Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

I will notice a few texts in the New Testament, and close this article. Matt. 13: 40: As the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. No preserving the tares. They were cast into the fire purposely kindled to destroy them. So the net, which when it was full they drew to the shore, and set down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. They did not preserve them! So the wicked will be separated and disposed of in the end of this world, when the great destruc. tive judgment shall come. Rom. 1: 32: Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death. Very different from eternal torment. 8: 13: If ye live after the flesh ye shall DIE; but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall LIVE. 1 Cor. 3: 17: If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. No eternal misery taught by the apostle thus far. 2 Cor. 2: 45: For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved, and in them that perish: to the one we are a savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. Here is perish, and the second death to all those who are not saved by the gospel. Phil. 3: 19: Whose end is destruction. 1 Thess. 5 3: For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. 2 Thess. 1: 7: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, &c. Heb. 6 8: For that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. 10: 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation

which shall devour the adversaries. James 4: 12: There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. 5:20: Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death. 2 Peter 2: 12: But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand not; shall utterly perish in their own corruption.

The reader will pardon me for dwelling so long and multiplying so many texts on a doctrine plainly stated by the Almighty at the beginning. But as the penalty of the law and its execution has been enlarged upon, and is still most grossly misrepresented-and even denied to be death and destruction--I have thought best to furnish the reader with a full quantum of divine testimony, to stop the mouths if possible of these gainsayers, and silence forever their batteries thundering forth the eternal torment in hell fire of the wicked.

No mind capable of receiving truth can read this article, and still plead the immortality of the soul, and endless misery. I have let God speak for himself, through his own chosen messengers, and there is no mistaking His voice or the truth He utters, He positively and clearly declares the penalty of his law to be DEATH, and the final judgment that shall come upon all the world of the wicked, to be a destructive judgment by fire. That day, is the great day of His wrath—a day set apart, not to preserve His enemies, but to destroy them-to burn them up, to leave them neither root nor branch. Therefore, They shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as smoke out of the chimney. Hosea 13: 3. When He comes to execute this destructive judgment, the mountains shall quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Oh, reader! Think, think, who can stand

an UTTER END, affliction

before His indignation, and who can abide in the fierceness of His anger; His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. But the Lord will be the hope of his people in that day—he will be their pavillion, their rock, their high tower and abiding place. He is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an over running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make shall not rise up a second time. Nahum 1: 5,9. The people in that day shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they burn in the fire. Sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell, or remain with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell, or remain with everlasting burnings? Not in the devouring fire. But who will be left in the day of judgment and remain with the devouring fire, and with the everlasting burnings? Answer: He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that des piseth the gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil: he shall dwell on high, his place of defence [against the devouring fire] shall be the munitions of rocks. Such and such only will escape. All others will be left, and their dwelling and place will be with the everlasting burnings. Isa. 33: 12, 16.

In closing this subject and chapter, I will introduce to the reader an extract from the writings of the REV. EDWARD WHITE, a Cong'l minister in England, on the subject entitled

LIFE IN CHRIST.

"In the last century, the learned Dr. Dodwell collected an important mass of evidence to prove, and successfully defended against many vehement adversaries, the idea that the native inmortality of all men, was not sanctioned by the primitive church. It will be a difficult task to overthrow, or undermine some of the arguments which were adduced in that controversy, either by the allegation of false quotation, or by endeavoring to underrate the value of the witnesses. Irenæus, for instance, the disciple of Polycarp, who was the scholar of the Apostle John, thus writes Life is not from ourselves, nor from our nature, but it is given or bestowed according to the grace of God; and therefore he who preserves this gift of life and returns thanks to Him who bestows it, he shall receive length of days for ever and ever. But he who rejects it, and proves unthankful to his Maker for creating him, and will not know him who bestows it, he deprives himself of the gift of duration to all eternity. And therefore the Lord speaks thus of such unthankful persons: If you have not been faithful in that which is least, who will commit much to you? intimating thereby unto us, they who are unthankful to Him with respect to this short transitory life, which is His gift, the effect of His bounty, shall be most justly deprived of length of days in the world to come.'

Mr. Foster, a distinguished writer, remarks: A number of ministers, not large but of great piety and intelligence, within his acquaintance, had been disbelievers in the doctrine in question, [the eternal existence of the wicked in misery] at the same time, not feeling themselves imperatively called upon to make a public disavowal : content with employing in their ministrations strong general terms, in denouncing the doom of impenitent sinners. For

one thing, a consideration of the unreasonable imputations, and unmeasured suspicions, apt to be cast on any publicly declared partial defection from rigid orthodoxy, has made them think they should better consult their usefulness by not giving a prominence to this dissentient point; while yet they made no concealment of it in private communications, or in answer to serious inquiries.'

In self-defence, I may add to this instructive and remarkable testimony, my own, that I also am acquainted with several very excellent and accomplished ministers of the gospel and editors of religious periodicals, similarly situated. The antiquity of the theological views here defended, together with their partial suppression by 'pious' and intelligent' men offer, therefore, an impressive illus tration of the truth of Lord Bacon's memorable reflection: 'Another error is a conceit, that of former opinions or sects after examination, the best hath still prevailed and suppressed the rest; so as, if a man should begin the labor of a new search, he were but like to light upon some formerly rejected, and by rejection brought into oblivion; as if the multitude or the wisest for the multitude's sake were not ready to give passage rather to that which is popular and superficial, than to that which is substantial and profound. For the truth is, that Time seemeth to be of the nature of a river or stream which carrieth, down to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth that which is weighty and solid.'"

Having noticed Lord Bacon's reflection, Mr. White proceeds and says: "We feel bound to admit that unassisted nature, as is proved by the remains of the pagan philosophers, and by the clashing opinions of modern metaphy sicians, can attain no certainty whatever on this subject of eternal immortality of the soul; and a clever materialist can bring forward many appearances which oppose, at the outset, at least a formidable barrier to so grand a conclu

« ÎnapoiContinuă »