smoke of torment which is to continue for ever and ever, after the sufferings of sinners have ceased: he would do it from a real belief that neither that passage of Revelation, nor any other passage, taught that sinners themselves were to be tormented for ever and ever. Yet in Rev. xx. 10, the same thing 66 66 which was before declared of the smoke of torment, is said of sinners expressly. "And the devil, that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the "Beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day "and night for ever and ever." As it will not do to answer this text, by talking of smoke without fire, or fire without fuel, the Improved Version escapes its force, by retreating to allegory, the last and never failing refuge, of imbecile corruption and blind depravity. According to them, "the persons who are here said to be tormented for ever and 60 ever, are not real, but figurative, and symbolical persons, "the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. The place "therefore, the kind, and the duration of their torment, must "also be figurative." When God tells these children of delusion, that the smoke of torment shall continue for ever; they pretend that it is nothing but smoke. When God tells them, that the devil and the beast and the false prophet, and all who worship and follow them, shall be tormented for ever; these wonderful expounders say, none of these are real beings and if they had been told expressly, that the Emperor and the Pope, and their secular and ecclesiastical subalterns, with Judas and the authors of the Improved Version, should be punished for ever; they would reply, this is a "heart-withering doctrine," conveyed in "loose" language, as I conceive, "in opposition to the plainest dictates of reason," and therefore, I am not "disposed to lay undue stress upon" it. God has told us of a real devil, real sinners, and a real hell: if, by the pestilential breath of a little squadron of these rebels, their whole host is to evaporate into mere shadows, and figures, and symbols; who can tell where this process of pride and folly will end? Will they not next declare, with equal truth, that there are none but imaginary saints, an imaginary heaven, and an imaginary God? : But one feels a natural curiosity, to know, what my opponent's doubly improved version makes of these authorities. He exactly follows the directions which I gave some time ago, for obtaining a name, as a linguist and a critic. He adopts Scarlett's translation of the words in question, 801 and copies the notes of the Improved Version, as his own, without giving credit to any one for them. No wonder that the University of Cambridge, when they received his book, looked in silent amazement, on such audacity. If, however, a man of Scarlett's light metal, had been alive, he would not probably have been silent. May God preserve us from the principles of Universalism, and from its deleterious effects upon the morals of its votaries. 6. Aionios. This word is found in the first and the five last of the New Testament authorities, quoted in the commencement of this second branch of affirmative evidence. Thus it is six times connected with future punishment. Whether it means absolutely eternal, in these instances, will depend in a great measure, upon the meaning in which it is used, in the remainder of the seventy-one times, in which it occurs in the New Testament. It will be found predicated of infinite duration, past as well as future. Christ 1. It is applied four times, to things unseen, to God, his Spirit, power and glory "The things which are seen, are "temporal: but the things which are not seen, are eternal."' "According to the commandment of the everlasting God." To whom be honour and power everlasting." "through the eternal Spirit offered himself, without spot, to God." In rendering aionios in these texts, the Improved Version agrees with our bible, as with all others, in general, in every language. On the last text, my opponent copies a note of theirs, for which he gives them credit: but he follows Scarlett, in transcribing instead of translating. 2. It is applied five times to Christ, his covenant, kingdom, and gospel. 3. It is applied three times, to eternity past., "According "to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret, "since the world began."z "Who hath saved us” “ ac66 cording to his own purpose and grace, which was given us v He only altered eternal into aionian; and put to the ages of ages, instead of for orever and ever. w 2 Cor. iv. 18. Rom. xvi. 26. 1 Tim. vi. 16. Heb. ix. 14. x 1 John i 2. v. 20 Heb, xiii 20. 2 Pet. i. 11. Rev. xiv. 6. y Rom. xvi. 25. 2 Tim i. 9. Tit. i. 2. 2 Xgovors alwviors. Rom. xvi. 25. Comp. 1 Pet. i. 12. "Which things the any gels desire to look into." ❝in Christ Jesus, before the world began." "In hope of eter "nal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the "world began." The same words Chronoi aionioi, occuring in all these places, have received a uniform translation, in our bible. Not so with my opponent's excessively improved version. The same words, he renders former ages, in the first text, and aionian times, in the two last. This, however, was necessary, in order to make his New Translation, a faithful copy of Scarlett's old one. How easy it is, now-adays, to translate from the original Greek! On these two last texts, Macknight speaks as follows; viz. Supposing the word aionios in this clause, to signify eter"nal, the literal translation of the passage would be, before "eternal times. But that being a contradiction in terms, "our translators, contrary to the propriety of the Greek "language, have rendered it, before the world began." From such reasoning as this, the most eminent anti-universalist polemic has relinquished these two instances, and these alone, of all the seventy-one, in which this word occurs. But if these a priori reasonings be regarded, we may speculate away every thing that is valuable in criticism and theology. Language is arbitrary, and is formed by custom. The use of ancient languages is no more subject to the control of a modern critic, than the fires of Ætna are subject to a modern engineer. This sort of reasoning would attach absurdity to some of the best authorized usages of our own language. Is it more contradictory to say, that before eternity and absolute eternity mean the same thing, than to say that ravel and unravet mean the same? Because two negatives make an affirmative with us, shall we charge the Greeks with absurdity, for making them an emphatical negative? It is well for us, that there are some men, of all ages, and all degrees of improvement, whom such sophistry never moves. The established signification of A10NIOS, eternal, did not prevent Gregory Nazianzen from using PROAIONIOS, before eternal, in the same sense. Thus is it understood by the best modern expositors of the language. Hedericus explains PROAIONIOS, by the Latin ÆTERNUS, eternal; and Scapula explains the same word, by OMNI ÆTERNITATE PRIOR, before all eternity. This is, to all intents and purposes, as absurd," as the expression before the eternal times, which Macknight 303 has condemned. Yet either before the eternal times, or before all eternity, would be as correct a translation of the texts in question, as "above all heavens" is of Eph. iv. 10. The Scriptures recognize three heavens, the aerial and etherial heavens, and the heavens of heavens: higher than which, no one ever went. Yet the apostle says, "He that descended, "is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, "that he might fill all things:" Now, if the heavens are to be understood literally, would not Macknight's mode of interpretation make this passage say, that Christ has not only ascended above the first heavens, our atmosphere, in which clouds are suspended, and birds fly;-not only above the second heavens, in which the sun, moon and stars are placed ;— but above, and far above, all heavens, even the third heavens, the residence of God and angels, and saints? But suppose that in this text, heavens should be understood metonymically. Suppose that it means the inhabitants of heaven. Would not Macknight's mode of interpretation make the text say, that Christ had ascended not only above saints and angels, but far above the eternal Father, and the eternal Spirit? It is easy for a sickly hypercriticism to find absur dities in the best translation, or even in the pure, authentic, and infallible original. Yet in answer to them all, I would say, that Christ has ascended into heaven; and that to express this emphatically, the apostle said that he had ascended far above all heavens. So I would say that salvation through Christ, was promised before the world began, before the commencement of time, that is, from eternity: and this is emphatically expressed by the apostle, when speaking of this salvation, as a thing "which God, that cannot lie, promised, PRO CHRONON AIONION, before the eternal times; that is, from an absolute eternity. There is not a whit more of absurdity, in this mode of expression, than there is in the addition and multiplication of eternities, which we find practised in the Old and New Testament, with such intelligible familiarity, and such unquestionable correctness. In most subjects, the plural is more than the singular: not so with olam and aion. In most cases, the amount is greatly enhanced by the multiplication of a plural. Myriads of myriads mentioned Rev. ix. 16, is ten thousand times more than the simple plural. Not so with eternity. The addition or multiplication of aions amounts to nothing more than an emphatical way of expressing a simple eternity. Eis aiona and its reduplicate mean the same thing. So the word God and its reduplicate mean the same thing. When the Council of Nice says, "We believe in one God," did they mean any thing more, or any thing less than the true God? When the same Council say that the Lord Jesus Christ is "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God," they speak thus, not to represent the Saviour, as more or less than God, but to express in an unequivocal manner, his essential Deity, and his peculiar and eternal relation to the Father. So we speak of heaven as God's dwelling place; and we mean no other than his dwelling-place, when we speak of the heavens and the heavens of heavens, or far above all heavens. Thus do the scriptures mean the same thing by from eternity, and "before the eternal times 4. It is applied ten times to the future duration of Christian fraternity, of the celestial house and habitation of the saints, of their glory and inheritance, consolation, salvation, and redemption. For perhaps he therefore departed for a 66 season, that thou mightest receive him for ever." "I say "unto you, make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of "unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you "into everlasting habitations.” "Therefore I endure all "things for the elects' sake, that they may also obtain the "salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternai glory.” "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eter"nal glory, by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered "awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our "Father, who hath loved us, and given us everlasting conso"lation, and good hope, through grace." "The promise of “eternal inheritance." "Having obtained eternal redemp❝tion for us." "He became the author of eternal salvation " unto all them that obey him." "An house not made with "hands, eternal in the heavens." ""A far more exceeding and "eternal weight of glory."d The above passages speak of the future happiness of believers, which my opponent professes to believe eternal. They contrast that eternal happiness with these temporal afflictions; and they are intended to comfort the Christian under the calamities of time. No one ought, therefore, to doubt, that the word aionios is here used in an unlimited sense, and has been correctly rendered in our bible. But, Scarlett, knowing the consequence of such an admission, chose rather d Philem. xv. Luke xvi. 9. 2 Tim. ii, 10. 1 Pet. v. 19. 2 Thess. ii. 16. Heb. ix. 15, 12, 1. 9. 2 Cor. v. 1. iv. 17. |