which the Wicked are to be cast, will utterly consume them, their Destruction will be not barely lasting, but everlasting. But to let this pass; what is it that Mr. Whiston grounds his Remark upon, that this Text implies that the Wicked will be utterly consumed? Is it upon the Import of the Word öλe@pos, (Destruction?) That Word here imports no such thing. As explained by Matt. xxv. 41, 46. it evidently means eternal Exclusion from Christ, and Departure into everlasting Punishment. There it is, Depart from me (aπ' èμoû) ye Cursed, into everlasting Fire; ver. 45. into everlasting Punishment; (eis kóλaow aiwviov.) Here it is, everlasting Destruction from the Presence (άπò проσάTOV) of the Lord, and from the Glory of his Power; or, from his glorious Power. To say the truth, Mr. W. does not seem to lay the stress of the thing upon the Meaning of this Word at all, but upon the flaming Fire,1 mentioned ver. 8. But how does this imply that the Fire will utterly consume them? Them too! as if the Fire would utterly consume their whole Persons, Body and Soul: Which he allows in another place, (see No. X.) it is not capable of doing. Well, but the Fire will utterly consume their Bodies. this Text, or any Text, imply this? If it does, it can only be for this Reason, because it is of the nature of Fire to consume human Bodies. But can any one think seriously, that this Fire will have the same effect upon the Bodies of the Wicked after their Resurrection, which Fire has upon human Bodies now? What Does 1 Theophylact observes, that the flaming Fire may be joined either with the taking vengeance, and so relate to the Punishments in Gehenna; or to the Coming, or Revelation of Christ, which will be in, or with, flaming Fire: so David, Ps. xcvi. 3. (xcvii. 3.) A Fire goeth before him, and burneth up his Enemies round about: And Daniel vii. 10. A fiery Stream issued, and came forth from before him. Absurdities will not this run us into? For if this be the Case, the Fire into which they are to be cast, will not only utterly consume them, in some time, but in a very little time. The present human Body would be utterly consumed by such flaming Fire, in a few Minutes. And will God raise up the Bodies of the Wicked, and re-unite them with their Souls, only that they may be utterly consumed, in a few Minutes ?1 Believe it who can! Besides, call you this taking vengeance? It is shewing favour. It is, in effect, reducing these Sinners back again from Gehenna, their proper Place of Punishment, into Hades the separate State; where they cannot be punished by such external Torments at all. Is it not infinitely more congruous to think, that the Union between Soul and Body, just re-establish'd, will continue; and the whole 1 But suppose, to prevent Dispute, we put Hours, or Days, instead of Minutes; the thing is still absurd. And if we argue from the Force and Influence which Fire has over human Bodies here, it cannot, possibly, be many Hours, or Days, in consuming them. Mr. W. sure will not take refuge in the poor Expedient of their Bodies being miraculously preserved; a Weight, with which he is often attempting to load the common Opinion. But to remove it, I take the liberty to acquaint him, once for all, that he is entirely mistaken. We wholly reject all arbitrary Acts, all miraculous Interpositions, of mere Power, either for Destruction, or Preservation, in this Question; being fully conscious, that if we cannot defend our side of it, consistently with the Nature and Constitution of things, under the Laws of God's ordinary Providence, we cannot defend it at all. But to the Point in hand, what I say is this; the flaming Fire here spoken of, must either act as Fire acts upon human Bodies now, or not. If it does, it will consume the Bodies almost as soon as they are cast into it; (which is absurd in Reason, and contrary to the Scripture-Representations of these future Torments ;) if it does not, there is no Consequence in the Argument, that it will utterly consume the future Bodies, because Fire now consumes the present. Person that sinned, be punished? Hear Mr. W. himself upon the Point;--" It deserves our Remark "farther," (says he, p. 109,) that the ancient Christians "had little notion of directly punishing a separate "Soul, or a Soul in another Vehicle or Body, for what "the Man, composed of a Soul and present Body, "had been guilty of. And did hardly think it con"sistent with Justice so to do." Perhaps Mr. W. supposes, that the Soul, after this second Separation from the Body, will be punished no more. He says nothing about it, in the Passage before us; but rather seems to think that Body and Soul will both be utterly consumed: But in a Passage formerly quoted, (see No. X.) he intimates, that as the Soul may not then be utterly destroyed, it may remain capable of a second Resurrection, after the second Death is over. Lay these things now together, and you see those Terrors of the Lord which are to persuade Men, reduced to little more, or no more, than what many have suffered in this World; being burnt to death. The Fire, (he adds Worms too, in the place referred to,) will utterly consume the Body, (and if at all, very quickly;1) and the Soul, without any farther Punishment, will be capable of a second Resurrection. How dare Men trifle thus, with the Vengeance of that God, who is himself a consuming Fire? Sure, some Men's Concern is only for the Wicked; and their Mercy confined to those, whom God abhors. The virtuous, and happy, and only valuable Part of God's rational Creation, are to be annihilated: Because, forsooth, Coeternity with In no very long time, he himself seems to think there is reason to suspect; (p. 139, 140.) and see the Answer he makes to an Objection rising hence, from the intermediate Punishments in Hades, which are nothing to the Purpose; under No. XXII towards the End. God, (that is, if he means any thing to the purpose, vast and immense a thing The curable part of Man Eternity, à parte post,) is too to be expected: (See p. 64.) kind are to be burnt, (contrary to all Reason, Scripture, Philosophy and common Sense,) in Hades; some of them, it may be, for thousands of Years. But when we come to the Torments of the wicked in Hell, their Kóλaσis alávia is to be, what? It is but too plain from what I have said already, and I will not repeat it. But there is one passage of Scripture, suggested by Mr. W. himself, which gives a decisive Blow to his Phantom of a second Death, and a second Resurrection.1 St. John, in the xxth Chapter of his Revelation, describes the general Resurrection, and general Judgment; I saw, says he, the Dead, small and great, stand before God:-And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it; and Death and Hades delivered up the Dead which were in them: And they were judged every Man according to their Works. Immediately after he adds, And Death and Hades were (themselves) cast into the Lake of Fire: This is the second Death. The meaning of which is, if Words have any meaning at all, that there shall no more be any such Event as 1 Cujus (Mortis) non ea vis est, ut injustas animas extinguat omnino, sed ut puniat in æternum. Eam pœnam, secundam mortem nominamus; quæ est et ipsa perpetua, sicut et Immortalitas. Primam sic definimus; Mors est naturæ animantium dissolutio: vel ita; Mors est Corporis Animæque seductio. Secunda vero sic: Mors est æterni doloris Perpessio. Vel ita : Mors est Animarum pro meritis ad æterna Supplicia damnatio. Lactant. L. ii. C. 12. Confer L. vii. C. 10, II. Infideles vero in ardenti stagno mittendi sunt; Sulphureo fœtore concreto: quæ nuncupatur veracissime Mors secunda. Cassiodorii Complexiones, p. 228. Death, or the Separation of Soul and Body; nor any more, any such Place, or State, as that of Hades, or the separate Existence of Souls. These Things, represented here as Persons, must utterly cease to act, and to be; they shall never more affect Mankind, being themselves cast into the Lake of Fire;—into the Lake which burneth with Fire and Brimstone, Ch. xxi. 8. And this (it is expressly said in both places, this) is the second Death. Therefore, not any future Separation of Soul and Body; for the very Being, Power and Principle of Death, in that sense, is destroy'd; destroy'd for ever, in the Lake of perpetual Fire; and Hades, as the Consequence thereof, is destroy'd with it. No. LXX. 2 Thess. ii. 3.--The Son of Perdition. See No. XLVIII. No. LXXI. Vers. 10. In them that perish. N.B. It is plain from the Context, (contrary to what has sometimes been inferr'd from it,) that the terrible. Punishment here threaten'd, is not any arbitrary Act of God's Power upon the Hearts, or Understandings, of Men, deceiving them to their Destruction, without any regard to their previous Dispositions, or Conduct; but it is a just Judgment, in the natural Consequences of things, upon wicked and corrupt Men, who believed not the Truth, but had pleasure in Unrighteousness. For this Cause God shall send them strong Delusions, |