Page images
PDF
EPUB

and, confidered in this light, they entirely agree with each other. The Old Teftament was both the religious and the civil code of the Jews, and the Greek translation of it was commonly ufed by them in the time of our Lord and his Apoftles. They therefore adopted many expreffions from the books contained in it. Now the Jewish prophets, it is well known, described the Deity himself, and all his operations and proceedings, in a bold and most highly figurative style. The fimilitudes which we are now confidering, they often employed, in reprefenting the great displeasure of the Moft High againft fin, and the painful chastisement and death that He will infli& in this world upon those who tranfgrefs his laws, and abufe his favours. The metaphors of fire, unquenchable fire, and their worm not dying, as well as other figures, are thus applied in the following texts, in which there are plain expreffions that lead to the true interpretation of the figurative.

Deut. xxxii. 22 to 25. "A fire is kindled in mine " anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, or "hades, and fhall confume the earth with her in"crease, and fet on fire the foundations of the moun"tains. I will heap mifchiefs upon them; I will "spend mine arrows upon them; they fhall be burnt "with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and “with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth "of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of "the duft; the fword without and terror within fhall "deftroy both the young man and the virgin, the

"fuckling alfo, with the man of grey hairs." And, Ifaiah Ixvi. 14 to 16. "The indignation of Jehovah "fhall be known towards his enemies. For behold

ઃઃ

Jehovah will come with fire, and with his chariots "like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, "and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire "and by his fword will Jehovah plead with all flesh; " and the flain of the Lord fhall be many." (Ver. 24:)" And they fhall go forth and look upon the “carcafes of the men that have transgressed against cc me; for their worm fhall not die, neither shall their "fire be quenched, and they fhall be an abhorring "unto all flesh." Here dead carcafes are fpoken of as being devoured by worms, or destroyed by fire. This, therefore, does not imply, but excludes, the idea of their feeling pain. -xxx. 27 to 33; ix. 18, 19; Pf. lxxxix. 46; Ifa. x. 16 to 18; Lament. ii. 3; Ezek. xxii. 18 to 22.

See alfo Ifaiah v. 24, 25;

The phrase of unquenchable fire is used by the Jewish prophets in a limited fenfe for divine anger, and temporal punishment, and death, inflicted by Jehovah, in the following paffages.^{

"The indigna

Ifaiah xxxiv. 2, 8, 9, 10 to 16. ❝tion of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury "upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed

[ocr errors]

them, he hath delivered them to the flaughter. "The fword of the Lord is filled with blood; for "the Lord hath a facrifice in Bozrah, and a great flaughter in the land of Idumea. For it is the day "of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recom

66

pence for the controverfy of Zion, And the "ftreams thereof fhall be turned into pitch, and the "duft thereof into brimftone, and the land thereof "shall become burning pitch. It fhall not be quenched "night nor day; the fmoke thereof shall go up for "ever; from generation to generation it fhall lie "wafte; none fhall pafs through it for ever and 66 ever. But the cormorant and the bittern fhall

[ocr errors]

.....

poffefs it; the owl and the raven fhall dwell in it; " and he shall stretch out upon it in the line of con"fufion, and the ftones of emptiness. ... Thorns "fhall come up in her palaces; it shall be an habi"tation for dragons, and a court for owls, &c. "Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read; "no one of these fhall fail," See alfo Ifaiah i. 28, 31; xlvii. 14.

ye

....

Jer. vii. 20. "Thus faith the Lord God; behold, "mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon "this place, (Judah and Jerufalem, ver. 17,) upon "man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the "field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it fhall "burn, and shall not be quenched." xvii. 27: "If will not hearken unto me, &c. I will kindle a "fire in the gates of Jerufalem, and it fhall devour "the palaces thereof, and it shall not be quenched." Yet the fame prophet predicts, ch. xxx. 18, that Jerufalem fhall be rebuilt. See alfo Jer. iv. 4; xxi. 12, 14; Ezek. xx. 47, 48; explained in ch. xxi.-See Newcome's notes; Amos v. 6; 2 Kings xxii. 17; ? Chron. xxxiv. 25; Ecclus. xxviii. 23.

From the above quotations out of the Old Testament it appears, that the metaphors in the New Teftament, which we are confidering, muft, in their strongest fenfe, be understood of grievous suffering, and destruction by death. The wicked, then, are defer bed as dying again after fevere punishment, in the world to come. There is no paffage in which it is faid that they fhall be immortal, or fhall remain in a state of torment without dying. We have no fufficient ground, then, for maintaining, that the punishment of finners will have no termination, nor for affirming, that the fecond death, which we are affured they shall undergo, will put a final period to their exiftence. These are conclufions upon which confe quences of too great moment depend, to admit of their being deduced from figurative language alone. Plain and explicit terms feem indifpenfably requifite to justify fuch fentiments. The fcriptures, however, contain no expreffions upon the duration of future. punishments, that are clear and decifive with regard to the exact period to which they will extend. They only speak of a fecond death. When this event will take place, they do not inform us. What this fecond death impl es, will be confidered in its place,

SECTION V. Γεεννα.

Matt. v. 22. Whofoever fhall fay to his brother, thou fool, fhall be liable, es TYY YEEVVAD TY WUROS, to hell e; 1. e. to a punishment correfponding to a

death by fire in the valley of Hinnom. The greatest punishment, greater than death by ftoning. See Doddridge's Par.

Matt. v. 29, 30. It is better for thee that one of thy members should perish, than that thy whole body fhould be caft, es yɛɛvvav, into hell, i. e. feduction from duty should be avoided at all events.

Matt. xviii. 9. Parallel to the preceding.

Matt. x. 28. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both foul and body, ev yɛɛvvy, in hell, or in the valley of Hinnom, or, by a punishment which that figuratively reprefents.

Matt. xxiii. 15. Ye hypocrites, when ye make one proselyte, ye make him two-fold more, viov geevuns, a fon of hell than yourselves. An heir of punishment. -Newcome.

Matt. xxiii. 33. Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the judgment, Tns yeevyns, of hell; i. e. great future punishment.

Mark ix, 43, 45, 47. It is better for thee to enter maimed into life, than to go, is any yeervov, into hell: or, into a punishment as great as that by fire in the valley of Hinnom, or which that figuratively reprefents,

Luke xii. 5. Fear him who, after he hath killed, hath power to caft, eis Tηy yeεvvav, into hell. See the preceding text.

James iii. 6. The tongue is a fire, a world of ini quity, and fetteth on fire the course of nature, and is itfelf fet on fire, υπο της γεέννης, by hell. As if

« PreviousContinue »