, the more intelligent advocates of anni- 
hilation deliberately abandon this defense as untena- 
ble, although previously calling attention to it for the 
sake of such effect as it may produce on some minds. 
Thus Mr. Dobney, after devoting three pages to show 
that these terms are often used in a limited sense, closes 
by declaring, " It is by no means or in any degree on 
the foregoing remarks that I would rest the answer to 
the argument derived from our present text (Matt. xxv. 
46). I consent, with all my heart, to waive them here : 
I do waive them altogether, and rest the case entirely, 
so far as this text is concerned, on my next reply, to 
which I rather invite attention. Let it be cheerfully 
granted, then, that the word everlasting must, in each 
part of this text, be understood in its largest, widest 
sense, as denoting absolute eternity." * 

• Future f uniahment, p. 812. 



316 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Mr. Hudson, though repeatedly and somewhat prom* 
inently protruding this argument of a limited meaning 
of the tferms (Christ our Life, pp. 120, 123, 132; 
Debt and Grace, pp. 210, 188), yet expressly dis- 
claims his reliance upon it as his fundamental position, 
and even complains of one reviewer for failing to rec- 
ognize the fact.* 

Well they may do so. For however desirous to 
gain, as usual, the benefit of such suggestions in minds 
where they would have weight, they are too well aware 
of the impossibility of maintaining the position, and 
especially of its entire incompatibility with the objec- 
tion on which they choose to stake the issue. A man 
can not well say much of the limited meaning of 
" eternal," etc., when his main position is, that it does 
mean eternity of effect. Still these writers certainly 
take all possible advantage of both the two opposite 
defenses, while they professedly abandon the former. 

The second evasion, and the one on which annihila- 
tionism chooses to stake its attempt to turn these Scrip- 
ture declarations, is this : the words do signify eternity 
absolute, finality, irreversibleness, or, as they choose to 
term it, eternity, not of process, but of efiect. Punish- 
ment, they say, may consist in suffering or it may 
consist in extinction. Extinction may be called eternal 
punishment, because it is a punishment of which the 
effect continues for ever ; that is, it is a final or irrever- 
sible extinction. In this mode they would dispose of 
the most troublesome passages, such as Matt, xviii. 8 ; 
XXV. 41, 46 ; 2 Thess. i. 9 ; Jude 13 ; 2 Pet. ii. 17, etc. 

♦ Reviewers Reviewed, p. 12, and passage? there cited from Chri«t om 
Life, pp. 4, 122, and Debt and Grace, p. 160. 



NEW TSaTAMBUT TMACHWQ8, 317 

The question at issue, then, is this : Do the ^ords 
" eternal " and the like, when applied to the punish- 
ment of the wicked, entirely lose their fundamental 
meaning of duration (infinite, or at least indefinite), 
and convey only the notion oi finality? This is, in sub- 
stance, the proposition of annihilationists.* It is the 
only real question. For the phrase " eternity of efiect," 
as we shall presently see, is merely a disguising of the 
question, and actually disappears from the interpreta- 
tion. Annihilation has, from the nature of the case, no 
duration beyond the moment when it takes place ; 
neither has it any effect of which duration can be pred- 
icated ; for its effect is non-existence, nothing. It is 
simply final ; and such is the prevailing phrase by 
which, in Mr. Hudson's argument, it is expressed. Now, 
have these words, expressive of eternal duration, so 
completely changed as to lose the very notion of du- 
ration ? 

(1.) The attempt to break down, in reference to one 
entire subject^ and that onIy,the well-settled and funda- 
mental meaning of a class of words, by citing a few 
alleged exceptions out of several hundred instances in 
which the phrases occur, is at once a strange proce- 
dure. It would be natural, and in accordance both 
with common and Scriptural use, that a set of words 
employed in the New Testament more than a hundred 
times, and in the Old Testament about four hundred, 
should be occasionally used with some latitude.f Still, 

* '* These are examples in which the word ' eternal ' denotes findtUy^ 
rather than the endless continuance of the subject to which it is applied.*' 
Christ our Life, p. 118. • 

t In the New Testament, the a(jyective alowiog occurs sixty-six times, 



318 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

if the|*e is one idea that is fundamental in this whole 
class of cases, it is that of protracted duration, infinite, 
or at least indefinite.* Now this phraseology is that 
which is used to describe the duration of God's exist- 
ence, glory, attributes, word, and worship; of Christ, his 
kingdom, his priesthood, his praise ; it is applied to the 
future condition of the saints, and to the future condi- 
tion of the wicked. Out of all these classes of topics, 
the last is singled out for an earnest endeavor to set 
aside the fundamental meaning of the terms : a few 
alleged exceptions are cited, and their whole force con- 
centrated upon this one topic. 

(2.) The looseness of tiie criticism is equally no- 
ticeable. The words aldvvog, etc., in these critics' hands, 
seem capable of any meaning at pleasure ; and the last 
remnants of the original meaning, and indeed of any 
settled meaning, disappear under their manipulations. 
Thus they commence with attempts to prove the mean- 
ing, " eternity of effect ; " in other words, " eternal," 
when applied to any process, does not describe the du- 
ration of that process to which the term is applied, but 
of something else, viz., its effect. But, as the process 
of annihilation actually leaves no existing result or 
effect, it becomes too palpably absurd to describe the re- 

and the phrase ela rbv aUjva, or its equivalent, some fifty-eight. In the Sep- 
ta&gmtfCuonfiog is fonnd ninety-two times; and the noun oiwv, in some of its 
forms, three hundred and eight times. 

♦ So essential is this meaning, that the notion of duration, of the onflow 
of time, seems inseparable from the root-word altitv^ and appears prominent 
in all instances of its use in the New Testament besides the particular 
phrases above referred to. Thus says EUicott (Eph. i. 21): " With regard to 
the moaning of aUjv^ it may be observed, that, in alt passages where ttoe> 
curs, a temporai notion is more or less apparent." 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 319 

suiting nothing as eternal. Thus it became necessary 
to substitute the word " final " for eternal. Again, it 
is " irreversible ; " an irreversible judgment (Heb. vi. 
2). And, again, it is " critical or decisive." An "eter- 
nal victory " (a phrase cited from Wetstein) " plainly 
means a decisive victory," says Mr. Hudson. Now the 
word is further metamorphosed into "mortal, fatal." 
For, in the next sentence, the same writer proceeds : 
" In Mark iii. 29, the guilt is aptly called atmuw^ because 
decisive of one's destiny, mortal, fatal." Two pages 
later we are informed that the phrase " eternal chains " 
(pia^olg cudioig, Jude 6) is equivalent to the phrase 
diaiioi a^QTjxroi, " chains that can not be broken." * Is 
this criticism and interpretation ? Or is it inexcusably 
loose and random babbling ? What can not be proved 
by such a style of argument, abandoning, as it does, 
every vestige of the legitimate meaning of words, until 
" eternal " becomes successively " final," " irreversible," 
" decisive," " mortal," " fatal," and equivalent to 
the phrase " that can not be broken." f 

(3.) The alleged meaning entirely lacks support from 
New Testament usage. No instance can be adduced 
from the New Testament Greek in which these terms 
have lost their proper idea of protracted duration, and 
acquired that of mere " finality," or even " eternity of 
effect.'' Every instance can be most legitimately ex- 
plained in accordance with the common meaning of 
the terms. 

♦ The above quotation may be found on pp. 116, 118, 120, of Christ our 
Life. 

t These processes are the necessary result of the exigency. It would 
not answer to render Mark iii. 2Qjinal sin, nor Jude 6Jinal chams; for even 
Ihat rendering would involve eternity. So final must give place to " mor- 
tal " and (ip/n^KToc- 



320 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

The cases cited or alluded to by Mr. Hudson as proof 
passages, are Heb. v. 9, vi. 2, ix. 12, xiii. 20 ; Philem. 
15 ; Rev. xvi. 6. 

Following these texts in order, we read (Heb. v. 9), 
" And being made perfect, he became the author of 
eternal salvation unto all that obey him." It is claimed 
that eternal must here lose its ordinary meaning " if 
the word ' salvation ' be taken in its strict sense of de- 
liverance," i.e., a transient act of deliverance. But this 
is not the necessary nor ordinary use of the word, 
which is a very broad word, and designates, in the 
widest sense, the whole remedial work of Christ, from 
its inception (Luke xix. 10) to its fullest consummation 
in glory (1 Pet. i. 9), as may be seen by glancing over 
an English Concordance. The word " eternal " applies 
to it in its simple,ordinary sense. So De Wette : " eter- 
nal salvation ; by all means is it so, continuing on in 
eternity, see Heb. vii. 25." Bengel : " it flows on for 
ever." 

The phrase "eternal judgment" (xgifiatog amviov, 
Heb. vi. 2) is claimed as a proof text ; and Tholuck, 
with two or three others, is quoted as explaining it to 
be that " of which the consequences continue for ever." 
If this idea lay in the word " eternal," in this instance, 
it certainly would not go far to sustain its application 
where there are no consequences to continue, as in case 
of annihilation. But it is sheer confusion to force into 
the word eternal a meaning which is lodged only in the 
other word (xqIiio), judgment, retribution. This word 
"judgment " QiQifia) is quite often used in the New 
Testament so as to include with the sentence the ptMh 
ishment which it involves. It can not be otherwise im- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 321 

derstood in Mark xii. 40 : " These shall receive greater 
damnatian " (x^ejiia), that is, clearly, condemnation to 
a severer punishment. This signification of the word 
is not only manifest in itself, — it is assigned to the 
word in Robinson's New Testament Lexicon, as a fre- 
quent meaning, of which, among others, the following 
are manifest instances : Luke xx. 47, xxiii. 40, xxiv. 
20 ; Jas. iii. 1 ; Rev. xvii. 1, xviii. 20.* Thus in Mark 
xii. 40, Alexander properly translates Ttgifia " righteous 
retribution," which, "in this case, of course means con- 
demnation, judgment, or execution." Alford trans- 
lates the same word, in Rom. xiii. 2, " pimishment." 
Olshausen and Riickert (on Gral. v. 10) both defend 
this meaning as a frequent one. Bloomfield ren- 
ders it " punishment " in the same passage. Li the 
present passage, therefore, there is not the slightest 
evidence of any other meaning in the word cumvtog than 
eternal. Whether the x^^^a, or judgment, include the 
sentence and award of both the righteous and the 
wicked, or only of the latter, it is simply an " eternal 
retribution." 

The phrase " eternal redemption " (Heb. ix. 12) 
does not offer support to any deflection of the word 
eternal from its ordinary meaning. Redemption (XvtQODaig) 
is defined in Robinson's Lexicon as " deliverance from 
sin and its consequences." This deliverance is, in the 
strictest sense, eternal. The grace of God, through 
Christ, will keep the believer for ever holy and for ever 

* Robinson cites eight other instances, not quite so indubitable. Yet the 
carefol ElUcott, while not accepting the meaning of punishment or condem- 
nation as found in the word itself in some of these latter instances, adds (on 
Gal. V. 10), " The idea of punishment or condemnation is conveyed by and 
to b« deduced from the confexV* 
21 



822 LIFE AND DBATB ETERNAL, 

exempt from the punishment he deserves. " Eternally 
valid," says De Wette. " Eternal," says Bengel, " not 
for a day or a year only." Huther explains, " Of in- 
destructible eflScacy, in contrast to the offerings of the 
priests, which must be renewed each year." Tlie de- 
liverance is viewed as a permanent state, or if an act, 
then an act itself involving an eflScacy and result; 
which efficacy is here described as eternal, — not * final,' 
but enduring for ever. Whatever idea of effect is here 
involved lies obviously in the redemption, not in the 
word eternal. The force applied to the latter word is 
a needless confusion. 

The case is similar with the phrase, " the blood of 
the everlasting covenant " (Heb. xiii. 20). The wri- 
ters wlio adduce this as an instance of finality or eter- 
nity of effect would have us conceive of the " cov- 
enant " as comprising only a momentary or transient 
transaction, the mere act of arrangement ; whereas, by 
a mental process as old and as constant as human 
speech, it comprises rather the contents of that covenant 
than the outward form of making it. We constantly 
say that such a treaty or compromise or truce lasted so 
many years or days ; meaning, of course, not the process 
of making it, but the things involved in it, — the peace 
or other terms covenanted by it. Precisely so here. 
The covenant is eternal ; that is, the obligations (and 
blessings) included are never to be terminated or su- 
perseded. The explanation is as old as Theodoret, who 
says, " lest any one should suppose that this covenant 
will be terminated by another, he properly calls it end- 
less, miltitrpcov ; " and Alford and Huther accept the 
exposition. De Wette says, " it is eternal, inasmuch 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 323 

as the deliverance (v. 9, ix. 12) and the inheritance 
(ix. 15) are eternal, and the kingdom of Christ (xii. 
28) is enduring." 

Another cited instance is Philem. 15 : " For perhaps 
he therefore departed for a season that thou shouldest 
receive him forever " (auovwv). All appearance of 
mere finality vanishes from the word when the English 
translation is conformed to the Greek, viz., " that thou 
shouldest have or possess him fully for ever".* Here 
the transient and uncertain ownership of a slave is 
contrasted with the eternal possession and enjoyment 
of " a brother beloved." Chrysostom's explanation, 
" not only in the present time, but also in that which 
is to come," or for ever, is adopted by DeWette, Meyer, 
Wiesinger [Olshausen]. " In this life, and in heaven," 
says Bengel. 

One other. New Testament phrase remains : " The 
everlasting gospel" (Rev. xiv. 6). It "certainly is 
not to be for ever preached," says Mr. Hudson. No ; 
nor does the passage speak of the everlasting preaching' 
of the gospel, but of the gospel itself, — its principles 
and truths. " Eternal truths of the gospel," is Stuart's 
explanation. " We have a conamentary," says Heng- 
stenberg, " in Matt, xxiv 35 : ' Heaven and earth shall 
pass away, but my words shall not pass away.' God's 
Word, his threatenings and promises, are eternal and 
unchangeable, even as he himself is eternal and un- 
changeable, and because he is so." f Here is no other 
than tlie common meaning of eternal. 

♦ " Have him for good," is Robinson's translation of aizexy^' " Possess 
him fully, entirely." Alford. The latter is the phraseology of Wiesinger, 
De Wette, Meyer. 

t But for other procedures, we might bo surprised to find Mr. Hudson, 



324 UFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Not a passage in the New Testament sustains the 
attempt to convert eternal into final. Equally unsuc- 
cessful is the appeal to ^'equivalent " instances in the 
Old Testament ; that is, to cases where the adverb for 
ever (nsjb) is employed in connection with a verb. 
Some of the instances at first seem plausible ; but a 
closer examination shows that they are made up either 
of cases where there is an implied state or condition 
of things which is eternal, or of cases in which the 
finality is directly stated in the verb or noun, not in 
the word eternal. Instances of the first class are these : 
"Thou prevailest forever against him;'' i.e., with a 
superiority that lasts for ever. " Cast us not oflF for 
ever ; " i.e., with a perpetual separation from thee. " Is 
his mercy clean gone for ever ? doth his promise fail 
for evermore ? " an everlasting withholding of mercy 
from the suflfering. " So shall [should] I be delivered 
for ever from my judge ; " a state of perpetual exemp- 
tion from further inflictions of judgment. Instances 
of the second class : " Destructions are come to a per- 
petual end " [Hebrew, " to an end for ever "] ; * "It 

without qualification, claiming Poole and Barnes on this passage, '* as Poole 
and Barnes remark, it is so called for its blessed and eternal effects." 
Whereas Mr. Barnes remarks thus: ** The gospel is here called eternal ia) 
because its great truths have always existed, or it is conformed to eternal 
truth ; (b) because it will for ever remain unchanged, not being liable to fluc- 
tuation like the opinions held by men; (c) because its effects will be ever- 
lasting, in the redemption of the soul and the joys of heaven." All that 
Poole, in his annotations, says on the subject is this: " It is called the ever- 
lasting gospel, either with reference to the time past, as much as to say, the 
old gospel ; or to the time to come, it being that doctrine of salvation be- 
sides which there neither is nor ever shall be revealed any other while this 
world endureth." * 

* We waive any question of the true translation of this doubtful passage 
(Ps. ix. 6), and for the argument assume the English version to be rijght 



NBW TB&TAMENT TBACHINQ8. 825 

oeaseth for ever." Here the finality is contained and 
explicitly asserted in the words "end" and "ceaseth;" 
and the condition in which certain subjects are thereby 
placed is pronounced perpetual, viz. ; in the one case a 
perpetual powerlessness to destroy (according to the 
most obvious interpretation) ; in the other, the soul's 
eternal inability of redemption. The dullest intellect 
can not fail to see the difference between an " everlast- 
ing " punishment, and a punishment " that comes to 
a perpetual end," or a punishment " that ceaseth for 
ever." Yet it is the aim of Mr. Hudson's laborious 
attempts to show that these utterly different expressions 
mean the same thing ! 

Several other passages are quoted : e.g., ** They per- 
ish for ever " (Job iv. 20, etc.) ; " Thou hast put out 
their name for ever and ever " (Ps. ix. 5) ; " God shall 
likewise destroy thee for ever " (Ps. lii. 6). In these 
and otlier similar passages, the evident reference (as 
indicated in the context) is to a removal from this 
earth and its scenes. Thus in the last quoted passage, 
" God shall likewise destroy thee for ever : he shall 
take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling- 
place, and root thee out of the land of the living." In 
all these instances, there is an express or implied allu- 
sion to the continuance of the scenes themselves, from 
which the party is to be eternally separated and sepa- 
rate ; the same thought which is elsewhere often ex- 
pressed (Ps. ciii. 16, etc.), "The place thereof shall 
know it no more." The idea of duration still lies in 
the word : it actually involves the continuance of one, 
if not both, of the objects thus related to each other. 

It is true, an arrangement that is eternal is also final, 



326 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

decisive, critical, a^^rjxtog : yes, and it is solemn and 
momentous too, and must be joyous or sad, and a good 
many other things ; but the word " eternal " does not 
mean all these. And the result of all the cases cited 
is, that no instance can be produced which can not 
be explained by the ordinary meaning of eternal, or 
which requires us to deprive the word of its funda- 
mental notion of duration, infinite or indefinite. 

(4.) Again : the attempt to change the meaning of 
eternal, so as to remove its ordinary signification of du- 
ration from all threat of punishment, breaks down on 
individual passages. In several instancffes, both forms 
of evasion, whether called finality or eternity of eflFect, 
are cut ofF^s completely as is possible by the specifi- 
cation of a process J not of a result, and by statements 
that the process goes on consecutively for ever. In the 
passage already quoted (Rev. xiv. 11), the punishment 
is " torment for ever and ever," and " they have no rest 
day nor night." So also, in the same lake of fire in 
which all the wicked have their part, the devil, the 
beast, and the false prophet, are " tormented day and 
night for ever and ever" (Rev. xx. 10). No finality 
or eternity of efiect can cover these statements. In 
Jude 6, the sinning angels are in perpetual imprison^ 
ment, " reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, 
unto the judgment of the great day ; " and, in verse 13, 
the same " blackness of darkness," apparently, is the 
doom of wicked men. In Mark iii. 29 (according to 
the amended reading), it is a state of eternal sin. 
Sometimes the endless duration of the infliction is de- 
scribed by language in which the word " eternal " does 
not occur. Thus in Matt.- v. 25, 26, it is an imprison- 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 327 

ment from which there is no deliverance till the utmost 
farthing is paid ; and in Matt, xviii. 34, it is being " de- 
livered to the tormentors till he should pay all that 
was due." And again, in Mark ii. 48, it is the fire 
that is not quenched, and the worm that never dies.* 
Many if not all these forms of statement are wholly 
incompatible with any other than the ordinary applica- 
tion of the words denoting eternity. 

(5.) This attempt to find only finality in the terms 
describing future punishment is disproved by the na- 
ture of that punishment. As we have already shown 
at large, the New Testament constantly insists upon 
the woe of the doom, the anguish endured. As the 
punishment consists in suffering, there is not only no 
necessity, but no excuse, for the attempt to disturb the 
well-settled meaning of the language which ascribes to 
it positive duration in the same terms and connection 
in which eternal duration is ascribed to the blessedness 
of the righteous. 

We may add, that this and all other attempts to evade 
the doctrine of eternal punishment by tampering with 
particular words and phrases is cut off by the consid- 
eration we are about to mention. 

3. That the suffering of the wicked is eternal, is 
proved by the repeated declarations which describe it 
as co-existent and co-eternal with the blessedness of 
the righteous. 

* Blain sagely remarks (and Hastings advances the same view), with 
small capitals, " It is the fire, not the sinuer or his woe, that is said to be 
everlastmg." So we suppose we are to understand that it is the " chains,** 
and not the prisoner, who is to be everlasting (Jude 6); and in much the 
same way Mr. Hudson would teach that the "^ punishments ** may be ever- 
lasting, but not the culprit. 



328 LIFE AHfD DEATH ETERNAL, 

(1.) It is described in general, as going on simulta- 
neously. In Luke xiii. 24-30, the Saviour warns his 
hearers to " Strive to enter in at the strait gate," with 
the assurance that many will seek to enter in, and will 
not be able. He represents the master of the house 
as at length rising up, shutting the door, refusing them 
admittance. They ''^ begin to stand without and to 
knock," and he bids them " depart from me, all ye 
workers of iniquity." Christ then proceeds to describe 
them as still viewing with anguish the joys of heaven 
from which they are excluded. " There shall be weep- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the king- 
dom of God, and you yourselves thrust out." 

The same representation, somewhat less minute, oc- 
curs in Matt. viii. 11, 12 : " Many shall come from the 
east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the 
children of the kingdom shall be cast out into [the] 
outer darkness ; there shall be weeping, and gnashing 
of teeth." An important aspect of this threat is ob- 
scured in the common version (as we have before re- 
marked) by so slight an omission as that of the article 
" the " in " the outer darkness." Both in this passage 
and in chap. xxii. 13, and xxv. 30, the original Greek 
designates it as " the outer darkness." Now, the shorter 
expression, " outer darkness," would resist the attempt 
to convert " darkness " into annihilation ; inasmuch as 
it is darkness outer, or outside of the kingdom of hea- 
ven. But when it is spoken of as " the outer darkness," 
or the darkness without (to cxotog to IJoire^), it can sig- 
nify nothing else than the state of darkness and gloom 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACBINQS* 329 

which exists outside of that region of holy blessedness ; 
and this meaning is further made certain by the explar 
nation, in each of these passages, "there [in that 
place] shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth." Here, 
again, the sitting-down with Abraham in the kingdom, 
and the weeping, and gnashing of teeth, in the state of 
outer darkness, are simultaneous ; just as, in Luke xvi. 
20, 25, the happiness in Abraham's bosom and the tor- 
ment in hell are described as cotemporaneous. 

In one of the passages just alluded to (Matt. xxv. 
30), the representation is similar. When the lord of 
the kingdom reckons with his servants, the two faithful 
ones are welcomed with the invitation, "Enter thou 
into the joy of thy lord ; " and the unprofitable servant 
is cast " into the outer darkness ; there shall be weep- 
ing, and gnashing of teeth." The joy and the sorrow 
are clearly spoken of as co-existent conditions, in which 
the two parties were to dwell simultaneously ; while 
the one enters into the joy of his lord, the other is in 
the outer darkness, where is weeping, and gnashing of 
teeth. 

Perfectly clear and coincident with these texts is 
Rev. xxii. 14, 15 : " Blessed are they that do his com- 
mandments, that they may have right to the tree of 
life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 
For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers 
and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth 
and maketh a lie." Here the final condition of the 
impure and wicked is described as their being without, 
or outside of the heavenly city, within which the holy 
are admitted. It is the same state of exclusion from 
the heavenly kingdom which is elsewhere described as 
the outer darkness. 



330 tlFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

The same idea of exclusion is contaiued in the para- 
ble of the wise and the foolish virgins, in the same 
chapter. When the wise had entered with the bride- 
groom, " the door was shut." The foolish remain 
without. 

Equally in point is Christ's representation (Matt. vii. 
21-28) that the two alternatives, " in that day," are 
an entrance into the kingdom of heaven, or a separa- 
tion from the presence of Christ : " Then will I pro- 
fess unto them, I never knew you ; Depart from me, 
ye that work iniquity." 

In Matt. xxiv. 48-51, this separation is described 
as a companionship with hypocrites, and a participa- 
tion in their woeful lot, — " shall appoint him his por- 
tion with the hypocrites ; there shall be weeping, and 
gnashing of teeth." (The reader will observe that the 
same phrase, " to have a part or portion with one," is 
used in John xiii. 8, to describe the connection of be- 
lievers with Christ, as sharing his destiny.) 

The companionship in the state of exclusion and 
woe is still further indicated in Rev. xxi. 7, 8, where, 
on the one liand, " he that overcometh shall inherit all 
things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son;" 
and on the other, ^* the fearful and unbelieving and 
the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and 
sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their 
part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
stone " — the place of " torment." Here the same 
phrase describes participation in woe, which in the pre- 
vious chapter describes the participation of the holy in 
the well-being of the first resurrection : " Blessed and 
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." 



NISH^ TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 331 

The Scripture thus plainly describes a condition of 
separation hereafter from Christ and the holy, of ex- 
clusion from the joys of heaven, and companionship 
with the wicked in their woes, which exists and contin- 
ues while the holy are in heaven. 

(2.) The punishment of the wicked is described as 
co-eternal with the well-being of the righteous. 

In Matt. XXV., the co-eternity of the two destinies is 
twice implied or asserted. First, in his address, the 
Judge (verses 34, 41) says to the righteous, " Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world," — that king- 
dom which is everywhere described as an " everlasting 
kingdom," — and to the wicked, " Depart from me, ye 
cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and 
liis angels." The two parties enter at the same time on 
two opposite destinies, — the one of which is universally 
declared eternal (though here it is only implied) ; and 
the other, the punishment of the wicked, is, in express 
terms, pronounced " everlasting." Secondly, in the 
conclusion of the narrative, both destinies are alike de- 
scribed as states or conditions on which the two par- 
ties simultaneously enter, and both are alike pro- 
nounced eternal : ^' And these shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment ; but the righteous, into life eternal.** 
Let three points in this passage be noted ; (1) that no 
more in the one case than in the other is the retribution 
a transient act or process to which (rtgog^ the parties go, 
but a something into which (efe) they both enter alike;* 
(2) that no more in the one case than in the other- have 

* " Go away into,'* says filaid, innocently, p. 77, ^ adds darkness to the 
text** He would read " go away to.*' 



882 LJi^E AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

we a right to depart from the true meaning of eternal 
(oiaiwoi'), as designating everlasting continuance ; (3) 
that the repeated application of the term, in the same 
connection, to the punishment of the wicked, as well as 
its use side by side with its application to the happiness 
of the righteous, gives it an emphasis which no sophis- 
try can evade. 

In Rev. xiv. 10, the torment of the wicked, which in 
the following verse (11th) is declared to proceed day 
and night for ever and ever, is asserted to take place 
in the presence (i.e. in the sight) of the holy angels 
and the Lamb : '^ And he shall be tormented with fire 
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and 
in the presence of the Lamb.'' The word translated 
" in the presence of " (htimw/v) is very frequently used 
in the New Testament to signify simply " in sight of," 
and is here so translated by Alford, Hengstenberg, 
Stuart, Huther, and others, sustained by Luke xvi. 
23, ff.* The final separation between the righteous 
and the wicked, which the Scripture everywhere in- 
sists upon, manifestly requires this translation here. 
Still, the phraseology of the received version would be 
equally apposite to the argument. In either case, the 
holy angels, and the Lamb in heaven, are represented 
as spectators of the incessant and eternal punishment 
of the wicked. The two eternal conditions proceed 
cotemporaneously. 

Dan. xii. 2 also describes in the same utterance the 
"life " of the righteous and the " shame " of the wicked, 
by the same epithet " everlasting." It can not with- 

* Stuart finds the additional thought, that it is with their approbation. 



NEW TESTAMENT TEACHINGS. 333 

out violence be understood otherwise than as declaring 
them to be equally, and in the same sense, everlasting. 
The passage, 2 Thess. i. 7-11, involves the same 
view. Here the general statement (verses 6, 7), that 
God will recompense to the one class " tribulation," and 
to the other " rest," is followed by the particular asser- 
tion (verse 7), that this shall take place when the Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels ; at which time the one class '^ shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction from [away from] the 
presence of God and the glory of his power," and at 
the same time he shall ^^ be glorified in his saints." 
Some have indeed held that the word " from " (ciirto) 
simply denotes the source from which the punishment 
proceeds. But this thought has already been fully set 
forth in verses 7 and 8 : " The Lord Jesus revealed in 
flaming fire taking vengeance ; " and, on this interpre- 
tation, the 9th verse would be a mere repetition with- 
out the slightest addition, except the eternity of the 
punishment. For this good reason, Alford, Bloomfield, 
Liinemann, and many other able interpreters (Beza, 
Schott, Koppe, Michaelis, Piscator, Schmidt, B^rause), 
maintain the meaning " away from," " separate from." 
Li any case, the eternity of the punishment is strongly 
set forth as a retribution commencing side by side with 
the rest and glory of the righteous. 



CHAPTER Vm. 

TENDENCIES AND AFFINITIES OF THE SYSTEM OP ANNIHI- 
LATION. 

WE have now considered the system which teaches 
the annihilation of the wicked, and, we trust, 
have refuted it. We have shown negatively that its 
arguments are baseless, and positively that the Scrip- 
tures abundantly contradict it. 

Light is often cast upon a system by observing its 
eflFect upon its adherents. The present system is too 
recent, and too limited in its acceptation, to show its 
full moral bearing. Many of its advocates, moreover, 
are professedly religious men, who have been led to its 
adoption, no doubt, by their shrinking from the severity 
of the Scripture doctrine. In such hands, the moral 
drift of the doctrine may be slow in showing itself. 
So was it with Universalism in the hands of John Mur- 
ray ; so with Unitarianism in the days of Channing and 
Worcester ; but both these systems have their history. 

Let the present system find its way into general ac- 
ceptance, let bad men but have the additional encourage- 
ment of a doctrine that closes their responsibility, and 
the result is not difficult to foresee. Bad men have 
always had a hankering after the doctrine. When they 
could not persuade themselves of the future happi- 

834 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATlOy. 335 

ness of the wicked, they have most earnestly coveted 
annihilation as the next best gift. It is well known 
what use the ancient Epicureans made of their denial 
of immortality. Ede^lnde^ bibe^ was the maxim, — 
" eat, drink, and be merry." We know also how those 
reckless men who once filled Paris with debauchery 
and blood inscribed over the entrance of all the pub- 
lic cemeteries, " Death is an eternal sleep." We have 
Paul's own commentary on the moral result of a denial 
of the resurrection : " If the dead rise not, let us eat 
and drink ; for to-morrow we die." * 

Even Mr. Hastings, one of the ablest advocates of 
the annihilation of the wicked, enters his solemn pro- 
test against the doctrine of no resurrection for the 
wicked, on the ground of its moral effects. " The re- 
sults of that opinion [in Prance] are matter of histo- 
ry ; and, though the idea of a resurrection of the just 
to life and glory changes essentially the fate of the 
believer^ it makes little difference with the prospects of 
the ungodly. A mother, after her youthful daughter 
had been associated with a preacher who taught this 
doctrine, told me how they drew inferences of impunity 
in sin and security in impenitence which they could 
mention and act upon, though he might not be ajQfected 
by them. I myself have been met with the same ob- 
jection when I have sought to warn unconverted men 
to repent, and turn to God ; ' if we die, and that is the 
last of us, it is no great loss.' " f If such is the moral 
influence of the doctrine of no resurrection, what must 

* 1 Cor. XV. 82: " This connection of the clauses is the one maintained 
by Bengel, Meyer, De Wette, Alford, and others, 
t Retribution, p. 166. 



886 LJFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

be the effect of the doctrine of resurrection only to an- 
nihilation ? What is the essential difference ? The 
testimony is important from such a source. 

We might well hope, that, in the midst of a Christian 
community, these results of open vice would be slow to 
show themselves ; perhaps would never appear. More 
likely, the chief influence would be a recklessness of 
the restraints of religion. 

But there are certain tendencies and affinities of the 
whole system which do very distinctly betray them- 
selves thus early in the writings of its advocates. 

1. Rationalism : a tendency to disparage the author- 
ity and override the teachings of God's Word. Fore- 
most in this respect, both in objectionableness and in 
adroitness, stands Mr. Hudson. It lies in his writings, 
not in gross and offensive, but in guarded and yet de- 
termined forms. His first and larger volume (Debt 
and Grace) is an attempt to settle the whole question 
on purely rational grounds. There is a brief examina- 
tion of Scripture, necessitated by the nature of the case, 
occupying one-seventh of the volume. But the con- 
clusion is established, before reaching the Scriptures ; 
and established on such principles as would give them 
no opportunity to testify against him, or as would 
seemingly qnestion their authority^ and join the skeptic^ 
if they did. What is the true meaning of such pas- 
sages a? the following in his preliminary argument ? He 
is speaking of the influence of the belief of eternal suf- 
fering on " the victim of abused power " in this world,' 
who, he affirms, " can hardly know what faith is.** 

" Tell him of an eternity in which men of the most 
opposite conditions in this life may, in various degrees, 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 337 

suflFer together, and that will not give him faith. As 
for himself, he feels sure that his present sufferings can 
not be the beginning of endless pains. Persuade him 
thus, and, however good you may say God is, your 
theology will be to him a divine despotism, and his 
faith is prostrate." * 

Again : " Better no God than an evil God. Hence 
every theology whicli imposes evil as an eternal neces- 
sity ,t or introduces it as a divine plan, tends to the 
dienial of the moral quality of sin and of a personal 
divine Being. Total darkness is preferred to the bale- 
ful light. Better no sun frowning with lurid glare, 
than that tlie green earth, with myriads of people, 
should be scorched with deathless heat. A law of Na- 
ture, an impersonal and unthinking God, inextricably 
enveloped in the folds of matter, and only to be dis- 
covered as the no-God, would be the most grateful re- 
ligion to such a woe-worn world. 

" But men are not wont to rest in the doctrine of 
eternal evil, until it is proven past all gainsaying ; and 
the belief of a personal God is almost as natural as the 
disbelief of eternal evil. Hence the assertion of eternal 
suflFering as a revealed doctrine tends not so directly to 
atheism, as to a rejection of the Bible for some form of 
deism. Of this skepticism, the Earl of Shaftesbury, the 
eloquent defender of the doctrine of divine providence, 
is an example. ... 

" It will not do here to say that skeptics are bad men, 
rejecting the Scriptures not so much because they are 

* Debt and Grace, p. 62. 

t *' The doctrine of eternal sin and misery, as the result of evil in time, 
logically involves the eternal necessity of evil.*' p. 27. 
22 



388 LIFE AUD VEATU ETERNAL. 

supposed to reveal an eternal punishment, as because 
they do teach a future punishment. True it is that 
fallen man dislikes a God of justice. But when Chris- 
tians overlook the difference between finite and infinite 
punishment, or rather between infinite loss and endless-* 
pain, they may, instead of removing a stumbling-block, 
only give new occasion of offense. Thinking men are 
loth to hear of a Gk)d who can not punish at all, but 
he must punish eternally." * 

We fail to comprehend the bearing of these declara- 
tions, if they do not mean very emphatically to say 
that it is better to discard a revelation than to receive 
one containing the hated doctrine ; and that nothing 
can or ought to make men submit to receive it. To 
the same purport is cited, as part of the argument, 
though not formally indorsed in word, a lengthened 
quotation, justifying John Foster in doubting that 
doctrine, though admitting that the Word of God is 
formidably strong against him. It begins : " If John 
Foster, or any man, deliberately and honestly conceive 
it irreconcilable with infinite love that Ood should con- 
demn the wicked to everlasting punishment, we see not 
how he can accept the fact without blasphemy. If a 
man's reason, gazing earnestly and reverently, with 
lively consciousness of its own faint and glimmering 
vision, and full of thoughts of the compass and weight 
of infinite love guiding infinite power, is yet unable, 
we say, not to justify, but to believe in, the possible 
justice of eternal torments, we see not how he can ac- 
cept the doctrine." f Here the reader will perceive 
the naked position, that no testimony, not even of God, 

* Debt and Grace, p. 64. f Debt and Grace, p. 66. 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 339 

can bind a man to accept the facty against his own 
judgment of what infinite love requires, — a sentiment 
that loses none of its rationalism nor objectionableness, 
though cited from such an author as Bayne.* 

In the same tone, Mr. Hudson informs us, page 157, 
" that there can be no triumph of faith, if evil is uncon- 
querable ; and it is unconquerable if its extirpation 
would impair the welfare of the world, or bedim the 
glory of God." And, on page 157, we learn, that, " if 
ou)* doctrine of evil be true, it gives us a valid thb- 

ISM." 

The author's attention having been called by one of 
his reviewers to the insignificant place occupied by the 
scriptural discussion in his larger work,t he issued the 
smaller volume, entitled " Christ our Life." The open- 
ing sentence of this volume is highly significant. It 
reads thus, the Italics being ours : — 

" The present essay is an enlarged form of a single 
chapter of a previous work, and is designed to meet the 
convenience of those who rely for their views of futwre 
life upon the reading cmd interpretation of the Scrip-, 
twes:' X 

The closing paragraph of the preface opens with the 
following significant hint : — 

" For the reasons thus indicated, the writer doubts 
if an exclusively Scriptural argument will prove satis- 
factory to very many, however clearly it may appear 
to be made out." § 



* The bold citation, however, does not present Bayne's ftill view of tbe 

KT do him justice, 
t See pre&oe to Christ oar Life, p. 1. 
t lb. p. a. § n>. p. 4. 



340 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

In this latter volume, when the author arrives at 
the troublesome texts of the Apocalypse, he prepares 
the way by a page and a half of statements affecting the 
canonical claims of the book. Of course, he professes, 
as always, to be above taking any advantage of the fact: 
** We say at the outset, that we are not going to deny 
the canonical character of the Apocalypse." Yet in 
the next sentence the motive leaks out : " But when a 
reviewer, as cited above, page 71, plants a chief corner- 
stone of argument in that book, it is proper that the 
reader should know the facts of which biblical critics 
are generally aware." * Yet Mr. Hudson reaches an 
important conclusion, — that the Apocalypse is one of 
the disputed books, and should not " be alleged as af- 
fording alone sufficient proof of any doctrine." And, 
lest this caveat should be ineffectual, he makes the ad- 
ditional suggestion : " Yet, if any one fears there must 
be a loose or a strained interpretation of the Scriptures 
somewhere, the Apocalypse is the book of all others 
which forbids a rigid interpretation." f Of course, 
.with such a preparation, it is easy to make the phrase, 

* Christ our Life, p. 136. 

t Christ our Life, pp. 187, 188. It is entirely unsuitable to enter at large 
on the question of authorship within these limits; a question that occupies 
60 pages of Davidson's Intioduction. And it seems to us little less ^n 
criminal to throw out doubts for controversial purposes in the futile style of 
Iklr. Hudson's allusions, where the subject is neither argued nor evoi intel- 
ligently presented. We merely say that the historical or traditional evi- 
dence is decided in favor of the authorship by John the Apostle: the only 
doubts raised have been founded on the style and contents. Such men as 
Davidson and Alford are satisfied. Alford, while admitting some difficul- 
ties in the style, not fully accounted for, yet speaks thus of the external 
evidence: '*It is of the highest and most satisfactory kind. It was unani- 
mous in very early times. It came from those who knew and had heard 
Uie apostle himself. It only begins to be impugned by those who had doctrinal 



mmm 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 341 

" tormeuted day and night for ever," describe " utter 
and irreversible destruction [annihilation] in a dra- 
matic form." 

Mr. Hudson has himself borne important testimony 
to the determined mode in which many of his coadju- 
tors ride over the Scriptures. In speaking of those 
anuihilationists who deny that the spirit is an immate- 
rial substance, he admits that their theory involves the 
diflSculty of making the wicked wholly die twice, and 
of teaching a second execution of the penalty of the 
law. And he adds, " This diflSculty, with another to 
be named hereafter, has led many to deny that the ' res- 
urrection of the umjust^ signifies their being made 
alive,^^ * 

Ellis and Read are still more outspoken. " We have 
elsewhere shown that the Scriptures teach plainly, un- 
equivocally, repeatedly, and in the most forcible and 
varied language, that the fearful doom of the impeni 
tent sinner is death, in the sense of privation of life, 
extinction of being ; and therefore there is no amount 
of the clearest testimony which could possibly teach the 
opposite doctrine. It might indeed teach, were itTx) be 
found, that all the testimony was contradictory and 
unworthy of credit ; and, teaching yea and nay of the 
same doctrine, we might be fully justified in rending 
our Bibles to pieces, ami scattering them to the winds 
of heaven, as unworthy of the slightest regard. But, 
blessed be God, the Scriptures do not teach yea and 



objections to ike hook. The doubt was taken up by more reasonable men on 
internal and critical grounds. But no real substantive counter claimant 
was ever produced." — Alford's Gr. Test. Prolegomena to the Apoc. § 117. 
* Debt and Grace, p. 247. 



342 1*1 fE AND DEATH KTEliNAL. 

nay of the same doctrine." * The spirit and meaning 
of the above remarks (the first portion of the Italics 
being so indicated by the author) are not mitigated 
by tlie assumption of the last sentence. 

Mr. Blain is not behmd his compeers : " When all 
other reasons fail to make this doctrine look consistent, 
it is said, ' We must believe what we can- not compre- 
hend.' This argument is consistent where God's moral 
character is not involved, as in the belief of his omni- 
presence, creating power, etc. ; but it is sin to believe 
a doctrine which impeaches his attributes. While some 
other revealed doctrines are above our reason, none 
contradict it, none injure his moral character^ but this.^^ f 
It is unnecessary to take advantage of the inadvertent 
admission that this is a revealed doctrine. Enough 
that the writer precludes all testimony on the subject 
by the distinct assertion, that this doctrine is so repug- 
nant to God's moral character, that it would be a sin 
to believe it. 

Mr. Hastings is equally decided : " The doctrine of 
eternal anguish and torture of the lost is in itself so 
utterly opposed to our natural conceptions of Gk>d, as 
revealed in the Bible, that it staggers the &ith of the 
most devout ; how, then, can it be received by the wi- 
believing .^ " J 

Mr. Burnham remarks, in terms worthy of Theodore 
Parker, " The doctrine of eternal torment represents 
our loving God as an implacable tyrant." Again : af- 
ter an enumeration of particulars which he declares to 
be involved in the doctrine, he inquires : " Is it possi- 

* Bible «. Tradition, p. 176. f Death not Life, p. 116. 

t P:\n!ine Theology, p. 76. 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 348 

ble that any human being can practically believe such 
a horrible collection of revolting absurdities to be the 
truth sent us by a loving and merciful God ? " *■ 

The tendency of these and many more like utter- 
ances is plain. The question is a question oifact : What 
will God do with the wicked ? These writers declare 
the doctrine to be so incredible, that a communication 
purporting to come from God himself can not prove it. 
Indeed, as already intimated, a very considerable por- 
tion of the sect have taken the advance step of denying 
any resurrection of the wicked, in direct contradiction 
of Christ and of Paiil. 

2. A second tendency of these writers is a marked 
sympathy with and concession to the Universalist and 
the infidel. 

We do not refer to the methods of dealing with 
Scripture texts, although the level of Blain's and 
Ellis and Bead's expositiou is certainly lower than the 
average of Universalist interpretation, and not a few 
even of Mr. Hudson's modes remind us, for magna- 
nimity, of Hosea Ballon, sen., and of Thomas Whit- 
temore. ^ 

We refer to the general modes of argument, the po- 
sitions taken in regard to doctrine, expressions of sym- 
pathy for Universalists and infidels, and open declara- 
tions that they have the best of the argument as against 
the common theology, and that even they are justifia- 
ble in rejecting a volume which should contain such a 
doctrine as the majority of Christians in all ages have 
held to be in the Bible. 

(1.) General methods of argument employed by the 

* Anti-eternal Torment, p. 8. 



344 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

two classes are substantially the same. There is the 
same dogged and invincible repudiation of a teaching 
which certainly lies on the face of the Bible, loading it 
with epithets of scorn and malignity. 

Thus Mr. Hudson, as we have seen (page 338), calls 
it " a divine despotism." And on page 60 of his Debt 
and Grace, after a quotation from Dr. Oheever, setting 
forth in somewhat vivid terms the death which follows 
sin, he inquires, " What more could the adversary do 
or desire if he were God ? " Mr. Burnham calls the 
God who is author of the doctrine, " an implacable ty- 
rant." Ellis and Read speak of tjie teaching as " this 
most horrible doctrine, which is so derogatory to. the 
character of God, and conflicts so terribly with every 
principle of justice and humanity which God has im- 
planted in the human mind." * Mr. Blain calls it " the 
horrid doctrine of endless torment," " the slander of 
the Almighty." f He declared, that to show Grod to be 
"just and good " is impossible for all those " who hold 
to endless suffering for a failure in the short and poor 
probation man has on earth ; " also that the reasons 
given to justify the doctrine " all outrage^eason and 
common sense ; " % a^nd, as we have seen, that " it is a 
sin to believe a doctrine which impeaches God's moral 
character," as this doctrine does. Much more of 
this kind of language and reasoning is found in this 
writer. Mr. Hastings, after pronouncing it a doctrine 
" which staggers the faith of the most devout," and in- 
quiring, " how, then, can it be received by the unbeliev- 

* Bible vs. Traditicm, p. 276. 

t Death not Life, pre&oe, vii-ix. 

t Death not Life, preface, p. iv, and p. 116. 



THE SYSTEM OF AyNlHlLATlON. 345 

ing ? " proceeds to call it ^' the most terrific blasphemj, 
the most audacious aud unmitigated libel, ever uttered 
against a Gkxl of love." * Then follow two pages in 
the old Universidist or rather skeptical strain : — 

^^ Can it be possible, that while the Lord was pass- 
ing by on Sinai, and thus proclaiming Ins goodness, 
there were, somewhere in the caverns of hell, thousands 
and thousands of- wretched beings lifting their eyes in 
hopeless and never-ending anguish? . . . €lod loved 
the world ; he gave his Son to die for them : and 
while darkness gathered over the land, while the earth 
shook and the rocks rent, while Jesus bowed and died, 
a token of Grod's good-will to man, can it be true that 
unnumbered myriads of spirits were lost, were wailing, 
and blaspheming Grod," etc. 

The interpretation which finds the doctrine in the 
Bible, is, according to Mr. Hastings, a " false and hor- 
rible interpretation." 

This method of appeal, not always nor often in such in- 
temperate language, constitutes a very considerable sta- 
ple in the annihilationist's argument. Indeed, its inher- 
ent incredibility, as cruel and derogatory to Gk)d, forms, 
under whatever disguises, the whole drift and strengtti 
of the system. Even the respectable and cautious Dob- 
ney drops such open statements as the following : — 

" I thank God, who righteously requires the tore of 

* This ntterance is not relieved by the faint admission preceding: " We 
say, first decide from the Bible whether the doctrine of eternal torment be 
tme, and then, if we find no such thing is there taught, reject and oppose it 
as the most terrific blasphemy," etc. For the whole strain of argument be- 
fore and after is, that such a thing can wi be believed concerning a God of 
love; and he indorses the language which he ascribes to Bishop Newton, 
'' Imagine it you may, but you can never seriously believe it." — p. 76. 



348 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

my whole heart, that, in his blessed revelation, there is 
nothing akin to what I find in human books to make 
my religion one of terror rather than of reverent affec- 
tion ; reversing the apostle's declaration, and making 
perfect horror to cast out love. 

'*" Speaking in the belief that the popular doctrine is 
not taught in Scripture, I do not hesitate to affirm, that 
any thing more perfectly adapted to harden men's 
hearts against God, and hinder them from beginning to 
think aright of him, could not have been pontrived." * 

Open scoffers at the Bible have said few fiercer things 
of its teachings. This style of argument is familiar 
to them, and has been one of their standing methods. 

(2.) Not less significant are the numerous direct 
concessions to the Universalist and the infidel, which 
aboimd in the advocates of annihilation. They con- 
stantly admit that Universalists and infidels have the 
advantage on this subject, and are not blameworthy 
for rejecting such a doctrine at whatever cost. 

Mr. Storrs writes as follows : ^^ I am glad in my heart 
if I can approach one step toward Universalists with- 
out sacrificing truth : for I hope thereby to gain some, 
and save them alive, by removing out of their hands 
their main argument for universal salvation ; viz., that 
^ the idea of the eternal consciousness of innumerable 
human beings in indescribable torments is irreconcila- 
ble with the perfections of Grod, and that, therefore, all 
will be saved.' The hearer, seeing no other view of 
the subject but eternal sin and suffering, or Universal- 
ism, takes hold of the latter. Every one who has had 
any thing to do with Universalists knows that this is 

* Dobney on Futare PnniBhrnent, pp. 188, 1(8. 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 347 

their main fort, and here it is they always wish to meet 
their opposers ; and their converts are made more from 
the exhibition of the horribleness of the punishment 
which their opposers say is to be inflicted on the wicked 
than any other and all other arguments they use." * 

Again : " To talk of a soul always dying and never 
dead, or of a death that never dies, is such an absurd- 
ity, that I wonder how it was ever believed by any man 
who thinks for himself. A doctrine that Involves such 
a palpable contradiction is not to be promulgated for 
truth, unless we wish to bring discredit upon revelation 
itself ; and I can not divest myself of the conviction 
which I have so often expressed, that the theory I op- 
pose has driven many thinking men into infidelity." f 

Says Mr. Hastings, " Hence many minds reject rev- 
elation entirely, because it teaches, as they suppose, a 
doctrine so utterly repugnant to common sense and 
Divine Goodness. . . . We urge in justification of our 
course, that the doctrine of eternal torture of wicked 
men does contradict the apprehension, the experience, 
and the reasoning of mankind ; and, God helping us, we 
will, by a diligent and faithful examination of the origi- 
nal records, dismiss it from the Christian system, thus 
taking away both the scoff and the stumbling-block of 
the infidel and the rationalist." X 

Mr. Blain is very full and varied in his expressions 
to the same effect. In his preface (page 8), ho lays 
down this sweeping proposition for the benefit of the 
whole class of skeptics : ^^ It is a sad fact, too, that more 
miUions of Universalists, and, what is far worse, of iiifi- 



* Six SermoDB, p. 118. f Six Sennoni, p. IIP 

I Pauline Theology, pp. 76, 77. 



348 LIFB AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

dels, deists, and atheists, have been made by the popu- 
lar doctrine than of real saints. The church, too, has 
been crowded with stony-ground hearers by it." On 
page 21, he informs us of one of his motives in advo- 
cating his isystem. After a quotation from Saurin, that 
'^ this threatening is a mortal poison, diffusing itself 
into every period of life, and making life itself bitter" 
to the wicked, Mr. Blain remarks, "I wish to remove 
such bitterness." On the next page (22d), he gives 
his vote for theUniversalists as against the " Orthodox: " 
" The fact is, and Universalists see it, if the wicked 
are immortal, their doctrine is true." On page 70, he 
lays down the proposition, " that orthodox churches 
on this subject are equaj to the Catholics, and much 
worse than the Universalists, in quoting a few isolated 
texts, and neglecting to examine their connections." 
One chapter of his book (pp. 104 -111) is devoted to 
a deliberate attempt to show, that, in the argument 
between Universalism and Orthodoxy, the former has 
greatly the advantage ; in wl^ch the following pas- 
sages, suflSciently brief for quotation, show the drift of 
the whole : — 

" A Universalist tract is in circulation, containing a 
hundred texts for their views. I have examined them, 
and find some fifty, which, when combined, afford much 
stronger proof for the restoration of all men than do 
the texts for endless woe when combined in. like man- 
ner."* " The fact is plain to all who investigate as 
the greatness of the subject demands, that if all men 
are immortal, and these texts are figurative [i.e., the 
texts on which annihilationists rely], restorationists 

* Death n(jt Life, p. 105. 



8SBH 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION, 349 

have the truth."* "The Church of God, while aiming 
to do good and save men, by erring, has wronged the 
Universalists — has made them such — has persecuted 
them for errors into which she had driven them. ... It 
is slander to charge them, as many do, with throwing 
away the Bible (some are led to it) as an ultimate 
guide : they generally reverence it as the grand char- 
ter of their hopes for a future world. In this we agree. 
We owe them a vast debt, and should make sacrifices to 

pay it." t 

Mr. Dobney declares, " Would we seek the rationale 
of infidelity, it might to a considerable extent be found 
in this, that religious men, having for the most part 
misapprehended the truth of Scripture on this point, 
have unconsciously, and with the best intentions, pre- 
sented the God of revelation in such a light, that his 
creatures whom he would fain have addressed through 
them, and won to himself, have been scared at the terrific 
aspect." J "And right joyous are wo to throw down 
this buttress of infidelity which Orthodoxy has assisted 
to build, and to compel the unhappy opposcr of Oliris- 
tianity to ah unwonted silence, while the majestic voice 
is heard from the everlasting throne, * Are not my ways 
just and equal, saith the Lord." § 

8. Another affinity of the system already rapidly 
developing is materialism. We might have anticipated 
that a disposition so strongly marked, to matoriallr/O 
the utterances of the Bible, would naturally issue in a 
doctrine of materialism. But it is not necessary to 
draw inferences. Pacts are already at hand. 



* Death not Life, p. 107. t lb., p. 100. 

I Future Punishinaiit, p. 268. f lb., p. 370. 



350 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Mr. Storrs openly repudiates not merely the fact, but 
the conceivableness, of spiritual existence as distinct 
from matter : " If it is said [of the soul] it is a spirit- 
ual substance, I ask what kind of substance is that, 
if it is not matter ? I ca/n not conceive^ and Ida not 
see how it is possible to conceive^ of substa/nce without 
matter in some form, it may be exceedingly refined. 
I regard the phrase ^ immaterial ' as oue which prop- 
erly belong to things which a/re not ; a sound witiiout 
sense or meaning ; a mere cloak to hide the nakedness 
of the theory of an immortal soul in man." * 

Ellis and Read are very copious in tiie same direc- 
tion. Their joint volume argues two main propositions, 
of which the first (covering 120 pages of discussion) 
is thus laid down : '^ First, We shall prove from tibe 
Bible the corporeal being and mortality of the soul, and 
the nature of the spirit of man ; which spirit, not be- 
ing a living entity^ is neither mortal nor immortal." f 
Distinguishing the soul from the spirit (as indicated in 
the above extract), they proceed to say that the one 
is simply corporeal, nay, is the corporeal being ; the 
other a kind of chemical or electrical agent that gives 
it activity. The gist of th^ir dissertation on the soul 
is fairly given in the following brief but decisive ex- 
tracts : " We say the true meaning of soul is a crea- 
ture that lives by breathing." % " Words can not make 
it more plain than do these texts, that the whole man 
is a soul, and is corporeaV^ § "A soul, in Scripture 
phraseology, 4peans an animal or creature or life ; a 
breathing creature, originally designed to live by 

* Six Sermons, p. 29. f Bible t». Tradition, p. 18. 

X lb., p. 15. § lb., p. 18. 



KB^m 



THE SrSTEJI OF ANNJMILATION. 351 

breathing, whether such creature be liymg or dead." * 
^ A dead body is a dead soul, and a dead soul is a dead 
body." t But does not some higher doctrine emerge in 
connection with the spirit ? No : the spirit is notiliing 
but the principle of bodily life. It is the same in ani- 
mals as in men, and the superiority of men is due only 
to their superior organization. The following extracts 
&irly represent the doctrine. In answer to the ques- 
tion, " What is spirit ? " these writers say it " primarily 
signifies wind, air, breath ; but it is sometimes used to 
signify a principle having some relation to electricity, 
diffused through the atmosphere, which is the principle 
that stimulates the organs of men and plants into ac- 
tivity, and which is used by the animals themselves to 
control their motions." J " The resurrected Saviour 
and ike angels are tangible beings." § " This princi- 
ple of life or spirit is not the air nor the breath, but is 
contained in the air and the breath. . . .Life, then, is 
not an abstract principle, but is an effect of this spirit 
operating alike upon all organized beings. . . . Man 
has no abstract essence within him which gives to him 
any pre-eminence over the living souls of other ani- 
mals. They all live, yea, the souls of all live, in com- 
mon, by breathing the breath of life, because this 
breath contains the spirit, the sustaining principle of 
all lives. Man's superiority is derived from his supe- 
rior organization." || " The spirit of man, then,' is not a 
living entity ; and, though no creature can live without 
it, it is not alive itself." ^ Ellis and Be^ on page 108, 
recapitulate their positions thus : '^ That [the spirit of 

• Bible «i. Tnditkn, p. 82. f Id., p. 80i | n>., p. 84. 

§ lb., p. 86. U lb., p. 86. t lb., p. 87. 



352 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

man] is primarily a principle of life contained in the 
breath ; secondly, that the container is put for the con- 
tained, that it is the breath ; thirdly, that as none of 
the results of animal life can take plaoe without the 
animating principle, so thel various tempers and facul- 
ties of mind are called spirit. But, spirit though it be, 
the cause of life is not life itself; and, although a subtle 
agent, it can not manifest any of the powers of life in 
an abstmcted state. But, with the spirit, an organized 
breathing frame is enabled by God to manifest the en- 
ergies of life. It is therefore ihQ flesh that lives: the 
body lives J and the spirit does not live at all." * " We 
hope that enough has been said to convince every man 
that man has no spirit that can have a separate con- 
scious existence." f " So we argue, that as the body 
without the spirit is dead, so the spirit without the 
body is dead also." X 

The chief difficulty is to arrest our quotations ; page 
after page being filled with such gross utterances, and 
they professedly founded on the Scriptures. 

Mr. Blain is equally emphatic. He ridicules the 
preachers who have raised against him the cry of ma- 
terialism, and '^ repeated the old story, that man has a 
soul, or spirit, which is a simple substance, indivisible, 
immaterial, uncompounded, and, so, indestructible. I 
ask. Why undertake to describe what they know noth- 
ing aboiit, and of which all other men are equally ig- 
norant ? " § " Surely we have not come in contact with 
the substancq^ a so-called soul, any more than with 
men in the moon. It seems to me that the crucible 

* Bible vs. Tradition, p. 109. t lb., p. 112. X lb., p. 113. 

§ Death not Life, p. 88. 



TBE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 35o 

by which men try the quality or essence of the soul 
must be something like what they say the soul itself is, 
— immaterial, not tangible to the five senses, nor yet to 
our mental vision : I have never seen the thing." * 
" The Bible tells us plainly that man and beast are 
made of the same material, ^dust,' and that both 
have the ' same breath ; " that they both die alike : 
but mark, a resurrection is not told for both." f " The 
fact is, the existence of a spirit, or soul, as an entity 
within us, is only inferred from a few uncertain texts, 
which can be easily explained another way ; while 
numerous plain texts and the sense of the Bible are 
against it. Where does the book of Nature or the 
book of God tell what soul or man is made of, except 
in the earthrwide and heaven-broad declaration, 'Dust 
thou art ? ' Echo answers, ' Where ? ' " J 

Mr. Hudson is constrained to admit § that "the 
prevalence of a materialist philosophy has frequently 
attended the doctrine " which he maintains ; and, 
while he distinctly disavows and opposes that view, lie 
also deems it necessary to make the following quasi 
apology for it : " We freely grant, nay, in behalf of ma- 
terialists whose piety and devoutness is unquestiona- 
ble, we insist, that speculative materialism is not to be 
for itself condemned." || Perhaps not : what is there 
to be condemned " of itself ^^^ except the intents of the 
heart ? But is not a practical materialism so openly 
gross as we have indicated above to be condemned 
both for its causes and its pernicious temjpncies ? Wheu 
religious teachers professing Christianity publicly pro- 

* Death not Life, p. 36. f lb., p. 39. X lb., p. 42. 

§ Debt and Grace, p. 243. || lb., p. 246. 

23 



354 LIFK AND DEATH ETRIiNAL. 

claim that a man differs from a brute only in " his su- 
perior organization," and that the end of a man and 
the end of a brute are precisely alike, is there nothing 
to be condemned in such a doctrine ? When men deny 
the conceivableness of " substance without matter," and 
even go so far as to aver that when the Scripture says, 
" God is a Spirit," and the like expressions, " the na- 
ture of God is not clearly determined by any of these 
expressions," * is there nothing to be condemned in it? 
and when, pushed by the emergencies of their own 
system, they go so far as deliberately to deny the res- 
urrection of the unjust, what are the merit and mean- 
ing and influence of such a system ? 

Yet this is apparently the popular form of the doc- 
trine. The book of Ellis and Read l^ad long ago 
reached its sixth edition, and the circulation of Storrs's 
Six Sermons was claimed at twenty-five thousand copies 
(though mostly gratuitous) in 1855. Mr. Hastings 
deprecates the rapid spread of the view which denies 
any resurrection to the wicked, and Mr. Hudson cau- 
tiously implies the fact. The adherents of the doctrine in 
the North-west, so far as we have been informed, hold 
it mostly in this shape. We, indeed, have no doubt 
that this result is only a natural growth of the system ; 
that the low and gross modes of interpretation on 
which the whole system rests will naturally end in 
this view. But no matter for our theory : such is the 
sad fact. 

4. A fourth tendency of this system is to sensual- 
ism. We have not had opportunity to gather up, nor 
has there been time to develop, the fruits of this 

* Ellis and Read, p. 86. 



TSB SYSTEM OF AimiHILATlON. 865 

tendency: too many adherents of the system were 
trained among the sanctities of evangelical truth and 
life. But what is there to prevent a doctrine of re- 
wards as gross as that of punishments ? Why should 
they who talk of a Uteral grinding to powder, and burn- 
ing to ashes, and- recognize no other soul or spirit than 
the life of the body, stop short of a kind of Mohamme- 
dan paradise ? Why are they not in a state of readi- 
ness to receive a heavenly city of literal gold and pre- 
cious stones, with streams cmd trees and luscious fioiits, 
and* feasting with Abraham, and drinking new wine with 
the Saviour in his kingdom ? Why not even extract 
the doctrine of " free-love " in heaven out of Matt, 
zxii. 30, especially as Mr. Hudson could easily furnish 
many Gterman and some English opinions to prove 
that a literal fornication between the angels and hu- 
man females is taught in Greu. vi. 2, and Jude 6, 7 ? 

Accordingly, we learn that already this influence is 
unfolding itself. A writer in The Independent of 
Aug. 10, 1865 (Rev. Pharcellus Church, D.D.), in- 
forms us that he has encountered the doctrine in this 
gross form, except the "free-love" element: "In a 
remote settlement of the West " (in the State of Michi- 
gan), he found a body of men who hold that " the 
wicked are annihilated, their bodies being literally 
burnt up in the fires of the final conflagratiop, and be- 
coming ashes under the feet of the righteous." They 
have gone backward so far in their Judaizing and ma- 
terializing as to take Saturday for the sacred day. 
Their religion " is wholly materialistic," and " heaven 
is reduced to a scene of material delights. These peo- 
ple have their camp-meetings, continuing them for 



356 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

days or weeks ; and the fervor with which they sing, 
pray, exhort, and preach, about the trees, brooks, ani- 
mals, and various delectations of their material heaven, 
and of the conflagration and resurrection with which 
it is to be introduced, is most inspiring and seductive 
to an imaginative auditory." 

All this is a legitimate result, and will only show it- 
self more openly and abundantly as it spreads, if it 
does spread, among the masses. 

" By their fruit ye shall know them." Men of prac- 
tical sense and clear intelligence — the common mind 
— will judge of such influences as these. They may 
be puzzled on questions of interpretation; possibly 
they may, by artful sophistry, become befogged on 
some very plain passages of the Bible : but they can 
read the significance of such facts as have been pre- 
sented in this chapter: When religionists openly assail 
certain doctrines or statements of fact as too horrible 
to be believed, nay, so incredible that men are justifled 
in discarding the Bible if they be found there ; when 
they openly range themselves in this discussion on the 
side of the Universalist and the infldel, not only em- 
ploying their favorite arguments, but expressing sym- 
pathy with them as much-abused classes of individuals, 
and even siding with them as having clearly the best 
of the argument as against orthodoxy ; when a great 
body of them push their interpretation down to the 
grossest form of materialism, deny to man any other 
spirit than the breath of the body, declare that he dif- 
fers from the brute only in* having a superior organiza- 
tion, and that he dies, and turns to dust, just like the 



THE SYSTEM OF ANNIHILATION. 357 

brute, — ^^ plain men can read the fruit and the character 
of such a system. 

And, if such be the tendencies so speedily developed, 
what shall be the results in due time ? Hitherto the 
doctrine has been advocated chiefly by men of Christian 
education and evangelical sympathies, — men who will 
never lose the power of those early influences. Let it 
pass slowly but surely into other hands ; let it per- 
vade any considerable body of men and women, 
removed from all surrounding restraints ; and we ven- 
ture to say, sustained by the history of Epicureanism 
and of French Revolutionism, as well as by the apos- 
tolic warning (1 Cor. xv. 32) and the whole drift of 
corrupt humanity, that there will at last be found in 
that community such a fountain of materialism and 
sensualism as will carry large numbers, if not the 
mass, down to the habits of the beasts whose destinies 
they claim: "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow 
we die." 



mmm 



NOTES. 



NOTE A.— Page 84. 

BXTSAGTS ON LIFB AND DBATH. 

"Life and death/' remarks Umbreit, '' are set over against one an- 
other in the Old Testament Jis well as the New Testament : the one as 
inclnding all good that can befall us ; the other, all evil," p. 246 ; Al- 
ford, ii. p. 304. 

Olshansen says fii. 313), " The creature contemplated as in isolation 
from Grod is in ^avaroc, death, and only has life in connection with Grod, 
the fountain of life." Again : more fully (p. 360), " With a deeply spir- 
N itoal meaning, the Scripture, in general, ascribes true being to the crea- 
ture only in connection with the origin of that being : where sin dis- 
solves that connection, there death {^Avarog) steps in (Gen. iii. 3) ; and 
hence he who lives in a state of sin is called dead (ve«p6f). Accord- 
ingly, perdition {air6?£ia) is to be taken as the antithesis to life {^(^), and 
equivalent to death. It does not denote an annihilation of substance ; 
but the true idea of life (that of the spirit) requires consciousness, and 
iJiat not of the senses merely, but a spiritual consciousness. This is 
wanting where there is a deprivation of spiritual life generally, and the 
animal or carnal man {dv^punog rp^xucog or aapKiKog) only vegetates ; 
such a condition, therefore, is called the absence of life, or death. Now,, 
the design of the advent of the Logos in the flesh was to pour life again 
into dead humanity from a living fountain, to restore the connection 
which has been destroyed. . . . Without re-union to the fountain of life 
through faith, man remains in death." — Pkilo de Pfvfugis, iy. 258; 
Zw^ (j£v al6vu)g if npdg rbdv KaTa<jwyfij ^avcTog 6* 6 (iitb tovtov dpaa/ioc.; 
(Ms. u. 360. 

Tholuck. — John iii. 36 : " Here, indeed, eternal life is regarded as a 
present thing, as in v. 24, xvii. 3, then in its consummation as some- 
thing future : that, nevertheless, the obK d^^ercu presupposes an o^x* ^j 

860 



860 , LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

may be readily inferred from the antithesis fiheL if bpyfj. The condition 
of man without faith is a condition of bpyrt (Eph. ii. 9), and the correl- 
ative of it is misery, the ^avarog** Again, on^Rom. v. 12 : " The .Scrip- 
ture usage lays hold of the notions, life and death, in their innermost 
depths. Life is the unrestrained self-unfolding of a being according to 
its indwelling idea ; where it takes place, there is harmony, and, on the 
subjectiye side, self-satisfaction, blessedness. Accordingly, also, biblical 
usage in reference to life and death includes next the notion of well-feel- 
ing and happiness (3 M. xviii. 5 ; 5 M. xxx. 15 ; Jer. xxi. 8 ; Prov. xi. 
19; Sir. 15, 17, and in New Testament mostly with ethical reference. 
Matt. viii. 22 ; Luke x. 28, xv. 32 ; John v. 24 ; 1 John iii. 14 ; Jas. i. 
15, etc. ) But especially ^wf is emphatically used to designate self-satis- 
faction or bliss in the other world (Matt. vii. 14, xviii. 9 ; John iii. 36 ; 
Acts xi. 18, and here Horn. v. 18) ; and "davarog to designate future mis- 
ery, — the life that does not deserve the name (Rom. i. 32 ; 2 Cor. ii. 16, 
vii. 10 ; Jas. i. 15, v. 20). The life hereafter, attaining to the perfect 
self-development, is the bvT(^g l^unj (1 Tim. vi. 19) ; and the completed 
death is, in the Apocalypse, named, with an emphasis already found in the 
Targ^ms, the 6 devrepog ^dvaroc. Even the word dirodavetv, Paul uses 
as a designation of the loss of the true life caused by the sins, in this 
world as well as in the future " (Rom. vii. 10, viii. 12). 

Similarly, Alford. Thus on John vi. 51 : " The death of the body is 
not reckoned as death, any more than the life of the body is reckoned 
as life." On John xi. 25, 26, he paraphrases : "Faith in me is the 
source of life, both here and hereafter ; and those who have it have life, 
do that they shall never die ; physical death being overlooked and dis- 
regarded, in comparison with that which is really and only death" 
Again, on 1 John v. 12 : " The ' having the life ' is the actually possess- 
ing it, not indeed in its most glorious development, but in all its reality 
and vitality." On 1 John iii. 15, " ' Abideth in death,' in that realm of 
death in which all men are by nature. . . . The words have no reference 
.to Juture death any fiirther than as he who is and abides in death can 
but end in death." Liicke speaks to the same effect in briefer tenns. 

Meyer uses similar statements. Thus on John iii. 36 : " Hath eternal 
life " — he hath eternal life, namely, the Messianic C«^ which in its true 
development is already a present possession of believers. At the Paioa- 
sia it is completed and glorified." 

De Wette (John v. 24) remarks on "hath eternal life," "has, pes 
sesses, not shall have. ' Shall not come into condemnation ' is the same 
as * shall not see death * (viii. 51). * Has passed,' even in the act of be- 
lieving; this perfect is to be held fast as such, as in iii. 18; I Jolm iii. 
14. 'From death,' from spiritual death." 



NOTES. 361 

These extracts might be extended abnost indefinitely. The agree- 
ment of respectable expositors is unanimous. To miss this deep mean- 
ing of the Sciiptore terms is not to see the light of noon-4ay. 



NOTE B.— Page 198. 

Phil. i. 21-24. 

Mr. Hudson makes some four or even five differ^t and incompatible 
attempts on the passage. 1. He says that " the passage should be com- 
pared with the context. Paul had just said that Christ would be * mag- 
nified in his body, whether by life or by death.' When he then adds, 
' To live is Christ, and to die is gain/ he may signify the gain to the 
cause of Christ by the martyrdom which in his prison he now awaited.'' 
To which we answer (1) The passage given as "the context" is but 
one subordinate clause of the context. The full drift of the context is 
given above. (2) The Greek does not fiurly admit the signification, 
"gain to the cause of Christ." The position of kiial ytlp (for tome) in 
such, that it stands related alike to both parts of the sentence ; and its 
special emphasis confines the gain personally to the apostle — for to me 
to die is gain. So, very clearly, ver. 23. But Mr. Hudson abandons 
this for a second suggestion, that, 2, Paul may signify ** his own greater 
reward in the resurrection." But the possibility of his referring merely 
to the distant resurrection is cut ofi* by the subsequent alternative dis- 
cussed already, — the interference of the joy he longed for with his furtlicr 
stay in the flesh. Not satisfied here, Mr. Hudson suggests, .3, ** Mor(*/> 
over, such were his present afflictions, that any form of dcatli would bo a 
welcome release." But (1) the motive which Paul actually procecdH to 
unfold is not the desire to escape present trial, but the longing for ChriHt'H 
presence ; and (2) it is a libel on Paul to attribute to him as his govern- 
ing motive, or as a burning desire, the idea of shrinking away from tho 
trials of life. Precisely the contrary. For whUe he was always joyful 
in the thought of his crown (2 Tim. iv. 8), the eternal weight of glory 
(2 Cor. iv. 17), and the presence of Christ (2 Cor. v. 8), yet the thou^clit 
of shrinking away fix)m his trials is nowhere to bo found. " We glory 
in tribulations " (Bom. v. 3). " None of these things move mo " ( Ati'« 
XX. 24). "I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproochoH, in noiMWHlth^H, 
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake" (2 Cor. xii. 10). Not 
choosing to rest on either of these positions, Mr. HudHon abandoiiM 
them for a fourth, which itself spHts in two in the utterance. 4. " Btii 
there are some reasons for supposing that the phrase fiore rendered ' tu 



362 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

depart ' (dg rbava^aai) may signify ' to return/ or * the release/ with 
special allusion to the coming-back of the dead fi^m hades, of which the 
early Christians made so much." Without following this writer in 
all the weaknesses of his subsequent argument,* we may say, (1) that 
this attempt to refer the phrase to such a supposed well-known event as 
" the release/' is equally weak as disingenuous, unless it can be shown 
(a) that such event, is well known to the New Testament toriters, and. (6) 
that this term is sometimes used by them to describe it ; for neither of 
ii^ch can one particle of evidence be adduced. (2) The writer gives 
two entirely different translations, both of which he would use at the same 
time ; neither of which will help him. Of these translations, (a) if we 
attempt to use the meaning '' release/' the verb ava^vaai is in that sense 
always active, requiring an object, and should here be translated '' having 
a desire for releasing " some one else. But if we take it in a passive 
sense, "a desire for the release," i.e. being released, the verb should be 
passive, uvahj^ijvcu. Furthermore it would still signify death, being 
released from this life ; for it is of this life the apostle is speaking, not 
of hades. If (b) we take the meaning to " return " (which is undoubt- 
edly one phase of departure which the word sometimes though not 
commonly designates), we render no aid to the doctrine of unconscious- 
ness at death, but simply ijiake the apostle assert the pre-existence of 
the soul in heaven ; inasmuch as he is speaking only of two states or 
situations, — being in the flesh and being with Christ. K he is made to 
call his departure from this life to heaven a " return," of course he was 
in heaven before he came into the flesh. 

Such are some of the unsatisfied and incompatible evasions by which 
it is attempted to break the plain meaning of this passage. We have 
been willing to follow them somewhat in detail, that the reader may see 
whether this is or is not handling the word of Gk>d deceitfully. 

The whole case is simple : botfi the conmion meaning of tie word, its 
scriptural usage, and the clear requisitions of the context. The word 
translated " depart " {infd?ii)aai) is a transitive verb, and means radically 
to loose, to unloose, 1, any thing connected, tangled, or knotted ; hence 
to unbind fetters or free a captive ; 2, any thing botmd or made fast, or 
fixed ; hence to dissolve or decompose, and hence also (as a naval or 
military term) to loose anchor, or break up camp,t and thus very com- 

* E.g. The erroneous assertion that the Hebrew ^^^ " always signifies to 
return," the attempt to magnify a manuscript variation in the Septnagfnt of 
Josh. xvil. 8, above the received and settled text. 

t LUce the Hebrew ^q^, to pull up [tent-pins]; hence to depart generalljf 

(f.nil tlic English break up, break away, cut loose, etc.). 



2fOT£S. 363 

monly to depart (the departure may or may noi be a " return " ) ; 3, 
something difficult, as to solve a problem. And the derived noun avakooii 
in like manner means a loosing ; 1, a loosing of the connected parts of 9 
whole, decomposition, dissection, destruction ; 2, a breaking-up or depart- 
ure ; 3, solution of a problem or difficulty. 

In classic Greek, the meaning " departure " is one of the common 
meanings. 

In the New Testament, the verb and noun occur but three times. ( 1 ) 
In 2 Tim. iv. 6, where it most clearly means departure ; "I am now 
ready to be offered, and the time of my departure (dvakvaijg) is at 
hand ; " uttered shortly before the apostle's decease. (2) In Luke xii. 
36, where, though translated " return," it apparently means ^mply to 
" depart " or " break up " from the wedding (though in order to return, 
see Robinson's Lex.), as the actual return is expressed by the words im- 
mediately following, " that when he cometh and knocketh," etc. (3) In 
the present passage, where it stands in contrast with the preceding "live 
in Ae flesh," and the following, " abide in the flesh," and immediately 
connected with the phrase, " and be with the Lord," and means as 
translated, " to depart." 

The Septuagint furnishes but twelve instances occurring in the Apoc- 
rypha (of which Mr. Hudson quotes but six), and among these " de- 
part" is a leading meaning, e.g., Judith xiii. 1 ; 1 Esdras vii. 3 (twice) ; 
Mac. xii. 7. In several other instances, the same meaning is appropri- 
ate, although, as the departure actually was a return, there is no objec- 
tion to using that word ; e.g., Tobit ii. 9 ; Wis. ii. 1. In Mac. viii. 25, 
it reads literally, " Pursuing them for a considerable time, they broke up 
[the pursuit], being restrained by the hour ; for it was [the day] before 
the Sabbath." In 2 Mac. ix. 1, " Antiochus broke up [or departed] in 
a disorderly manner from Persia." Ch. xv. 28 : " And having come 
from the battle, and departing [or perhaps dispersing] with joy, they 
learned," etc. In three remaining passages, the meaning is different. In 
Wis. xvi. 14, it means probably to release ;* in Sir. iii. 15 (in the pas- 
sive voice), " thy sins shall he forgiven' '{i.e. unloosed). In the passage 
before us, the connection before and after holds us inevitably to the 



* In Wis. V. 12, the usage is peculiar, where we have not the active, but the 
passive voice : " As when an arrow is shot at a mark, the air, being cut, imme- 
diately {dc iavrbv uve^v^ij) is let loose upon itself,'' or better, " is dissolved 
into itself." To translate here simply " returns," overlooks the passive voice 
of the verb and the poetic force of the expression. These are all the InstanoeB 
of the Septuagint, wliich the reader can examine at his leisure. They sho^ 
sufficiently the ftal meaning of the word. 



364 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

present translation, {t is one of a series of contrasted phrases, parallel 
to and explanatory of each other. It is (in ver. 20) " life " or " death ; " 
ver. 21, " to live " or " to die ; " ver. 22, " to live in the flesh ;*' ver. 22, 
23, the strait betwixt the two, " to depart, and to be with Christ," or ** to 
abide in the flesh ; " and ver. 25, the assurance that '' I shall abide and 
continue with you all." The reader of the original will also observe a 
connection which is not and can not easily be given in the translation. 
The two verbs ^aXvacu. and elvm are both gathered under one article so 
as to make them parts of the same transaction ; literally " having a de- 
sire for the [act of] departing and being with Christ." 

The language and connection abundantly indicate the received trans- 
lation, and the received view of this passage. And the forced and con- 
tradictory explanations of those who impugn it speak for themsdvei. 



NOTE C— Page 223 



Many unsupported assertions have been made on the meaning and 
uses of this word in the New Testament. A sort of heathen mythology 
has been forced upon the sacred writers. Even in Robinson's New Testa- 
ment Lexicon, hades is flrst defined according to the Greek mythology, 
and the writer proceeds : " The Hebrew siheol C'x^id) signified, in like 
manner, the under-world, and was held to be a vast' subterranean palace, 
full of thickest darkness, where dwelt the shades of the dead ; but no 
distinction of place is indicated in the shed of the Old Testament be- 
tween the righteous and the wicked. For the Hebrew biMC) ^e Sev- 
enty have ahnost everywhere put (f(^c ; and, in accordance with this 
usage, the idea of shed is found among the later Je>?B, more developed, 
and assimilated to the Greek hades. The souls of the righteous and the 
wicked were held to be separated ; the former inhabiting the region of the 
blessed, the inferior paradise, or Eden of the Rabbins ; while lower 
down was the abyss called gehenna or tartarus, in which the souls of the 
wicked are in torment. In the New Testament, {mH/c is represented as a 
dreary prison with gates and bars ; also the keys of hades,** etc. 

The reader will perceive that this statement is shaped mainlj in ac- 
cordance with the views of heathen and Rabbins. Common as it has 
become, we believe it to be unwarranted and unscriptural. The gates 
and keys of hades are no more to be taken literally than the '^keys of 
the kingdom of heaven." As to any vast subterranean place, the com- 
mon abode of good and evil " shades," or partitioned ofl^into ft fai^^ 



NOTES. 365 

aiid lower place, paradise and gehenna, — the interpretatioii seems to us 
worthy of the' Rabbins to whom it refers for authority. The reader will 
find an article containing some good suggestions on the subject in the 
"Bibliotheca Sacra," vol. xiii. pp. 155, seq., by Prof. N. H. Griffin. 

We will barely indicate what seems to us the true view. The etymol- 
ogy of the Hebrew iij^aj is doubtful : that of hades {adrigy a privative, and 
Idelv, the unseen, invisible) corresponds apparently to the general idea in- 
dicated in the New Testament ; the vague notion, not uncommon with 
us, of the invisible world. This is the radical notion of skeol or hades in 
both the Old Testament and the New, with one additional aspect, pres- 
ently to be indicated. Still, according to the special conception con- 
nected with it in the speaker's thought, it may have a modifying color, 
as the mere state of the dead, or even the grave, as the land of silence 
to us, as the place of rest for the suffering good, or, especially, of terror 
to the evil-doers. 

Accordingly, inasmuch as the whole race are sinners, and as death, 
the separation of soul and body, is the fruit of sin ; so this one additional 
notion seems throughout the Bible to cling to hades, the invisible world 
or spirit-land, — that it is a place of terror to the natural man, and even 
to the regenerate man, except as that terror is overcome by Christ. It 
is sometimes personified as one of the great enemies of the race, and of 
Christ's ransomed and but partly sanctified followers. Here, then, we 
find the full but simple Scripture idea of shed and hades : it is the state 
of the dead or the invisible toorld in general, but viewed as a foe or object 
of teiror to man, even to the regenerate man partly sanctified. Though 
not in itself designating absolutely any thing more than the state after 
death, and sometimes even looking no fafther than the grave, its color- 
ing is that of aversion, and not of desire. It is the designation of a re- 
gion of dread. Accordingly, it is so used uniformly, we think, in the 
Old Testament, and still more distinctly in the New. At the same time, 
we find, as we might expect, a much greater definiteness in the New Tes- 
tament notion ; so that, as Fairbairn has shown {" Hermeneutical Man- 
ual," p. 292, etc., Edinburgh ed.), the shed of the older Scriptures is not 
the equivalent of the later hades. 

In the New Testament, with whatever varieties of usage, hades always 
denotes that which is an object of dread ; something evil, the antithesis 
of heaven, the enemy of Christ and his kingdom, the terror of man, and 
also of the regenerate, imperfect believer ; a terror overcome only by 
Christ. Thus, Matt. xi. 23 ; Luke x. 15 : " Thou, Capernaum, which 
art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell " (hades). Here 
it is the opposite of heaven, and involves a terrific threat. Again, Matt 



366 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

xvi. 18 : " On this rock, I will build my church ; and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it." Here (apparently as the gathering-place of 
the wicked) it sums up the whole host of the enemies of Christ's king- 
dom. In the passage under discussion (Luke xvi. 18), it is the place of 
torment. In Acts ii. 27, 31, quoted from the Old Testament, " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell " (hades)^ if it indicates somewhat more 
vaguely the state of the dead, it is still as an antagonist to Christ and his 
work. (Abandon, or give over to hades, is the form of the Hebrew origi- 
nal, Ps. xvi. 10.) In 1 Cor. xv. 55, " O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, * where is thy victory ? " it is the enemy and terror of fallen man. 
In Rev. i. 18 : '' I am he that liveth, and was dead ; and behold I am 
alive for evermore, amen, and have the keys of death and hell '•' (hades) ; 
the same idea of victory over this terror to his children is somewhat 
clear. In Itev. vi. 8, where death rides on the pale horse, and hell (hades) 
followed with him, hades, though personified, is still the most terrible of 
foes. And finally, in the passage (Rev. xx. 13, 14) where ''death and 
hell" (hades) delivered up the dead in them, and then " death and hell," 
and " whosoever was not found written in the book of life," were cast 
into the lake of fire, no difficulties of interpretation can hide the fact 
that hades is personified as one of the chicsf foes of Christ's kingdom. 
These are all the passages in the New Testament in which hades occurs, 
and they fully sustain our position. 



NOTE D.— Page 241. 

DANIEL XII. 2. 

The method of Mr. Hudson with this passage is characteristic, and 
deserves a moment's attention as a specimen of his procedures. It wiU 
illustrate hts way of marshaling a series of t>bjections on which he 
dares not insist ; of grasping at all possible stray help, and of straining 
his authorities. It is as follows : — 

" It is thought by good critics that the prophet here speaks only of 
the resurrection of the righteous, called the ' first resurrection ' in Rev. 
XX. 5 ; and that the passage should read, * these [who awake] to ever- 
lasting life, and those [who do not awake] to shame and everlasting con- 
tempt.' This would agree with the Syriac version : ' some to death, and 
the eternal contempt of their companions.' 

* But in the corrected text of Lachmann and Tischendorf, sustained t^ 
most of the older mannioripts IbSri is here displaced by i^^tvare. 



NOTES. 367 



" Bat WB are williiig to taike die p—rtgr as ■wHiig no dMoetioii be- 
tireenthefintaiiddiefleooiidnnneelioB. Weaeed, tiM^OBJjtoOMv 
reet the frequent dislocation by whiA the ' liMune * — wgfl «g the 'eon- 
tunpt'lsmadeeFerlesting. Tboogh even oo dhiive seed BOi imiet; 
for the word 'shame 'can not refer to the fiDdings of liiB lost. The He- 
brew (li«(']1) is need onlj here and in Ua. \%tL 24 (Eng, *«i abhor- 
ring ') where, says Dr. Wintle, it denotes ' a kind of qieetnde, dioir, or 
nansea,' and is translated 'nansea' fajBmctorf in his eoneofdanee. The 
aUnsion seems to be to the potrefiietion of death. The 'eontempt,' if 
it expresses a feeling of the ngfatooos, is fimher dcKribed in sndi pas- 
sages as MaL iv. 3 ; Matt. ziii. 40-43; 2 Pet. iL 9-12 ; Ps, xdt 7 ; on 
which last passage Hei^;stenberg remaiks perhaps too cafdesrij, 'The 
annihilation of tiie wided oomes into notice as the faasb of the deitfer- 
ance of the rigfateoos, wiudi is the proper theoM of the psahn«' ** 

On this we remark, 1. Who these '*^f«d cnties " are Mr. Hndion 
does not inform ns. We think tiie best of them win be fonnd to be 
Prof. Bnsh; the same good crilie who learned to find no reswrreetion of 
die bodj at an in die Bible. 

2. The attempted reading rinqrfj (1 ) interpolates something in dvs pas- 
sage of which not a hint is foond in the or^maL The reader will see that 
the prophet say? not a word of anj chtfs ** who do not awake : " be onlj 
declares diat many thaU awake, anddirides (Ae awah^Mdinto two "laiffi; 
( 2 ) makes the passage comprise two nnfinished claojei, — claases that eon- 
tain no assertion, thus : manj " shall awake; those who awake to erer- 
lasting life, and those who do not awake to shame aal ererlastmg or/o- 
tempt" — what of them? The reader will poieeiire that nothing is as- 
serted of them, diere is no dedanuion, nnleis l/y interpolating more 
words, such as " are oidained nnto/' or die like; so as to xtad ** those 
who do not awake [are ordained nnto] sliame«id ererlasthig eootempt/' 
This double interpc^ation is oertatnlj a labonons waj of erading a rerj 
straightforward declaration. 

3. The Syriac rersion does not '' agree^ with this proeednre ; for the 
Syriac version includes both HiiSfs amoi^ the awahmed, Mt^ the reader 
win see bj carefol attention eren to the <|notation. The spedonsness 
of Mr. Hudson's statement rests whoHj on the reader's understanding 
the word death (inUritum) in the unwarranted sense of annihilation. 

4. It is hardlj safe to "hm§t" that the shame is not, m weU m the 
contempt, everlasting. " Shame,'' no doubt, means snbstantiallj re- 
proach or disgrace (rather than the fedings of the lost). But. the strict 
translation would change the connecting ** and ** into " to," ^" some 
to disgrace, to contempt everlasting/' The second cbuise ii» thus a ftiller 



868 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

unfolding of the first, and no violence is therefore done by understand- 
ing the passage in nearly the common -mode. It is a disgrace or shame, 
an abhorrence, which is everlasting. 

5. Mr. Hudson seems to say that the word translated " contempt ** 
(and'not the application of it in Isa. Ixvi. 24) is an allusion " to the putre- 
fiution of death." The structure of his sentences justifies and requires 
that mode of understanding him. But the reader should be advised, that 
the loord contains no such reference whatever : it means by general con- 
sent, " an abhorrence," or an object of abhorrence. 

6. It is a worthy climax of this piece of exegetical legerdemain when 
Hengstenberg is cited so as to leave the impression (not removed by the 
phrase, *' perhaps too carelessly") that he teaches Mr. Hudson's doc- 
trine. We think no man will venture openly to claim Hengstenberg as 
an annihilationist. Undoubtedly he uses the word *' annihilation " {ver- 
nichtung) in a popular way, as we use it in reference to a party or an 
army tiioroughly routed and overwhelmed. The use made by Mr. Hud- 
son of this passage is a good illustration of the methods of his system. 



NOTE E.— Page 258. 
REV. XX. 10. 

The author of " Debt and Grace," in his subsequent work, " Christ 
our Life," * finds it necessary to make a more earnest attempt on Bev. 
XX. 10. He opens with the cool announcement : " We think the argu- 
ment for the eternal misery of all finally impenitent men and women is 
reduced to this single passage." The reader, of course, is prepared to find 
that a writer who concedes to his adversaries only such a standing-point 
as this solitary jext will easily see that this text also teaches an " utter 
and irreparable destruction," i.e. annihilation. In the outset, however, 
he admits that the passage is against him. " Let us inquire whether the 
passage shall annul all the apparent reasons we have discovered for im- 
mortality through Christ alone, and, seated on a throne of symbols shall 
overrule the obvious sense of hundreds of other passages ; or may it be 
fairly interpreted in accordance with those reasons and that obvious 
sense ? " i.e. with the sense which has been exposed and refuted in the 
preceding pages of this volume. 

The process consists in turning away from that portion of the verse 
which is perfectly fill and explicit, and endeavoring to put such a con- 

« P. Itf , seq. 



NOTES. 369 

stxuction on certaiii other more ind^nite phrases as may break down 
the meaning of the more express. We can not follow all the whidings 
of the effort. Mr. Hudson, as usnal, is too wary to trust to the indi- 
vidual strength of his arguments ; and he accumulates a large number 
of suggestions, such as they are, some of which, as usual, he would be 
willing to waive. This constitutes one chief difficulty of following or 
answering him. 

1. His first point is, that the " lake of fire and brimstone '' must of ne- 
cessity mean " a proper destruction '' [annihilation], notwithstanding 
the explicit statement of the verse itself that it is the place of torment 
for ever and ever. He even appeals to Rev. xiv. 10, as an instance of 
"fire and brimstone" denoting " destruction," in defiance of the plain- 
est assertion of the yerse, " He shall* be tormented with fire and brim- 
stone,'' and the explanation following, " and the smoke of their torment 
asoendeth up for ever and ever, and they haoe no rest day nor night" He 
also appeals to Rev. xxi. 8, " Shall have their part in the li^e which 
bumeth with fire and brimstone," as though it were for him rather than 
against him. Paying no attention to the statement ( Rev. xix. 20) , " these 
both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone," and the 
most positive designation of the flames of hell (Luke xvi. 24) as the 
means of protracted torment, not of extinction, he innocently asks, 
" Why should the same terms be used just once denoting torment with- 
out destruction ? " 

2. He says that " we have just seen that four symbolical powers are 
cast into the same lake of fire, and come to an end. Two of them are 
by name associated with Satan. All that is said of him is said of them." 
Hence he must come to an end. We answer, 1. The fact is not con- 
ceded. The long array of quotations adduced by Mr. Hudson in sup- 
port of his view is vitiated by his inveterate haSit of interpreting " de- 
struction," etc., in such quotations in the sense of annihilation ; also by 
his artfully assuming that the " annihilation of their power " (quoted 
from S. Scott and DeWette), and their " eternal removal " (DOsterdieck), 
is the annihilation of them. Some of the parties quoted, however, agree 
with him. But the point is not conceded by us. See Note O. 2. If a 
symbolical power, an abstraction, itself dissolves, passes away, when its 
function is finally arrested, how lame the inference that an actmal con- 
crete existence thus ceases to be ! and, furthermore, when we are defi- 
nitely informed that his confinement in the place of punishment (the 
abyss) leaves his activity unimpaired. 

3. It is positively alleged that Satan is not immortal. Two texts 
are cited : " The seed of the woman shall" crwh ** tiie serpent's head," 

2d 



870 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

where the same word is also used of the woman's heel (Gen. ilL 15), the 
same Hebrew word which the living Job employs where he says, " He 
breaketh me with a tempest" (Job. ix. 17) ; and the wholly irrelevant 
passage in Dan. viL 1 1 . In this same connection, the author of " Christ 
our Life/' somewhat directly contradicts the author of "Debt and 
Grace." The latter had said (p. 215), " the words in Heb. ii. 14, and 1 
John iii. 8, express indeed the dispossession of Satan rather than his 
final destruction. The former says (p. 146), " The dispossession of the 
adversary, and the destroying of his works (Heb. ii. 14; 1 John iii. 8), 
indicate any thing rather than the perpetuity of that which Satanic malice 
would most desire." 

4. The author endeavors to connect with this passage verse 9 of the 
same chapter, where a ** large dass of the ungodly [on earth] is said to 
be devoured by fire coming down out of heaven." Here Prof. Stuart is 
quoted as saying Uiat it " denotes utter excision." Now we will pause 
just to ask, whether, by this citation, Mr. Hudson means to make the 
impression that Stuart held that the Bible teaches the annihilation of 
any portion of the wicked ? If not, why does he quote him in this con* 
nection ? If he does, can he be ignorant that he is making the grossest 
of misrepresentations t After a similar citation from Daubuz (" uttterly 
destroyed them "), and a similarly ambiguous one from the Targum of 
Jonathan, through Dr. Gill, Mr. Hudson comes to the conclusion, that 
" the whde force of the passage, compared with ver. 14, 15, goes to involve 
Satan in the same doom," i.e. annihilation. This is what it is to be 
" fiurly interpreted ! " 

Thus far, however, the process is like that of a skillfril juggler, who, 
by side feints, diverts Attention from the real fact. It has consisted in 
keeping out of sight the actual statement in question, "tormented day 
and night for ever and ever." Now it becomes necessary to notice* it 
Accordingly, ** not as his own view, but to meet the views of others," 
Mr. Hudson suggests, that the whole transaction in question may not 
be a part of the final judgment, but may so long precede it, that the 
phrase, " for ever and ever " may apply to the interval ! Not satisfied 
with this, he tries again. 

5. " If the phrase [for ever and ever] were insisted on as denoting an 
absolute eternity, it might denote eternity of efiect" No, it can not; 
it expressly describes eternity of continuous process — " tormented day 
and night for ever and ever." Still unsatisfied, he tries yet once more. 

6. " But if the phrase ' day and night ' be taken to denote the contin- 
uation of torment, and this absolutely for ever and ever, here are two 
things assumed which cannot be proven. 1. That the 'ages of ages ' 



NOTES. • 871 

must be God's own future eternity. 2. That the phrase ' day and night ' 
does not limit the import of the following phrase/' 

To which we answer 1. (a) The man who denies that the strongest 
expression for absolute eternity has its legitimate meaning, is the man 
who must make good his own assertion. (6) The phrase is the phrase 
which in this same book of Revelation is used ten times of God's own 
[and Christ's] future eternity, glory and praise (i. 6, 18 ; iv. 9, 10 ; v. 
18, 14 ; vii. 12 ; x. 6 ; xi. 15 ; xv. 7), — once of the future glory of the 
righteous (xxii. 5), and three other times only (of which this is one) ; 
and in each of those three remaining cases it is used of the punishment 
of transgressors (xiv. 11 ; xix. 3; xx. 10). It requires, therefore, a 
good degree of hardihood to deny, that, in the present instance, the phrase 
denotes an absolute eternity. 2. That the phrase ** day and night," 
while it does " qualify," does not " limit " the following phrase, is evi- 
dent (a) from the common meaning of the phrase in the Scriptures, 
which is incessantly or constantly ^ as already shown page 266, and as ap- 
pears xiL 10 ; and (6) from the fact, that, in this book of Revelation, the 
same phrase is applied to the worship of heaven (iv. 8.) 

Apparently aware that these positions of his are untenable, Mr. Hud- 
son resorts to the usual course of seeming to waive them for a final at- 
tempt to break down the settled, constant meaning of the word " tor- 
ment" (Qaxjavil^iLi), As the question is vital to him, and a failure here 
is total, it may be well to give his argument in full. 

" Yet even granting these assumptions [in regard to the meaning of 
* for ever and ever '] the dramatic use of tiie word * torment,' specially 
suitable to the symbolic char&iter of the book, is too well supported by 
other passages to allow its literal sense against all other Scripture. See 
Job X. 21, 22, as cited above, and Ezek. xxxii. 24, 25, 30, where, in the 
Septuagint, this very word paaavog is applied to the state of death. So 
in Wis. iii. 1 : * The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and tor- 
ment may not toudh them ; ' where the context shows that the * torment ' 
is death. And Ecclus. xxi. 10, 11 : * The congregation of sinners is like 
tow heaped together, and the end of them is a flame of fire. The way 
of sinners is made plain with stones ; and in their end is hell and dark- 
ness and pains.' See also the extended drama in Isa. xiv. 9-20." * 

Now let the reader turn back from this chaos, and ask what is the 
simple point at issue. This : Is the " tvord * torment ' " {Paaavi^o)) and 
its correlates used in Scripture to denote a non-existent and unconscious 
condition ; so that to be " tormented for ever and ever " can properly or 

• Christ our Life, p. 148. 



872 tiFB AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

fairly mean to be deprived of all existence and feeling for evor and 
ever? 

Let the reader also notice two preliminary. points of confdsion (to use 
a mild term) introduced by the author. ' 1. He speaks of the " dramatic 
use of the word 'torment/ '' as the antithesis to "the litwal sense." 
There is no such use of a word, except of certain terms like stage, act> 
scene, employed sometimes to designate certain matters connected with 
the drama, and thus having a dramatic use. No man will claim " tor- 
ment " as being one of these terms. There is such a thing as dramatic 
compositi<m, — a composition, poem, or play ** accommodated to action : " 
to speak of a dramatic use of a toorcf, except as above indicated, is to 
talk nonsense. The question is, has a word its primary or secondary, 
its literal or figurative Cor preg^nant), its ordinary or an extraordinary 
seme: in other words, dbes "torment" mean torment, or does it 
mean something else % 2. The author also says that this " dramatic 
use (^ the word ' torment is too well supported by other passages to 
allow its literal sense against all other Scripture." Against all other 
Scripture ! What is it that all other Scripture proves, — the " dramatic 
use of this word," or in general the unconscious state of the wicked af- 
ter death ? Probably the latter ; but, in ei&er case, the assumption is 
worthy of attention. 

Now let us see what foundation Mr. Hudson finds in Scripture for 
his denial of the established meaning of the word " torment " (Paoavi^u 
and its derivatives). 1. He does not venture to dte a passage from the 
New Testament, although the verb {^travi^Q, torment) occurs eleven 
times bosses the inresent passage ; the noun {pdaavoc, torment), three 
times ; another derivative noun {jiaaaviaftoc, torment or tormenting), five 
times ; and the word " tormentor" {(SaaavioT^) once. The NewTestament 
usage, which is sufficiently abundant, gives him not a shadow of sup- 
port. 2. In default of any aid finmi the New Testament, the author 
turns to the Septuagint version of the Old Testam^t and Apocrypha 
(completed two or three hundred years previously). 

Mr. Hudson makes a show of citing four passages (two of them 
from the Apocrypha) to invalidate the estaUished and received meaning 
of pdacofog, " torment." Only two of these passages cited, however, con- 
tain the word. Job x. 21, 22, does not contain it in any form ; neither 
does Ecclesiasticus xxi. 10, 11. According to the common edition of 
the Septuagint * and King James's version, the close of verse 10 is as 
follows : " At the end thereof [of the way] is the pit of hell." The text 
as given by Mr. Hudson, however, would not even indicate a different 

• Van Ess : Leipsio, 1860. 



NOTES. 378 

meaning of the word " torment," — " In their end is hell, darkness, and 
pains." The citations, then, are reduced to two passages. One of 
these occurs Ezek. xxxii. 24 (repeated in ver. 25, 30), where the Septu- 
agint di£[ers from our version, reading (instead of ** They hare borne 
their shame with them that go down to the pit "), " They received their 
* torment,' or suffering (^aaavov) with them that go down to the pit." 
There can be little doubt that the word was employed by the Septu- 
agint translators in the ordinary sense of suffering or injury, as the He- 
brew verb (oi^ from which the noun ♦^^i^ shame) sometimes bears 
the general sense of injure, either in word or deed, like the Arabic word 
of the same form, which means to wound. Instead of Mr. Hudson's 
statement, that here the word paaavog is applied to " the state of death," 
the only assertion which the text or context warrants is, that it is ap- 
plied to the eocperience of the dead or the dying ; and there is no reason 
whatever in the case to press the word aside from its usual meaning, as 
intended by the Septuagint translators, of suffering. The second and 
remaining instance cited is equally futile : " Wis. iii. 1, * The souls of 
the just are in the hand of God, and torment may not touch them ; ' 
where the context shows that the torment is death." The context 
shows no such thing. It clearly means great suffering or "misery," in 
opposition to the actual happiness of the blessed, as the reader may see by 
reading the next few verses for himself: 2. "In the sight of the unwise 
they seemed to die, and their departure is taken for misery^** 3. " And 
their going from us to be utter destruction ; hut they are in peace.** 4. " For 
though they he punished in the sight of men [a seeming suffering], yet is 
their hope full of inmiortality." ' 5. " And, having been a little chastised, 
they shall be greatly rewarded." 8. " They shall judge the nations, and 
have dominion over the people; and their Lord shall reign forever," etc. 
Mr. Hudson thus cites two cases to disprove the established meaning 
of paaavog, which both fail him. If he had been more successful in 
finding isolated instances of a diverse meaning, how could it affect the 
meaning of the word in an instance where a continuous and protracted 
process is so clearly indicated ? — " tormented day and night for ever and 
ever." What methods will a Universalist and an annihilationist not 
resort tol 



374 LIFE AND DEATH ETERXAL. 

NOTE F.— Page 288. 

UNQUBNOHABLB FIRE. 

Blain, Hastings, and Hadson endeavor to derive much help fix>m the 
passage in Eusebius containing the phrase in)fit aopearift. In his Eccle- 
siastical History, book vi. chap. 41, there occur the following sentences 
(Cruse's Translation) : *' Of these, the one immediately denied ; but the 
other, named Cronion, sumamed Eunus, and the aged Julian himself, 
having confessed the Lord, were carried on camels throughout the whole 
city, a very large one you knowj and in this elevation were scourged, 
and finally consimied in an immense fire (irvpl aapeaT<f>), surrounded by 
the thronging crowds of spectators. . . . After these, Epimachus and 
Alexander, who had continued for a long time in prison, enduring in- 
numerable sufferings from the scourges and scrapers, were also destroyed 
in an immense fire, irvpl dapearu,** 

These three writers make very great account of this case, ail of them 
committing the mistake of ascribing to Eusebius a term which he only 
quotes from Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria. Says Mr. Hudson, " How 
can our opponents hope for our conviction in this matter while they of 
fer no explanation of Eusebius's use of the phrase in question, and do 
not even notice it 1 Thus not only Mr. Landis, but Prof. Hovey, who 
argues from the passage (Mark ix. 42, etc.). Dr. Post, Dr. Long, Prof. 
Barrows. Are not these writers aware of the passage in Eusebius ? 
Let them show that he used the passage ignorantly or improp^y, and 
w^e shall be so far better instructed. Do the words of Eusebius show a 
ttsus loqumdi, or do they not ? " 

The answer is very easy. The words of Dionysius do not show a 
U8U8 loquendi. The simple fact which appears throughout these quota- 
tions from Dionysius is, that he had a habit of making very free use of 
Scripture phraseology, both by direct quotation and by allusion ; some- 
times very "improperly." His adoption of Scripture phraseology is 
more abudant than his numerous direct citations, and often is strained 
to meet the case. 

To show his frequent imitations of Scripture phraseology would re- 
quire a careful examination of the Greek original. As instances, we 
find in a few lines (on page 245, Schwegler's edition), the phrase^ 
diredGKe Tdnvevfuif ufie/jLirTuc,hf^ (be forgiven), aTroXvaare (absolve) ; (on 
page 249), avairavaayhfov (deceased), ayaXkujvTaL^ <piXad€?L^ia, do^d^avre^, 
Ka'&* vir€p(3oX7jv. In the opening of his narrative, we meet the apostolic 
phrase, " I speak before God, and he knows I lie not ; " and in the imme- 
diate sequel, we are reminded of the Scripture by such phrases as the 



NOTES. 375 

following, many of them quite noticeable : ava^Ttjaiv, dSoTroofaavToc, evpe 
Tdv oIkov iprffiov (Matt, xxiii. 38), olicovofuaCf ydfwvc (in the plural), 
hte(mjaav (came suddenly upon), oldevd ^edg (2 Cor. xi. 12, 31), yv/ivdc 
ev T^ Xtv(l) Eff&^fmTi (Mark xiv. 51), Koivuvoi (iov kol fieroxoc, deiaidaifM- 
viav, i^pfjOKeiav, mar^v ywaZ/ca, pdeTiMTTOfievrpfy dfio^vfiadbv, tag h dvvarbv 
OKavdaTuaai koX rodg kK^KTOitg, dvoKohjg ao^aovTCU, dea/iuv koI ^vXoA^f 
(Heb. xi. 36, etc.). 

Clear instances of his misapplication or strained use of Scripture 
phraseology sae the following : When the persecuting officer Frumen- 
tarius simply searches for him in the wrong places, Dionysius says, " He 
was smitten with blindness, not being able to find the house ; for he could 
not believe that I would remain at home when persecuted." — Book vi. 
chapter 40. He justifies himself for adhering to certain decisions of 
previous bishops concerning heretics, by quoting " for thou shalt not 
remove, as it is said, the landmarks of thy neighbor, which thy fathers 
have placed." — Book vii. chapter 7. See his exaggerated use of Scrip- 
ture allusions in his description of the state of things during a sedi- 
tion at Alexandria : ''It would be more easy for any one, I would not 
say to go beyond the limits of the province, but even to travel from 
east to west, than to go from Alexandria to Alexandria. For the 
very heart of the city is more desolate and impassable than that vast 
and trackless desert which the Israelites traversed in two generations ; 
and our smooth and tranquil harbors have become like that sea which 
opened and arose like walls on both sides, enabled them to drive through, 
and in whose highway the Egyptians were overwhelmed. For often 
they appear like the Eed Sea from the frequent slaughters committed in 
them ; but the river which washes the city has sometimes appeared more 
dry than the parched desert, and more exhausting than that in which 
Israel was so overcome with thirst on their journey, that they exclaimed 
against Moses, and the water flowed for them from the broken rock, by 
the power of Him who alone doeth wondrous works. Sometimes, also, 
it has so overflowed, that it has inundated all the country round ; the 
roads and fields seeming to threaten that flood of waters which hap- 
pened in the days of Noah. It also flows always polluted with blood 
and slaughter, and the constant drowning of men, such as it formerly 
was when, before Pharnoh, it was changed into blood and putrid mat- 
ter." — Book vii. chap. 21 . Again, in the next chapter (22), in describ- 
ing a pestilence which followed the sedition, he writes : " For as it is 
written respecting the first-bom of Egypt, thus now also a great lamen- 
tation has arisen ; for there is not a house in which there is^ot one 
dead." • 



376 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Surely, a writer who uses Scripture in this loose way is but a poor 
reliance to prove the meaning of a Scripture phrase as against the Scrip- 
ture usage itself. Such an appeal only l>etrays the weakness of the 
cause. Dionysius simply misuses the Scripture phrase. 

Mr. Hudson is equally unfortunate in some of his other references, 
which he would seem not to have examined personally. He refers us 
in both his books to the phrase &a(3eaTrj (fi\JO^y as found in the Hiad xiii. 
169, 564. We do not find it in either passage ; though we find the 
word &aPeoTjj in the first, but not in the second. The phrase does oc- 
cur in xvii. 89, where Hector, darting about in his resplendent armor, is 
said to be " like the inextinguishable flame of Vulcan," — the flames 
which the Vulcan (Hephestus) of the mythology keeps perpetually burn- 
ing beneath Mount Etna. It is also found in xvi. 123, and means 
strictly " inextinguishable flame ; " the fire being personified as a power 
that is never wearied out like fighting warriors : " They cast tireless 
fire into the swift ship, its inextinguishable flame immediately pours 
along," etc. It would not have been to the purpose of Mr. Hudson to 
state the fact, that the word asbestos occurs quite often in the Hiad and 
Odyssey, and that the only meanings assigned to it in Crusius' Homeric 
Lexicon are " inextinguishable," " incessant," " unintermitted," *' end- 
less." 

Again : he refers to Fhilo, i. 389 and ii. 254. Neither passage helps 
him : one of them is as strongly against him as language can be. It 
reads thus : " The law says,** A fire shall be kept burning on the altar 
for ever unextinguished, irvp dicL iravrdg ua^eorov ; with great reason and 
propriety, I think ; for since the graces of God are everlasting and un- 
ceasing and uninterrupted, which we now enjoy day and night, and since 
the symbol of gratitude is the sacred flame, it is fitting that it should be 
kindled, and that it should remain unextinguished for ever, &el aapearog " 
(ii. 254). The other passage (i. 389) contains only the word aalSeorog 
in the hyperbolical and paradoxical statement, that the artificer {drffuovp- 
ydg) of pleasure " takes the most shameful pains through life to corrupt 
the incorruptible, and to extinguish the remaining inextinguishable 
lights of nature." Here the paradox is evident ; and the same petty 
principle that would take away fix)m ua^eara its meaning of " inextin- 
guishable" would, take from a^^apTa its meaning "incorruptible." 

A passage from Cicero is given as parallel, containing the phrase 
ignis cetemusy which means strictly the " perpetual fire." Cicero says 
(pro Fonteio, c. 17), "Take heed lest that perpetual fire kept by the 
nightly ^ils and vigils of Fonteia be said to be extinguished by the 
tears of your priestess." 



NOTES, Zll 

The Anthology is quoted : ''A fire is soon .put out ; but a woman is 
an inextinguishable fire " — where the words have their meaning as 
usual, only there is an extravagant in the declaration. It is the hyper- 
bolic way of putting it, as Scott, on the other hand, calls woman '* a 
ministering angel " 

Has Mr. Hudson ever heard of the " fallacy of references " ? To 
what purpose are citations so irrelevant ? And, supposing there can be 
found occasional instances of improper or strained use of the word 
&tr3eaT0c, what force have they against its proper and stated meaning, 
and that, too, in passages where the reiteration and the connection prove 
that it is d^berately and thoughtfully employed ? 

We have been willing to follow the futile efforts of this writer thus 
&r. We will only add, that a single passage of Hippciytus, who lived a 
hundred years earlier than Eusebius, being in public life before the close 
of the second century, most decisivdy settles the meaning of Trvp aa(3etTTog, 
as well as some related points. In speaking of the Pharisees, Hippoly- 
tus says (book ix. chap. 28), " These also hold the resurrection of the 
flesh, the immortality of the soul, a judgment to come, and a conflagra- 
tion; and that the just will be incorruptible (dtj^apTovc), but the unjust 
will be punished for ever in unquenchable fire {adUov^ ^ elaael KoXaa- 
^aea&ai kv irvpl dor/Jetrr^)." Language could not be more explicit if 
written on purpose to cut off all cavil. 



ISOTB G. — Page 290. 

THE MBANING OP KoXaOl^. 

The verb KoXa^a, and the derivative noun KoTiaaigj when applied to the 
treatment of ofienders, convey the broad but simple notion of punish- 
ment, or the infliction of harm and suffering, in whatever way, upon 
body or mind, by blows, words, or outward condition. This is tlie si^ 
nification which a careful analysis of the classic and the Alexandrian 
Greek alike sustains. 

The word is said by lexicographers to have designated at first a prun- 
ing of trees, — examples being cited only from Theophrastus. (So 
also, pain and punish, according to them, came through the Latin from 
the Greek nolvjij quit-money ; and vengeance from vindico, vim-dtco, to as- 
sert a claim in law). 

From this primitive meaning, some annihilationists have endeavored 
to draw the signification " cutting-off," " excision," that is, annihila- 
tion. Two difficulties Ue in the way ; (1 ) In no instance doefrthe word 



378 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

soem to have acquired that meaning ; (2) it could not easily acquire it, 
since, as Mr. Hudson well remarks, "in pruning, the tree is not 'cut 
off,' only the branches." ^ 

The meaning of restraint is alleged as one of its significations, occa- 
sionally occurring. Here, however, this meaning will not help the 
cause of annihilation ; nor, indeed, is this meaning sustained in connec- 
tion with the treatment of offenders, in regard to whom it constantly 
signifies, as Mr. Hudson seems to admit, " punishment." 

Is there a difference between kSTmouq and rt/ujpia ? So says Aristotle 
(Rhet. i. 10, 17) : the former is for the improvement of the offender, the 
latter for the vindication of law and justice. But this distinction evi- 
dently disappeared . from common usage. It certainly is not kept up 
even in classic Greek, and does not appear in the Septuagint. The 
word Ko^ioaic is often made synon3rmous with Ttfiopia, often includes it, 
as we shall incidentally show. Nor would the distinction avail any 
thing for annihilationism. 

Mr. Hudson accepts the meaning ** punishment," as he must ; but 
he adds, " The word by no means determines the kind of punishment." 
Certainly not the method, which may be various ; but the nature of pun- 
ishment, as infliction of pain, suffering, or harm, is constantly implied, 
and often directly expressed. 

Thus, to take a specimen of classic Greek, the writer of which was 
bom in apostolic times, Plutarch De sera numinis vindicta, we find that 

(1) /co^w and its derivatives are the prevalent terms that express the 
sufferings of the wicked, occurring some forty or fifty times or more ; 

(2) KoTMoig is continually used interchangeably with n/jtapia, often in the 
same sentence (sections 9, 10, 11, 19, 24, 25); (3) its meaning is un- 
folded in such phrases as " undergoing terrible sufierings, and shameful 
and painM inflictions of vengeance nfiopiag" (sect. 25), " bearing his 
own cross " (sect. 9), " having many fears, and hard experiences, and in- 
cessant cares and troubles," (ib.) being exercised "with sufferings and 
fears and apprehensions and anxieties (sect. 10), "shameful and dis- 
tressing" (sect. 18), taking place through both " the person and condi- 
tion " (sect. 24), and many other allusions to various forms of sufiering ; 
and (4) it is deliberately argued (sect. 11), that, ifoJeath were the end of 
suffering, it would be the end of punishment, nfiQpia ; which is not the 
case. 

If we turn back to the Septuagint, we find the same idea of inflicted 
suffering in whatever form. Thus, 1 Esdr. viii. 24 (a passage con- 
founded by Mr. Hudson with !^zra vii. 26), the disobedient are to be 
punished, Kohiai^aovTMy " whether by death or other infliction, rifujpl^, 



NOTES, 379 

or penalty of money, or imprisonment." In repeated instances, icoXo^u 
is interchanged with paaavi^o). Thus Wis. xyi. 1 : " Therefore they 
were punished {kKo^Aai^aav) worthily, and hy the multitude of beasts 
tormented " {kpaaavta&ijaav). The writer follows with the specification 
of various bodily and mental tortures. In Wis. xix. 4, Ko^aaiv is inter- 
changed with ^cujavotjQ ; apparently iii. 1-4 ; clearly xi. 9, 10. In other 
passages, the word includes bodily and mental sufferings, such as thirst, 
tortures and terrors from wild beasts (Wis. iii. 11), injuries inflicted on 
enemies (1 Mac. vii. 7), and the woes visited upon the house of Israel 
for disobedience (Ezek. xviii. 30, " so iniquity shall not be your ruin," 
KoXaaiv; see also xliv. 12). This last thought is taken up by the Sep- 
tuagint in such wise, that when the Hebrews term their idols stumbling- 
blocks (bilD^^)) as the cause of sin and woe (Rosenmvller)f the Septua- 
gint translates by K67Mau^ (Ezek. xiv. 3, 4, 7). 

The reader who may wish to examine all the passages in which the 
word occurs will find the following ; Ezek. xiv. 3, 4, 7 ; xviii. 30 ; xliii. 
12 ; xliv. 12 ; 1 Esdr. viii. 24 ; Wis. Sol. iii. 4 ; xi. 5, 9, 14, 17 ; xii. 
15, 27 ; xiv. 10 ; xvi. 1, 2, 9, 24 ; xviii. 11, 22 ; xix. 4 ; 1 Mac. vii. 7 ; 
2 Mac. vi. 14 ; iv. 38 ; 3 Mac. i. 3 ; vi. 3. 

But, says Mr. Hudson, " The word by no means determines the kind 
of punishment. It may be torment, or it may put an end to torment 
(Wis. xix. 4). It may be banishment, confiscation of goods, or im- 
prisonment (3 Esdr. vii. 27). In most of the passages, it is death. In 
one (Wis. iii. 1-4), it is the loss of immortality, or utter destruction, 
which seems also to be regarded as a ' torment ; ' and in another the 
destruction of an idol made of wood, in token of God's displeasure, is 
called punishment (Wis. xiv. 8-10). To say nothing of these remarka- 
ble instances, those in which the punishment designated is death show 
that the word does not necessarily denote torment." ♦ 

Here is the old juggle upon end, destruction, death, — all which are 
assumed to be extinction. The passage, Wis. xix. 4, does not pro- 
nounce the KokafjuQ to be a termination of torment, but its consunmiation 
or goal, "the fiilfilling " of what "was wanting to their torments." 
The passage. Wis. iii. 1-4, does not declare the KoTuiavg to be " loss of 
immortality, or utter destruction," i.e. extinction. It simply says, that, 
in the eyes of men, the death of the pious seemed to be a calamity or 
misery (/cckofftc), and ruin (avvTQtfifia) ; whereas they are "in peace," 
and " no torment shall touch them." And both the passages thus cited 
8et*,m clearly to imply that death itself only continues and completes the 
sufferings or " torments " of the wicked. 

* Debt and Grace, p. 1»1. 



CSO LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

If we turn to the apostolic fathers, the same notion of sufifering in- 
flicted seems always to attach itself to the word Kohiaic. The word, we 
believe, does not occur in the epistle of Barnabas, but we have the phrase 
6ddi davuTtJv aldviov fierd rifujpiac, the path of eternal death with ven- 
geance (sect. XX., ed. Dressel). 

Clement (2d ep. ad Corinth, sect.vi.) makes aluviov KoXaaeog the an- 
tithesis of avdiravaiv, rest, and (sect, viii.) declares that none can deliver 
those appointed to be cast into the furnace of fire, and that, " after we 
have departed from this world, no longer can we then confess or repent." 
When he unfolds the future destiny of the righteous and the disobedient 
(sect. X., xi.), he declares that peace shall follow the one, while the other 
shall be wretched, rahuiTQpoi.'f and that men do not know "what tor- 
ment (Puoavov) the pleasure of this world has, and what delight the 
coming promise." 

Ignatius (ad Romanos, sect, v.) enumerates as the sufferings (/coXdoeic) 
inflicted by the devil, " fire and the cross, conflicts with wild beasts, lacer- 
ations, fractures, dislocations of bones, amputation of limbs, and contu- 
sions of the whole body." It is the only instance in which we have 
found the word in his letters. 

In the " Martyrium Ignatii " (written probably by his surviving com- 
panions), there occurs (sect, vii.) the phrase, "inmiortal (or deathless) 
death," iSavar^ ai^avdr^. In the " Martyrium Polycarpi," we are told 
that the martyred followers of Christ, " despising the torments of this 
world (/?aaavwv), by one hour's endurance escaped Uie eternal punish- 
ment, r^v cdCwujv KoMaiv, And the fire of their fierce tormentors seemed 
cool to them ; for they had before their eyes the fire that is eternal, and 
never extinguished. ... In like manner they endured terrible sufferings 
(KokdaeuQ), being condemned to wild beasts, and bound upon spiny shell- 
fish (murices)y and buffeted with various other tortures (jOoffdixNc), that, 
if possible, the tyrant might, by incessant suffering (KoTMosog), bring them 
to a denial of Christ." And again (sect, xi.) : Polycarp is represented as 
replying, " You threaten me with the fire that bums for a season, and is 
soon extinguished ; for you are ignorant of the fire of the fhtare judg- 
ment, and of eternal punishment (MtMaeiig), reserved for the wicked. 

It is very evident that the writers of the classic, the Alexandrian, and 
patristic Greek were ignorant of any Kokaaic that excluded the idea of 
suffering. 



NOTES. 381 

NOTE H.—. Page 297. 



After all that has been written upon the Greek word yeswa (the later 
Jewish fiSna), there exists a very common misconception regarding it,— 
the supposition that this composite word in the time of Christ had two 
meanings, a primary and usual meaning as the name of a valley south 
of Jerusalem, and an unusual and secondary or figurative meaning, de- 
noting the place of future punishment. Thus Mr. Barnes, on Matt v. 
22 : " The word gehenna, commonly translated * hell,' is made up of 
two Hebrew words, and signifies the Valley of Hinnom. ... It was 
called ' the gehenna of fire; ' and was the image which our Saviour often 
employed to denote the future punishment of the wicked." And even 
Lange writes, " Originally tsiSJl "^a, the Valley of Hinnom . . . King 
Josiah converted it into a place of abomination where dead bodies were 
thrown out and burnt (2 Kings xxiii. 10, 14). Hence it served as a sym- 
bol of condemnation, and of the abode of lost spirits." 

From the statement of Mr. Barnes, the reader might infer that this use 
of the term to denote hell was a peculiarity of our Saviour ; and from that 
of Lange, that it was not the proper meaning of the word, but rather a 
poetic conception. 

But, first, this word was abundantly employed by the Jews to denote 
the place of future punishment. Says Lightfbot (Horse Hebr. Works, 
vol. ii. p. 141 ), " The Jews do very usually express hell, or the place of 
the damned, by the word t33|T3, which might be shown by infinite ex- 
amples." To the same effect Winer, RWB, vol. i. p. 492 ; Gesenius's 
Thesaurus, p. 281, etc. Even Alger (" Doctrine of a Future Life," p. 
328) is obliged to write thus : "In some of the Targums or Chaldee 
paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures, especially in the Targum of Jon- 
athan Ben Uzziel, we meet repeated applications of the word gehenna to 
signify a punishment by fire in the future state. This is a fact abotU 
which there can be no question. And to the documents showing such a 
usage of the word, the best scholars are pretty well agreed in assigning 
a date as early as the days of Christ. The evidence afforded by these 
Targums, together with the marked application of the term by Jesus 
himself, and the similar general use of it immediately after, both by 
Christians and Jews, render it not improbable that gehenna was known 
to the cotemporaries of the Saviour as the metaphorical name of hell." 
The word in this sense belongs, then, to the Targums as much as to the 
New Testament ; is actually found in the Talmud as well as in the 
Church fathers ; and was employed by the Eabbins no less than by the 
Saviour. 



382 LIFE ASD DEATH ETERNAL, 

And, secondly, evidence is entirely wanting, so far as we can ascertain, 
that, at the time of Christ, the one word -yeiwa, 05fT3, was ever used 
in any other sense than to denote the place of future punishment. The 
change that had passed upon it was greater than that which transferred 
rrapadeiaog, from designating a garden (Gen. ii. 8, seq.) or a park (Neh. 
ii. 8), to signify heaven (Luke xxiii. 43) : for in the latter case the word 
remained unchanged in form, and its old meaning can still be found in 
Josephos ( Antiq., vii. 14, 4 ; viii. 7, 3) ; but in the former case a change 
passes upon the form of the words, and the old meaning ceases to ap- 
pear. 

The Greek form yeewa is not found in the Septuagint : the nearest 
and only approach to it is ycuiwa in Josh, xviii. 16. Twice it is ye 
Bevewofi (2 Chron. xxviii. 3 ; xxxiii. 6). In Jer. xix. 2, 6, the Hebrew 
is translated rd iroh)ttv6piov vlov '£vvo/u, and noXvdvdpuw viuv tuv tekvuv 
avTuv (the sepulcher of the son of Hinnom, the sepulcher of the sons of 
their children) ; and in all other passages, (j^apay^ *Ew6fi Valley of 
Hinnom (Josh. xv. 8, twice) or more commonly (j^dpay^ vlov 'Ewdfi 
Valley of the son of Hinnom (2 Kings xviii. 10 ; Jer. vii. 31, 32 ; xxxii. 
35). And the Hebrew to which it corresponds is the phrase ^Sn^S ^"^3 
or "^a. Valley of the son of Hinnom (Jer. vii. 32 ; xix. 2, 6 ; 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 3 ; xxxiii. 6 ; Josh. xv. 8 ; xviii. 16, twice) ; t33n ^^pa ^^ Valley 
of the sons of Hinnom (2 Kings xxiii. 10), and in two instances fiiil "^3 
Valley of Hinnom (Neh. xi. 30; Josh. xv. 8). 

Thus it appears from the date of Joshua to that of Chronicles to have 
been customary with the Jews to designate the locality in question, not 
by a word but by a phrase, and with the Septuagint translators to rep- 
resent that Hebrew phrase by a variety of phrases, but in no instance 
by the precise word yeewa, though in one case nearly approximating to 
it. The phrase or the word does not appear in the Apocrypha. But 
we learn from the later portions of the Old Testament that the locality 
itself had been invested with associations of the utmost abhorrence ; and, 
some hundreds of years later, a single word appears unquestionably de- 
rived from that phrase, yet diflfering from it in form, and employed by 
Tai^mist, Rabbin, the great Redeemer, and the Christian fathers alike, 
to designate the place of future puiushment, with no cited instance in 
which it clearly bears any other meaning. We find Jerome designating 
the valley by the full phrase vallis JUiorum Ennom (Hier. in Jer. vii. 22), 
and Eusebius in the " Onomasticon,'' ^poy^ Tutf vlQv *Ewa/i, while the 
Arabs from the twelfth century to the present time call it by the fill] 
name, Wady (or valley) Jehennam, 

We may accordingly accept the statement of Gesenius as a fair histoiy 



NOTES. 388 

of the word. He first describes the original locality itself ander its fuU 
title, as " a yalley on the south and east of Jernsalem, through which 
ran the southern boundary of the tribe of Benjamin, and the northern 
of Judah, famous for its human sacrifices offered to Moloch (2 Kings 
.xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 32; xix. 2, 6); also called Tophet, and by special 
distinction fc^'^3n (the valley, Jer. ir. 23), Sept. hv r<jj TroXvavdpt^, i.e. in 
the place of sepulchers ; for such was the Valley of Hinnom. After 
^ese horrid sacrifices were abolished, the name of this valley, contracted 
and changed (Chald. Q;i7-I> ^^' ^° -^^^^ Test, yeewa), began to he employed 
concerning hell and its torments y — in my judgment, as though the chief 
abode of idolatry, i.e. of evil demons " (Thesaurus p. 280, 281). It is, 
therefore, in strict accordance with the facts of the case that Passow, in 
defining yeewa, simply says, " A word borrowed from the Hebrew, hdl 
(New Test. Ch. Fathers, Orac. Sib."). Winer also states the case sub- 
stantially in the same manner. After describing the locality from which 
the name was derived as a place " where, at various early periods, the 
ungodly Israelites ofiered their children to Moloch,'' he adds, " there- 
foiB was this place abhorred as profane, and, among the later Jews, with 
reference to the fires of Moloch, it served as a symbol of hell, the place 
of everlasting condemnation, which, therefore, was called yeewa, Chal- 
dee t33n3." . 

It has been often asserted that fires were kept constantly burning in tha 
Valley of Hinnom to consume the filth and offal that were cast there. 
But Dr. Robinson denies that there is " evidence of any other fires hav- 
ing kept up in the valley than the original fires of Moloch (New Test. 
Lcodcon, yeewa, Bib. Res., vol. i. 404). Still more destitute of founda- 
tion is the assertion by Barnes and others, that " this valley was called 
the gehenna of fixe" Few terms have been the subject of more loose 
statements than this word y^kwa. 

I am happy to confirm these statements by the full concurrence of my 
friend, Prof. E. P. Barrows of Andover. He writes, — 

" Two things appear to me certain. 

" Firzty That the Chaldee word tt|»7^> t^e Greek ^eewa, represents, so 
fiup as mere derivation is concerned, the Hebrew t33n *^3 (Josh. xv. 8), 
which is a compendium for the full expression 13311"^ ^^> <^* occurs in 
the same verse. A connecting link between the two occurs in Jonathan's 
Targum, Isa. Ixvi. 24, in the form tD3n^3. 

" Secondly, That, in our Lord's day, the Chaldee tSSna, and the Greek 
yeewa, had come in well-established theological usage — probably long 
before the beginning of the Christian era — to signify hell, i.e. the place 
offonne.ntfor the wicked ; and that this was the only sense of the word. The 



384 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL. 

Targum of Jonathan, which employs the word ^311*^3 (Isa. Ixvi. 24) 
to denote the place of punishment of the wicked, uses the words t33ri ^3 
^^^^r^ as the equivalent of OSH-'g fct*^3 ( Jer. xix. 2 ; xxxii. 35 ; Josh. xv. 
8 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 10) ; and for Qjn ^^3 (Josh. xv. 8) he uses, in like man- 
ner, tisn r.b'^n; I have not access to the Targum on Chronicles, and 
therefore can not speak of 2 Chron. xxviii. 3 ; xxxiii. 6. 

" How the word came to be thus employed is a question about which 
there is room for difierent opinions. . . . But, theory as to the man- 
ner of transfer aside, the transfer itself is certain. And it had become as 
complete in our Lord's day, as that of the word pagan, that is " villa- 
ger," is in our day. As well might one say, that, when we use the word 
" pagan ' we mean the inhabitant of a village, as when the New Testa- 
ment, n conformity with all we know of the usage of the age, uses the 
word yetwa, it refers to the pretended fires kept burning in the valley 
south of Jerusalem. I know of no passage in the Rabbinical writings 
where the word t33n3 means any thing else but the place where the 
wicked are punished. They toll us in one of their legends, puerile 
enough it is true, but pertinent to the point in question, that dsr;^ was 
made on the second day, which is the reason why it is not said of that 
day, ' God saw that it was good.' — See in Buxtorf s Lexicon. But we 
know that the Valley of the son of Hinnom was made on the thv-d day, 
when the dry land was separated from the water." 

NOTE L— Page 188. 

VUTUBB BBTRIBUTION IN THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 

We have not thought it necessary to encumber our text with extracts 
from this remarkable book ; but, as Mr. Hudson has endeavored to con- 
fuse its clear testimony, the subject deserves a note. 

The so-called Book of Enoch was alluded to by several of the Chris- 
. tian fathers of the second century (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, 
Origen, Tertullian), and was quoted in considerable fragments by Syn- 
cellus of the eighth century ; but it was unknown as a whole until 
1773, when Bruce, the traveler, brought from Abyssinia three copies of 
it in the Ethiopic language. It is known to have previously existed in 
Greek, and is thought by some, including Dillmann, to have come from 
a Hebrew (or Aramean) original. 

The Ethiopian version was first translated into English, quite defec- 
tively, by Rev. R. Laurence (afterwards Archbishop of Cashel ), in 
the year 1821 ; but was far more carefiilly translated into German, and 



uroTSs. 885 

mate adequately edited by Dr. A. Dillmann in 1S53. There were 
intermediate editions by Gfrorer and Hofinann, founded on the tranBla- 
(fpn of Laurence; bnt Billmann's edition is the only adequate one. 

In the earlier discossions, on the basis of an imperfect ediUon, and 
from considerations connected with the quotation in Jude, several wri- 
fsrs ( Stuart/ Lucke, Nitzsch, Weisse) regarded it as the work ci a 
Christian writer, composed soon after the destruction of Jerusalem. 
Imcke, however, retracted his opinion, and adopted the now prevalent 
view, advocated by Davidson, Dillmann, Westcott, Kdstlin, Ewald, that 
the book was written by a Jew some considerable time before the Chris- 
tian era. Hilgenfeld adopts the same view as to the body of the work. 
Which he assigns to the beginning of the first century before Christ; 
but he supposes interpolations by some Christian writer, not including 
the passages that bear on our argument. Of the other writers above 
mentioned, Ewald refers the composition of the ground-work to the 
period between B.C. 144 and B.C. 120, and the final form of the hoiok 
to the first half of the century before Clirist. Liicke refers the main 
part of it to the beginning of the Maccabasan struggle, and the remainder 
to the time of the rise of Herod the Great ; Dillmann to the time of 
John Hyrcanus, B.C. 110 ; and Kdstlin to the period between 110 and 
64 B.C. This now general agreement as to the early date and Jewish 
origin of the book is quite noticeable. 

IdJr. Hudson firmly maintains the Jewish origin of the book, but en- 
deavors to break the force of its testimony on the subject of future pun- 
ishment (Debt and Grace, pp. 216-218). 

Dillmann, in his elaborate edition of the work, makes, among others, 
the following statements : " The doctrine of the condition after death, 
the resurrection, and future retribution, holds a very prominent place 
in tiie author's system. Throughout his book, he often recurs to the 
subject, and gives very expanded statements concerning it, speaking more 
expnsslj and particulariy than we read in any other author before the 
time of Christ. In chap, xxii., he enters upon a detailed description 
of Sheol ; informs us in what part of the earth it is situated, and how it 
is so arranged that here, immediately after death, a first and preliminary 
retribution for the evil and the good can take place at once. He copi- 
ously describes Gehenna, the place of punishment for the theocratic sin- 
ners, in chaps, xxvi., xxvii., liv., Ivi., xc; and always names, as the 
means of punishment, fire and darkness, yet without indicating how the 
two can be supposed together. He describes also the hell of the follen 
angels and the disobedient powers of nature; the lake of fire beyond 
the limits of heaven and earth, in empty space (Tartarus), chaps. 



886 ^ LIFE AKD DEATH ETERNAL. 

ZYiii., xiz.y xxi.» xc. He delineates the reenrrection of the dead, 
diaps. li., Ixi. ; and minntely describes the Messianic jadgment npop 
the living and the dead, Jew and Heathen, the earthly and the heayenlj, 
(chaps, zlvii., iiii.-lyi., lxi.-lxiii., bdx., xc), chiefly after the method 
of DanieL . . . God, appearing with all the holy angels, and the 
Messiah, discriminate upon tiie deeds of men ; and first the fiidlen angels, 
ttien the haughty heathen rulers who have oppressed the people, and all 
apostate Israelites, go to their eternal place of punishment, while on the 
o^ier side, the church of the righteous is brought to its manifestation." 
(Emleitung, 19-21). 

Such is the general drift of teaching on this subject, acc<Mrding to 
IHllmann's analysis. Now for a few specimens. First, the immediate 
doom of sinners. Chap. xxii. describes (as a communication fiom 
Baphael to Enoch) '' a place in the west, under a great high mountain," 
« place " capacious and smooth, deep and dark," where " the spirits, the 
louls of the dead, are destined to be collected ;*' in which, howeyer, 
there is to be a separation among the spirits. '' And thus are the souls 
of the righteous separated : there is a water-fountain, and above it Hght.* 
Even so is there a like division made for sinners, when they die and are 
buried on earth, without being overtaken by judgment in their lifetime. 
Here will their souls be separated in this great suflering, until the great 
day of judgment and punishment and torment comes for the blasphem- 
ers, to eternity, and the vengeance on their souls ; and here they are 
oonfined till eternity. And since it is before the eternity [i.e. the final 
doom: Dillmann], therefore is this separation t for the souls of those 
who make outcry and complaint of their overthrow, because they were 
destroyed in the day of sinners : so has it been done for the souls of 
.men who were not righteous, but sinners ripened in guilt, — they shall 
be with the wicked, and like them, but their souls shall not be put to 
death in the day of judgment, nor shall they come out from hence." 
There is no ambiguity here. Again (chap, xxvii.) : '' This cursed valley 
is for those who shall be cursed to eternity. Here must be gathered all 
those who utter with their mouths unseemly words against God, and 
speak irreverently of his gloiy ;'here shall they be collected, and here 
shall be the place of their punishment. And in the last time, an ex- 
ample will be made of a righteous judgment upon them before theoiaints, 
to eternity always. Thereupon will they who found mercy praise the 
Lord of gloiy, the eternal King." Again, with singular similarity to 



* We follow Dillmann where he deviates firom Laureiice. 

t An additional or seoond dhrision for the-wloked. — See Dillmann. 



NOTES. 387 

the Saviour's phrase, the severity of their doom is thus described (chap, 
xxxviii. ) : " When the light of the righteous, and of the elect who 
dwell on the earth, shall shine forth, where shall then be the dwelling 
of sinners, and, the abode of those who have denied the Lord of spirits ? 
It would have been better for them had they never been bom." 

The fate and the abode of the fallen angels and their partners in 
guilt is thus described (chap, xxi.) : " And fix>m thence I passed on to 
another place, still more terrible than the other, and saw something 
dreadfol. A great fire was there, that flamed and blazed ; and it had 
divisions. It was bounded by an absolute abyss, and great pillars of 
fire dropped down therein. Its extent and greatoess I could not discern, 
nor could I discover its origin. Then said I, ' How terrible is this place ! 
and what torture to look upon it ! ' Then answered me Uriel, one of the 
holy angels who was with me,-n he answered, and said unto me, ' Enoch, 
why art thou alarmed and amazed at this terrible place, at sight of this, 
place of snaring ? ' And he said unto me, ' This place is the prison of 
the angels,and here will they be kept imfftrisoned to eternity..' " To a simi- 
lar fiery abode (chaps, xviii., xix.,) are condemned the disobedient stars, 
" bound," and " rolling over the fire ; " here too are the angels who co- 
habited with women, and the women their companions. The same 
place is described (chap, xc.) as " the place of punishment," ** a place 
fall of fire, flaming, and ftill of pillars of fire," " fiery deeps," into 
which were cast the stars, the unfaithful shepherds, and the blinded 
sheep. 

The resurrection is asserted ( chap, li.) thus : "In those days shall 
the earth give back that which was intrusted to it, and the kingdom of 
tiie dead shall give back what was intrusted to it, and destruction shall 
give up what it owes. And he will select the righteous and the holy 
firom among them ; for the day of their salvation has come." Again, 
chap. Ixi. 5 : " And these measures shall reveal all that was hidden in 
the depths of the earth ; and those who perished throughout the deserts, 
and those that were devoured by the fish of the sea and by the beasts, 
shall return, and trust upon the day of the Elect [the Messiah] ; since 
none shall perish in the presence of the Lord of spirits, nor shall any be 
capable of perishing." So also the resurrection of the righteous is af- 
firmed in chaps, xci., xcii., c. 

Among the scenes of judgment, we are told (chs^. Ixii.), "In that 
day shall all the kings, the princes, the exalted, and those who possess 
the earth, stand up and see, and know that He is sitting on the throne 
,of his glory. . . . Trouble shall come upon them as upon a woman 
in travail. One portion of them shall look upon another. They shall 



388 LIFE AND DEATH ETERNAL, 

be astonished, and shall humble their countenances, and trouble shall 
seize them, when they see this Son of the woman sitting on the throne 
of his glory. . . . And all the mighty kings, and the exalted, and 
those who rule over the earth, shall fall down on their faces before him, 
and shall worship him. They shall fix their hopes on this Son of man, 
shall pray to him, and beseech him for mercy. Then shall the Lord of 
spirits hasten to expel them from his presence. Their fiues shall be full 
of confusion, and darkness shall cover their faces. And the angels of 
punishment shall take them to inflict retribution upon them, because 
they oppressed his children and elect." 

The final portion of the wicked is thus set forth (chap, ciii.) : " Woe 
to you, sinners, when you die in your sins, and they who are like you 
say, respecting you, ' Blessed are these sinners, they have lived out their 
whole period, and now they die in happiness and in wealth. Distress 
and slaughter they knew not while alive ; in honor they die ; nor ever 
in their lifetime did judgment overtake them.' Know you not that into 
the kingdom of the dead your Sbuls shall go down, and they shall fare 
ill, and great shall be your misery ? And into darkness, and into sor- 
rows, and into burning flame, will your spirit go at the great judgment ; 
and the great judgment shall be for all generations to eternity. Woe 
unto you ; for you have no peace I *' 

The book closes (chap, cviii.) with the contrasted destinies of the 
righteous and the wicked. ** Another writing which Enoch wrote for 
his son Methuselah, and for those who come after him, and who will 
have kept the law in the last days. You who have done so, and now 
wait in those days till the evil-doers shall have made an end, and the 
power of evil shall have reached an end, wait until sin pass away; 
for their name shall be blotted out from the books of the holy, and they 
shall cry out and lament in a waste, desert place, and shall bum in fire 
where there is no earth. Then I perceived, as it were, a cloud which I 
could not clearly discern ; for from its depth! could not look up to it. 
And the flame of its fire I saw bum bright ; and it whirled like a glitter- 
ing mountain, and was agitated from side to side. Then I inquired of 
one of the holy angels who were with me, and said, ' What is that glitter- 
ing object ? for it is not heaven, but the flame of a burning fire, and the 
sound of outcry and weeping and lamentations and extreme suffering.' 
And he said to me, ' That place which thou seest, — into it shall be 
brought the spirits of the sinners and blasphemers, and of those who do 
evil and prevent all that God spoke by the mouth of the prophets con- 
cerning future things. • . . And I ' [says God] * will bring forth into 
splendid light those who loved my holy name ; and I will place each cm 



NOTES. • 389 

a throne of glory, — his own glory. And they shall shine ages without 
nomher.' For righteous is the judgment of God : to the true he will give 
tmth in the habitattons of uprightness ; and they shall see how those 
who were bom in darkness into darkness shall be cast, while the right- 
eous shine. And the sinners shall cry out, and shall see them as they 
shine ; and also they shall go thither, where days and times are pre- 
scribed for them." 

These extracts might be greatly increased ; but, as they are decisive, 
we refrain. Nor do we care to examine in detail Mr. Hudson's faint 
attempts to confuse the testimony. In the presence of those distinct and 
varied declarations that the wicked enter upon a state of conscious 
sufiering at death, that they and the fallen angels are doomed to eternal 
suffering cotemporaneous with the blessedness of the righteous, it is 
•of no avail for him to remark that '' the book is as silent respecting im- 
mortality, as the Scriptures themselves,*' — a proposition which we have 
no occasion to dispute ; or that " some of the expressions may denote 
eternity of effect," — for a sufficient number and variety of them cannot 
be so evaded ; or that " the style of the book is highly dramatic," — the 
feeblest of all rejoinders to its accumulated testimony. To say that 
" the expression, ' their souls shall not be annihilated in the day of judg- 
ment,' does not necessarily imply that they will never be annihilated," 
is certainly a very narrow foothold in itself, and disappears before the 
express statements concerning their subsequent fate of woe. The perpet- 
ual juggle on the words ** perish," " consumed," *' slain," " destroyed," 
is extinguished by the explanations of the context in many instances, 
which puts words into the mouths, and suffering into the souls, of 
these slain and perished persons. Thus one of Mr. Hudson's quota- 
tions — " our spirits have been consumed, lessened, and diminished" — is 
uttered by the victims themselves, who immediately add, in still intenser 
forms, ** toe have perished y have been tormented and destroyed" (chap, 
ciii. ). Another of his quotations, — " Their names shall be blotted out 
from the holy book ; their seed shall be destroyed, and their souls slain" — 
is immediately followed by a statement which he does not see fit to quote : 
" They shall cry out and lament in the invisible waste ; and in the fire 
shall they bum" ( cv. Laurence, cviii. Dillmann). The word ** slain " 
here, as Dillmann shows,, signifies " the eternal death, the wearing-away 
of the spirit in everlasting pain." Others of his few quotations admit 
of the same explanation, while some of them ( e.g. ch. xc.) evidently 
refer only to the removal of the wicked from the earth. The Book of 
Enoch is a difficult text-book for annihilationists. 
As Ais book gives the Jewish opinions one or two centuries before 



890 LIFE AJTD DEATH ETERNAL, 

Christi we also subjoin the teBtimony of Hippoljtus in the second cen- 
toiy after Christ. In describing the Jewish sects, he speaks first of the 
Essenes. " They strongly hold the doctrine of the resurrection ; for 
they profess that the flesh also will be raised, and will become immortal, 
as the sonl is already immortal ; this [sool], they say, having departed 
to a light and airy place, which the Greeks hearing of called islands of 
the blessed, remains there till the judgment. . . . And they say there 
will be a judgment, and a conflagration of the universe; and the wicked 
will be punished for ever." (Lib. ix. 27.) His statement concerning the 
doctrine of the Pharisees may be found on page 377 of his volume, and 
is very express in regard to the eternal duration of the punishment. His 
testimony concerning the Sadducees conforms to that of the Scriptures 
and of Josephus ; and he adds that the sect prevailed largely in Samaria. 
To this sect alone, he ascribes the entire denial of immortality and of 
retribution. " They deny a resurrection of the flesh, and think that the 
soul does not continue to exist ; that it has life only, and for this pur- 
pose only was never made ; but the notion of the resurrection is fulfilled 
in our leaving children on the earth when we die. But after death they 
hope to experience neither good nor evil ; for there will be a dissolu- 
tion both of sonl and body ; and man, like other animals, departs into 
non-existence." (Lib. ix. 89.) 




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