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.

2

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 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

e

' 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 of 1 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 the " 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. Matt. xiii. 30.

h Luke xii. 44. Matt. viii. 12. xxii.

ib. xix. 17, 19.

* Matt. xxv. 34, &c.

Matt. v. 22.

⚫ ib. 44, 6, 8.

nib. 29, • Matt.

ment of hell; that the angels shall cast them into a 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. The idea of material fire is conveyed in most of these passages. 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

g

d

a

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

4 Matt. xiii. 42, 50. Matt. x. 28.

ib. xviii. 8.

Matt. xiii. 30.

xxv. 41.
Luke xii. 5.
w Luke xvi. 23, 24. "Adus

is the word here; which answers to 48, the grave, the future invis

ible state; from by to ask, because

it

is insatiable.

* Κρίσις Mark xii. 40. Luke xx. 47.

b John v. 29.

cib. 24.

John v. 24, 29. xgiua Matt. xxiii. 14. z Mark iii. 29. a Matt. xxv. 46. Matt. xxv. 46. dreyva is the original word in all the passages quoted, except Luke xvi. 23.

Mark. ix. 44. Isai. lxvi. 24.

e

f

Jer. vii. 31. 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

h Isai. xxxiii. 14.

called by the Chaldee paraphrast "the Gehenna of everlasting fire."

But Archbishop Tillotson says "The Scripture loves to make use of sensible representations, to set forth to us the happiness and misery of the next life ; partly by way of condescension to our understandings, and partly to work more powerfully on our affections. For while we are in the body, and immersed in sense, we are most apt to be moved by such descriptions of things as are sensible; and therefore the torments of wicked men in hell are usually in scripture described to us by one of the quickest and sharpest pains that human nature is ordinarily acquainted with, namely, by the pain of burning. But we cannot from these and the like expressions certainly determine that this is the true and proper pain of hell: all that we can infer from these descriptions is this, that the sufferings of wicked men in the other world shall be very terrible, and as great and probably greater than can possibly be described to us by any thing that we are now acquainted with. These forms of speech, seem to be calculated and accommodated to our capacities, and not so much intended to express to us the proper and real torments of hell, as to convey to us in a more sensible and affecting manner the sense of what the scripture says in general, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Dr.

iSee Bishop Lowth's most excellent comment on Isai. xxx. 33 and Chald. Isai. xxvi. 19. k Serm. on Luke xvi. 19, 20. vol. i.

m Clarke also asserts that "the exact nature and manner of the future punishment of the wicked, any further than is in general necessary to deter us from sin, is not distinctly revealed to us."

Whatever sentiments thinking men, intimately acquainted with the scriptures, entertain on this subject; whether that God will for ever inflict a positive punishment on the wicked; or that, after a punishment exactly proportioned to their offences, he will annihilate them; or that a privation of being by fire will be the mode of everlasting destruction with which he will punish them; revelation is express that their punishment will be dreadful, and coeval with their existence.

I must further observe a plain implication in our Lord's language, that the degree of future rewards and punishments will be adapted to our respective merits or demerits: and add to what has been ° already suggested on this point, that for some it is prepared to sit on our Lord's P right and left hand in his glorious kingdom; and that some will receive more " abundant condemnation.

in Serm. xiv. on the goodness of God, p. 91. fol.

p. 10. note 5-10.

xxiii. 14. & p. p.

"2 Thess. 1. 9.

1 Matt.

P Matt. xx. 23. and parallel places.