WHAT HE TEACHES OF THE LIFE TO COME, AND THE GENERA CONDITIONS OF THE GOSPEL COVENANT. d CONCERNING the future invisible state, a the terms of our final acceptance or rejection, Lord has thus instructed his followers. Believe God; believe also in me. This is everlasting to know the only true God, and him whom he sent, even Jesus Christ. He that believeth, baptized, shall be saved; but he that believe' shall be condemned. God so loved the wor he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso lieveth in him should not perish, but have ing life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, believeth on me hath everlasting life. Verily I say unto you, Hef that heareth lieveth on him that sent me, hath everlast: my word, and shall not come into condemnation, bu from death unto life. I am the resurr the life: he that believeth on me, though he earth] yet shall he live [hereafter:] and who liveth [in the future state] and believeth in m never die. By thy h words thou shalt be ne en orks. and be ities dge, shall * 4 H a .ed on, unto t unto So away cous into wicked is outer dark ing of teeth: 1 guest chamBut the futureribed in another m reviler shall be sacrifice whatever De cast into hell and the fire is not t escape the judg end of the world, the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all that cause offence [at the gospel,] and them that do iniquity; they shall sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. They who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, cannot die any more; for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection. The hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth: they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation. My sheep hear my voice, and I give unto them everlasting life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. In b my Father's house are many mansions. 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. Some shall receive the reward of a prophet, and others the reward of a righteous man. It shall be * more tolerable in the day of judgment for some cities which had less advantages of religious knowledge, than for those which enjoyed greater. Some shall • Luke x. 14. ' be beaten with many stripes; others, with few: some shall be made rulers & over ten cities; others, over five: the faithful and wise steward shall be made me. ruler over all that his lord hath: the tares shall be gathered together to burn, but the wheat into the garner. The King shall say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto And the wicked and merciless shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into everlasting life. The punishment of the wicked is sometimes expressed under the figure of1 outer darkness, where should be weeping and gnashing of teeth: an image opposed to the splendour of a guest chamber, in which the good banqueted. But the future state of bad men is more usually described in another manner. Our Lord teaches that them reviler shall be subject to hell fire; that we should sacrifice whatever is most dear to us, rather than be cast into hell fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; that evil men cannot escape the judg f Luke xii. 47, 8. i Matt. xiii. 30. 13. xxv. 30. See also Luke xiii. 28. 30. xviii. 8, 9. rxiii. 33. Mark ix. 43, 5, 7. rib. 29, P Matt. ment of hell; that the angels shall cast them into a ⚫ furnace of fire; that they shall depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. He likewise says that God hath power, after he hath killed, to cast into hell; and that he is able to destroy * both soul and body in hell. Thus also in his parables the tares are gathered "to be burnt; and the rich man is described as " tormented in the flames of * hell. This is the judgment, or condemnation, the everlasting condemnation, the everlasting punishment, which he elsewhere speaks of; and which he opposes to the resurrection of life, and to life everlasting. b 2 The idea of material fire is conveyed in most of these passages. d Gehenna, the word which we render hell, is derived from Gi Hinnom, the Hebrew words which denote the valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem, where the idolatrous Jews burnt their sons and their daughters in the fire. This place Josiah 'defiled. The filth and carcasses cast into it were first a prey to worms, and then to fire. It was the general receptacle of polluting substances from the city; and a continual fire was kept in it to consume them: in allusion to which, "heverlasting burnings" are 9 Matt. xiii. 42, 50. Matt. x. 28. is the word here; ible state; from ↳ rib. xviii. 8. u Matt. xiii. 30. w Luke xvi. 23, 24. **Ads which answers to 4, the grave, the future invis to ask, because it is insatiable. John v. 24, 29. xgiua y * Κρίσις Mark xii. 40. Luke xx. 47. Matt. xxiii. 14. * Matt. xxv. 46. dra is the original word in all the passages * Jer. vii. 31. f2 Kings xxiii. 10. h Isai. xxxiii. 14. |