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Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Stre film6s d des taux de r6duction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Stre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est film6 i partir de I angle sup6rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 22t •^u y>^jj. FUTURE PUNISHMENT: A DISCOUESE DELIVERED ON SABBATH, JANUARY IGtli 18 76, BY THE REV. WILLIAM STEV/ART, M, A., PASTOR OF THE PARK STREET BAPTIST CHURCH, HAMILTOU, OUT. PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. HAMILTON : PaixTBD DT Robfuts & Gaipris, 5 Jaubs Stsbit Nortu. 187«. Copies of this discourse may be obtained at the office of the Canadian Baptist, Toronto, or on application to the author. Price, postage paid, cents per copy, or 25 copies for a dollar. 5 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. ed "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment—." Matt. XXV, 40'. The subject which is now to engage our attention is a very solemn one. It is one, on which, were a minister of the Gospel to consult simply his own feelings, he would seldom preach at all. But if he wishes to say, like Paul, " I am free from the blood of all men," he must also be able to affirm with the same great apostle, " I have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God." Of course our appeal on this, as on every other theme connected with revealed religion, must be " to the law and the testimony." If men apeak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Merely '• iman speculation as to what it is right and proper for G. o do with the impenitent here- after, must never be heeded for a single moment. It is the supremacy of God's word, not the supremacy of men's devices and desires, which must ever be recognized. To «alm and careful reasoning from Holy Scripture we are bound to give the deepest attention : to everything else we are at liberty to demur. Our business in this inquiry concerning future punishment is only with " what is written m the Scripture of truth." We are shut up to one question, and only one : What saith the Lord? It is the duty of every man to whom the Word of God comes, to ascertain the truth which it teaches, and to maintain that truth at all hazard. Indeed, the Book itself requires us to " prove all things, and hold fast that which is good ;" while its own testimony concerning every one of its statements is this, "All Scripture is given by iuspiratiou of God, and is profit- able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." FUTUnE PUXISIIMENT. Let me invito yoii then, dear hearers, to examine with alF candor and reverence tlio Koloran declarations of sacred Scripture re.i(arding t!ie future state of the impenitent. My own aim will be to present the truth in its phiiu and simple teachinj.TS, and with such feelings of tenderness as the awful subject demands ; a.nd my prayer for other.s is, that the dis- cussion may awaken in their breasts neither resentment against God, nor resistance to his testimony, but a true repentance untj life, and a timely lleeirg from the v/rath to come. You are avrare that two diftViv^nt theories are advanced by those who deny the doctrine of '• everlasting punishment," as held by (;van,ivclical Christians. The ore theory is- that of the restorationists, Avho maintain that after cin-tain suffer- ings hereafter, the wicked are in some unoxjjlained way to be restored to tlie favor and enjoyment of C!od in ]ioave!i. This is the view which is creating some little stir inCi'ciit 'Dritaiu at the present day, and whicli is advanced by certain semi- philosophical and 'semi-po?tical dreamers, Avitli whom the wish is father to the thought, that someliosv " CJood will be the final goal of ill." Tl;o other theory is that of the "destruction istv, who nlso- allow that there will be c-rtain sufferings herenfter ; but as the result of these, the wicked vrill bo annihibited, or blotted out of being. Both of those theories wo regard as utterly un scriptural, and we hope to prove them ^ so ; although our present examination will be chiefly confined to the latter of the two. Proceeding then to a careful in- duction of t^cripturo testimony, we regard the Bible as teaching I. That the FL'TirRR state of the unsaved will be ONE OF MISERY AND suFFEUiNfJ. In our text, it is called " punishment " by the Faithful and True Witness. " These shall go away into everlasting punishjiienf." Now the Greek word 'f'/i'o^wwiw*; here translated "punishment," is found in the original in only one other passage in the New Testament, (1 John iv. 18,) and is there rendered " torment :" " Fear (1 • The cognate verb is also found in two passa.sjes in the original, Acts iv. 21, 2 Peter ii. 9, in both of which an Eughah reader will readily gather that its meaning is, to c/iadUc, to jfiaiiili. FUTURE PUNISHMENT. hath toniicut ;" that is, droad of God bruigs conscious, pain- ful suffering to every mind that experiences it. Accordingly, since the word is transhxted " torment " in the one passage, and can have no other meaning, it might with equal propri- ety and force have been translated " torment " in our text. Indeed, tliat this is the only correct meaning of the word may be further seen from the 41st verse of this chapter frfxu which the text is taken, uhere we learn that the *' everlasting punishment " into ^\■hich the unsaved go away is " everlasting lire prejiared for the devil and his angels." Surely that is torment ; tliat is tlie very place where accord- ing to the 20th chapter of Revelation, they " shall be tor- mented day and night forever and over." So that if the Avords of the Bible are to be taken in their plain and natural sense, it seems clear that the future state of the impenitent is to bo one of pain and suffering, of wretchedness and misery. In the Epistle to the Romans (chap. ii. 8, 9) we read that " indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish," will be the portion of " every soul of inan that doeth evil." Would any one be bold enough to deny that " indigntition and wrath " necessarily involve the idea of conscious misery 1 Think, moreover, of the words of Jesus, recorded no fewer thaii seven times in the Gospels : " There shall be weeping .and gnashing of teeth ;" " There shall be wailing and gnash- ing of teeth." Could language be found to prove more con- clusively that the sufferings of the lost are to be intense iu their character ? Add to all this mass of Scripture testimony, the representations which are foimd scattered throughout the New Testament of a " lake of fire," " a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," a place " where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched ;" and it must appear to .any one not warped by prejudice, that whatever these physical representations may mean, they plainly teach that the suffer- ings of the unsaved will be at once conscious and severe. That there will be degrees of punishment hereafter just aa there are degrees of guilt here, is readily admitted. Stripes, few or many, according to desert, is what the Saviour teaches (Luke xii. 47). The same measure of punishment will not oc mocCci out- t-o ail. a- rem xjUkc x. xu, anci .^.Txatt. x, xu, wg learn that it will be " more tolerable " for some than for "Othera in the day of judgment. The sentences may probably 6 FUTURE PUNISHMENT. range from little else than the blank negation of blessedness- on to the uttermost intensity of woe. In proportion to privileges, and opportunities, and advantages, will be th» awarded punishment. Those who had for guidance the law written on the human heart, and nothing moi'e, will be held answerable for nothing more ; while those who have had in addition the law written in the Holy Scripture, will be judged according to Holy Scripture. If, like the inhabitants of Sidon, men have seen only the ordinary works of God, for ordinary privileges will they be held responsible ; but if, like the inhabitants of Chorazin and Bethsaida, they have wit- nessed marvels of grace and miracles of mercy, for extra- ordinary privileges they will be held responsible. In every individual case there will either be mitigation or aggrava- tion : the aggravation according to what a man hath ; the mitigation according to what he hath not. Plain and pal- pable will be the proof that there is no unrighteousness with God, and that " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." This, then, is our first position, that the sacred writers invariably speak of future punishment in terms which sug- gest the idea of suffering, or pain, or misery. Did time per- mit, I might refer to other expressions emi)loyed, such as "woe," "wrath to come," "shame and everlasting contempt." Whatever may be the language used, whatever may be the representation given, fa^ure punishment is always something that may he/elt. The whole tenor of the teaching is incon- sistent with the notion of annihilation. In short, we are driven to adopt one or other of two alternatives : — either the words of the Bible descriptive of the future state of the ungodly are to be undei-stood in their plain and common acceptation, or else the Book sorely deceives, when it threiitens the impenitent with a doom of which they will never be conscious. Which of these alternatives shall we accept 1 Need I ask the question 1 Must not every sincere inquirer say : " Let God be true, but every man " speaking in opposition to him, "a liar." And oh ! dear friends, who- , ever rebels, be you obedient to the truth. Whoever ignores or quebtiona, whoever cavils at, or explains away the testi- mony of Jesus Christ, be you ever found in diligent and dercmt attention at his feet. FUTURE PUNISHMENT. But the Bible teaches 11. — That the future state of the unsaved will be ONE OF endless MISERY AND SUFFERING. In OUr text, tWO different words ai"e employed to teach the duration of the two different destinies. "These shall go away into everlast- ing punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." "Ever- lasting " and " Eternal " are the two words in our English New Testament ; but in the original Greek the two clauses have one and the self-same word. In both membei-s of the text it is found in the same form , ->nd with precisely the same accompaniments. This verse alone, therefore, ought to put the question beyond the range of fair discussion. If the wicked may look forward to a close of their " everlast- ing " misery, then the righteous, on the same principle, may expect the close of their " eternal " life. As it will l)e with the one in duration, so will it be with the other. Indeed, |^ hesitate not to affirm, that not one single instance can be found in the Greek New Testament, where the word (aionios) expresses any other idea than that of endless duration. It occurs no fewer than seventy-one times in the original, and a careful collocation of all the passages will show that it is used foity-two times of the life which God fourteen times of salvation and three times of dura I ion as measured by the ages of a past eternity, twice of Jesus Christ as the " Eternal Life ;" once of the " Everlasting God ;" once of the " Eternal Spirit ;" and once of the " i)Ower everlasting " ascribed to the blessed and only Potentate. There remain seven other .solemn passages in which the word is used of future woe : — twice (Matt, xviii. 8 : xxv, 41), of "everlasting lire," as the portion of the wickeJ, both angels and men ; once, in om' text, of " everlasting punishment ;" once (2 Thess. i. 9,) of " everlasting destruction ;" once (Heb. vi. 2,) of " eternal judgment ;" once (Mark iii. 29,) of " eternal damnation ;" and once (Jude 7,) of that '-vengeance of eternal fire," which fell on the doomed inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha, Is not the conclusion irresistible that the future felicity of the righteous and the future misery of the wicked are alike and absolutely endless t vvuuii wo rciux in tiiu ^-itiw iC3i«.iijcii-., that the " life," and the " habitations," and the "glory," and the "inheritance" and the "kingdom," and the "salvation," gives through Jesus Christ its issue « FUTURE PUNISHMENT. Mi Ui of God's cliiklren are all represented as " everlasting," we never for a moment dream tliat the happiness of heaven will be insecure, that the laurel will ever be withered or the harp imstrung in that better land. And if the veiy same term, (a word which is confessedly the strongest afforded by the Greek language,) is employed to indicate the condition •of the tmsaved after the resurrection and the judgment, on what princi2)lo of either sound inter] )retation or common sense, can wo conclude that there will b(? any change of their state or limit to their punishment 1 I take it that the teach- ing of our text alone retjuires me to warn men to " flee from the wrath to come," on the ground that the threatened wrath v.'ill be both intense in its chai'acter and endless in its duration. But we do not build onr belief on merely one isolated passage of God's word. To the same conclusion the repeated testimony of Scripture invariably leads. Is the condition of the lost hereafter represented as " darkness," a figure which Is always employed in the JJible to indicate a <.'on that teaches tlie eternity of God's glory, and the endlessness of Christ's throne, and the per- petuity of the saints' reign, confessedly the strongest em- ployed in Scripture to designate duration { Then by the same phrase, "for ever and evei*,"* is the endlessness of future torment rei)resented. Surely every one must see that ', "woe" upon J udas, and adds : *' good were it for that man if he had never been born." Would not those woi'ds be nirauinglcss, if they did not teach that to the " woe " or ])unishment of ti;e 1:^ trayer, there can come no ultimate relief. Sujtpose sufTcv^^g as severe as you will, l)ut admit that there is .i point somewhere in the dis- tant future, Avhere it is to terminate, then as there would still be an eternity beyond that free from suHering, it could not be said of any individual, tliat it Avould be good for him if he had never been liorji. If Judas is to be blotted out of existerce, it would then be tiie same with him as if he never had bc(ni bom. But the thing is beyond a doult : JuduH will never cease to suifer ; for tliM Saviour's solemn saying continues imcancelled, " good were it for that maa if ho had never been born." From another ])oint of view also, we may look at tho furnishes fearful corroboration of the moral,orriitlier immoral, tendency of the dogma. "]My abode will soon bo in annihila- tion," said Daiiton, one of the chief actors in that terrible tragedy. iStecled and stupitied by the thought, he condemned hundreds to the giilUotiiie wicliout one pang of remorse, " Death is an eternal sleep," tliey said in those m\ys, and so they pursue.l their plunderings, and debauclierie.;, and mas- sacres v.'ith infernal glee. Can we wonder at it i Did not tho system produc- its legi timate residts 'i Tho Haviour has given n's the test by v.diich^ idl false teachers and their doctrines are to bo tried : " V>y their fruits ye shall know them." jMaterialistic and even sonsual in its tendencies — we might well exjjnct that this belief would in ja-ocess of time, degiado men to the level of the beasts whoso destinies they claim. lUit we have aln^jidy spukcn too long. If you haA'o fol- lowed our examination of the Word, you can only come to the conclusion, that when the wicked are driven away in their wickednesss, they enter a eondilion of conscious suiler- ing and of endless woe. l\im of God strove to pluck them as " brands from the burning," but they refused their heb* nnd rushed on to ruin. As wo think of what that ruin is, as w(! know these " terrors of tho I-ord," wo would persuado sinners to "flee from tho wrath to come." We would point them to the Laud) of (tod, and ]iress for serious and saving solution the unauswereil and unanswerable question : " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation i" We >vould remind them of that other awfid question proposed to tho impenitent by the lowly and loving One of Nazureth him- self : " How can yo ewcapo the damnation of hell i" Oh, if tho deep, dark gulf of despair have any terrors, remember u FUTUllK PUNISHMENT. that Christ died to save from it ; and that none shall here- ''th^c?Tife.' "r^^^^-^--': except as they refuaetht ligbt of life. Men raay speculate as they please, but sin 18 an infinite evil, and demands either an infinite satisfactiou or an nfinite punishment. That could be no light doom which the sacrifice of God's only-begotten Son alone could save W P T ""'Pn \' *'""^ '^' ^^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ied to save fiom. Ponder ^e 1, dear unsaved hearers, these words of the Saviour :-" ever asting punishment,"'' eternal damna. i wiK^^'"^ '^*''"'; "!"^q^'enchable fire." They breathe !/.!?i .if^!u '"^ ^""^ P°'"^ ^"^ "■ tremendous reality. They +W 1 1 ^f^^^^'h o" tb« Son hath everlasting life : and he that beheveth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath lL/' '^^''^ °" l^im;"-Mark the huiguage '' uMdTll ' ' While life, or thought, or being lasts. Or immortality endures." Imtffo^ lead us all to "Jesus, who delivereth from the wrath to come. — Amen. ~^&^^-3'— 3re- the sin ioa om Llld to i*ds Qa- ihe ley no. he Lth on he