whither thou goest. And in the same sense has that other passage, chap. xi. 3. usually been understood; If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. How unreasonable then is it to expect, that a state thus represented by Solomon, and by him who was wiser than Solomon, should prove after all a scene of action? Compare Dr. Burnet, de Statu Mort. et Resurgent. p. 97. edit. 2. Num. XLVI. John xi. 9, 10. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. Num. XLVII. John xii. 35, 36. Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. This doubtless relates to our Lord himself, who, while he was in the world, was the light of the world. But the general reasoning in all these passages seems to imply, that if men will not walk, or work, in the day, or while they have the light, a night, or darkness, will succeed, in which they cannot walk. If there was any preaching of the gospel in hades, any knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins given there, I see not why the dead might not be said to have the light, and to walk in the day, as well as the living; which yet, I think, is never supposed. I know very well, a state of ignorance and corruption, such as was that of the hea then world before Christ, is represented in the gospel by the images of darkness and the shadow of death. And in this sense, the gospel was preached to them that were dead. But this rather supposes than contradicts what I now aim at. For the very reason or foundation of this representation seems to be, that the state of the dead is perfectly and totally what the other, which is resembled to it, is in part only, and to a certain degree. The state of the heathen world was partly, and to a certain degree, a state of moral inactivity, for want of light and motives; for want, in one word, of the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins. If this state then be compared to the state of them that are dead, what shall we infer from it? Not surely that the dead have the light, and walk in the day; or have the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins preached to them; but just the contrary. However, this is foreign to our point at present; which is not concerning the repentance or non-repentance of the souls in hades, but the duration of the punishment of those who will be condemned at the day of judgment, when death and hades shall be no more. [Num. XLVII.] John xv. 2. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. Ver. 6. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. These words are plain against the system of a restoration; and by no means imply that of utter destruction. For the force of the comparison does not lie in this, that the wicked are burned, that is, consumed, in the fire, as the fruitless branches of a vine-tree; but in this, that both being severed, the one from the natural, the other from the mystical vine, which is Christ, and so rendered utterly incapable of bringing forth their respective fruits, they are both entirely cast away, and totally rejected. -- Num. XLVIII. John xvii. 12. those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. Compare chap. xviii. 9. Our Saviour could not mean άάλeто in one place, or anλeσa in the other, in the sense of annihilation; for in that sense Judas, though the son of perdition, i viòs tñs àπwλeías, was not lost, or perished. It is usual in scripture to style men the sons, or children, of any thing or person, in order to express any extraordinary quality or relation which such thing or person is remarkable for, or may denote. Thus Judas here, and the man of sin, mentioned 2 Thess. ii. 3. being for their great and wilful wickedness vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, are each of them styled the son of perdition. Thus the proselyte, Matt. xxiii. 15. being rendered more signally corrupt by the scribes and pharisees, is styled a son of gehenna, or child of hell. Thus wicked men are called the sons, or children, of the Devil; the faithful, the sons, or children, of Abraham; and good men, endeavouring to imitate the example of God himself, the sons, or children, of God, Matt. v. 45. The expression, that the scripture might be fulfilled, denotes no more than this other, so that the scripture was fulfilled; assigning not the cause, but the event, as Theophylact observes upon the place. The scriptures, by foretelling the crime of Judas, imposed no necessity of the action; nor foretold any thing that would not have come to pass, though they had been silent. It is necessary to carry this always in mind, through this debate, that no man may think that Judas', or any other person that shall be in the like condemnation, is ordained to it by any absolute decree of God, or necessitated by any prophecies going before of him, to such actions as lead to it, in any manner or degree inconsistent with the liberty and free choice of a moral agent. I have now produced all the texts in the four Gospels, which any way concern the duration of future punishments; at least I have not wilfully stifled any evidence, or suppressed any testimonies, out of prejudice, or favour, to one side or another. If I have alleged any not directly pertinent to the point in hand, (which I am not conscious to myself of having done voluntarily,) it is only a little labour lost; I desire no greater stress should be laid upon them than they will bear. If they are wholly foreign, as they cannot serve, so neither can they justly hurt the cause I defend; but must be considered Nec sane aliud denuntiant prophetæ quam quod ipsis etiam tacentibus futurum erat. Calvin. apud Marlorat. in loc. Denique Judas dicitur periisse, ut impleretur scriptura; non quasi perierit, quia scriptura prædixerit; sed quia in eo sit impletum, quod prædictum erat scripturis. Quod vulgo sit efferunt, ut sumi non finaliter, sed consecutive. Nec enim Judas prodidit Christum, quia scriptura prædixerat; sed prædixit scriptura, quia Christum erat proditurus. Præviderat Deus proditurum, nisi impediret; decrerat vero permittere, et tam atrox facinus dirigere ad bonum generis humani. Ger. Jo. Vossii Harmonia Evangel. 4to. Amstelodami 1656, p. 166. |