Our future state in the unseen world of eternity depends (continued)
Tillotson's Sermon on Philippians 3:20. (See Horbery, volume II, p. 133) I strongly advise readers of this paper to remember this, and to make a good use of their time. Regard it as the stuff of which life is made, and never waste it or throw it away. Your hours and days and weeks and months and years all have something to say to your eternal condition beyond the grave. What you sow in this life on earth you are sure to reap in a life to come. As that holy preacher Richard Baxter says, it is "now or never." Whatever we do in religion must be done now. Remember this in your use of all the means of grace, from the least to the greatest. Never be careless about them. They are given to be your helps toward an eternal world, and not one of them ought to be thoughtlessly treated or lightly and irreverently handled. Your daily prayers and Bible-reading, your weekly behavior on the Lord's day, your manner of going through public worship—everyone of these things are important. Use them all as one who remembers eternity. Keep it foremost in your mind, whenever you are tempted to do evil. When sinners entice you, and say, "It is only a little sin." When Satan whispers in your heart, "Never mind: what is the great harm in it? Everybody does it,"—then look beyond time to a world unseen, and place in the face of the temptation the thought of eternity. There is a great saying by the martyred Reformer, Bishop Hooper, when someone urged him to recant before he was burned, saying, "Life is sweet and death is bitter." "True," said the good Bishop, "quite true! But eternal life is more sweet, and eternal death is more bitter." 4. The last thought which I bring to the attention of my readers is this: The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Friend to whom we must all look to for help, both for now and eternity
The reason why the eternal Son of God came into the world can never be declared too fully, or proclaimed too loudly. He came to give us hope and peace while we live among the "temporary things which are seen," and glory and blessedness when we go to the "eternal things, which are unseen." He came to bring "life and immortality to light," and to "free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death." (2 Timothy 1:10; Hebrews 2:15) He saw our lost and bankrupt condition, and had compassion on us. And now, blessed be His name, a mortal man may pass through "temporary things" with comfort, and look forward to "eternal things" without fear. Our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased these mighty privileges for us at the cost of His own precious blood. He became our Substitute, and bore our sins in His own body on the cross, and then rose again for our justification. "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God." "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us," that we poor sinful creatures might have pardon and justification while we live, and glory and blessedness when we die. (1 Peter 2:24; 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21) And all that our Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for us He offers freely to everyone who will turn from his sins, come to Him, and believe. "I am the light of the world," He says: "whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink." "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away." And the terms are as simple as the offer is free: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." "Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 8:12; Matthew 11:28; John 7:37; 6:37; Acts 16:31; John 3:16) He that has Christ, has life. He can look around at the "temporary things," and see change and decay everywhere and yet have no fear. He has got treasure in heaven, "where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal." He can look forward to the "eternal things," and feel calm and composed. His Saviour has risen, and gone to prepare a place for him. When he leaves this world he will have a crown of glory, and be forever with his Lord. He can look down even into the grave, as the wisest Greeks and Romans could never do, and say, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55) Let us all settle it firmly in our minds that the only way to pass through "what is seen" with comfort, and look forward to "what is unseen" without fear, is to have Christ for our Saviour and Friend, to lay hold of Christ by faith, to become one with Christ and Christ in us, and while we live in the flesh to live the life of faith in the Son of God. (Galatians 2:20) How vast is the difference between the state of him who has faith in Christ, and the state of him who has none! Blessed indeed is that man or woman, who can say, with truth, "I trust in Jesus: I believe." When the Roman Catholic Cardinal Beaufort lay on his deathbed, our mighty poet describes King Henry as saying, "He dies, but gives no sign [of comfort]." When John Knox, the Scotch Reformer, was drawing to his end, and unable to speak, a faithful servant asked him to give some proof that the Gospel he had preached in life gave him comfort in death, by raising his hand. He heard; and raised his hand toward heaven three times, and then departed. I say again, blessed is he that believes! He alone is rich, independent, and beyond the reach of harm. If you and I have no comfort among temporary things, and no hope for the eternal things, then it is completely our own fault. It is because we "refuse to come to Christ to have life." (John 5:40) I leave the subject of eternity here, and pray that God may bless it to many souls. In conclusion, I offer to everyone who reads this volume some food for thought, and material for self-examination. (1) First of all, how are you using your time?
Life is short and very uncertain. You never know what a day may bring forth. Business and pleasure, making money, and spending money, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—all, all will soon be over and done with forever. And you, what are you doing for your immortal soul? Are you wasting time, or using it wisely? Are you preparing to meet God? (2) Secondly, where will you be in eternity? It is coming, coming, coming very fast upon us. You are going, going, going very fast into it. But where will you be—on the right hand or on the left, in the Day of Judgment? Are you among the lost or among the saved? Oh, do not rest; do not rest until your soul is secured! Be prepared: leave nothing uncertain. It is a dreadful thing to die unprepared, and fall into the hands of the living God. (3) Thirdly, do you want to be safe now and in eternity? Then seek Christ, and believe in Him. Come to Him just as you are. Seek Him while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. There is still a throne of grace. It is not too late. Christ waits to be gracious: He invites you to come to Him. Before the door is shut and the judgment begins, repent, believe, and be saved. (4) Lastly, do you want to be happy? Cling to Christ and live the life of faith in Him. Remain in Him and live close to Him. Follow Him with heart and soul and mind and strength, and seek to know Him better every day. By doing so, you will have great peace while you pass through the "temporary things," and in the midst of a dying world you "will never die." (John 11:26) By doing so you will be able to look forward to "eternal things" with unfailing confidence, and to feel and "know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands." (2 Corinthians 5:1)
P. S. Since preaching the above sermon I have read Canon Farrar's volume, "Eternal Hope." I cannot agree with most of what that book contains. Anything that comes from the pen of such a renowned writer of course deserves respectful consideration. But I must honestly confess, after reading "Eternal Hope," that I see no reason to take back anything I have said in my sermon on "Eternity." I have laid down Farrar's volume with regret and dissatisfaction, unconvinced and unshaken in my opinions. I can find nothing new in Canon Farrar's statements. He hardly says anything that has not been said before, and refuted before. To everyone who wishes to fully examine the subject of the reality and eternity of future punishment, I venture to recommend some works which are far less known than they ought to be, and which appear to me far sounder, and more Scriptural, than "Eternal Hope." These are "Horbery's Enquiry into the Scripture Doctrine of the Duration of Future Punishment," "Girdlestone's Dies Irae," the Revelation C. F. Childe's "Unsafe Anchor," and the Revelation Flavel Cook's "Righteous Judgment." "Bishop Pearson on the Creed," under the head "Resurrection," and "Hodge's Systematic Theology," vol. 3, p. 868. The plain truth is, that there are vast difficulties bound up with the subject of the future state of the wicked, which Canon Farrar seems to me to leave untouched. The amazing mercifulness of God, and the awfulness of supposing that many around us will be lost eternally, he has handled fully and with characteristic rhetoric. No doubt the compassions of God are unspeakable. He does not "want anyone to perish." He "wants all men to be saved." His love in sending Christ into the world to die for sinners is an inexhaustible subject. But this is only one side of God's character, as we have it revealed in Scripture. His character and attributes need to be looked at completely. The infinite holiness and justice of an eternal God—His hatred of evil, manifested in Noah's flood and at Sodom, and in the destruction of the seven nations of Canaan—the unspeakable vileness and guilt of sin in God's sight—the wide gulf between natural man and his perfect Maker—the enormous spiritual change which every child of Adam must go through, if he is to dwell forever in God's presence—and the utter absence of any implication in the Bible that this change can take place after death—everyone of these are points which seem to me partly put aside, or left alone, in Canon Farrar's volume. My mind demands satisfaction on these points before I can accept the views advocated in "Eternal Hope," and I fail to find that satisfaction in the book. Origen, a Church Father who lived in the third century after Christ, first formally advocated the position that Canon Farrar has taken up. He boldly broached the opinion that future punishment would be only temporary; but almost all his contemporaries rejected his opinion. Bishop Wordsworth says, "The Fathers of the Church in Origen's time and in the following centuries, among whom were many to whom the original language of the New Testament was their mother tongue, and who could not be misled by translations, minutely examined the opinion and statements of Origen and agreed for the most part in rejecting and condemning them. Irenaeus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Basil, Cyril of Alexandria, and others of the Eastern Church, and Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bede, and many more of the Western Church, were unanimous in teaching that the joys of the righteous and the punishments of the wicked will not be temporary, but everlasting." "Nor was this all. The Fifth General Council, held at Constantinople under the Emperor Justinian, in 553, AD examined the tenets of Origen, and passed a synodical decree condemning of them. And for a thousand years after that time there was an unanimous acceptance in Christendom with the condemnation." (Bishop Wordsworth's "Sermons:" p. 34) Let me add to this statement the fact that the eternity of future punishment has been held by almost all the greatest theologians from the time of the Reformation down to the present day. It is a point on which Lutherans, Calvinists, and Arminians, Episcopalians,
Presbyterians, and Independents have always, with a few exceptions, been of one mind. Search the writings of the most eminent and learned Reformers, search the works of the Puritans, search the few literary remains of the men who revived English Christianity in the eighteenth century, and, as a rule, you will always get one harmonious answer. Within the last few years, no doubt, the "noneternity of future punishment" has found several zealous advocates. But up to a comparatively modern date, I unhesitatingly assert that the supporters of Canon Farrar's views have always been an extremely small minority among orthodox Christians. That fact is, at any rate, worth remembering. As to the difficulties surrounding the old or common views of future punishment, I admit their existence, and I do not pretend to explain them. But I always expect to find many mysteries in Christianity, and I do not stumble over them. I see other difficulties in the world, which I cannot solve, and I am content to wait for their solution. What a mighty theologian has called, "The mystery of God, the great mystery in His allowing wickedness and confusion to prevail,"—the origin of evil—the permission of cruelty, oppression, poverty, and disease—the allowance of sickness and death of infants before they know good from evil—the eternal doom of the heathen who never heard the Gospel—the times of ignorance which God had purposely overlooked—the condition of China, India, and Central Africa, for the last 1800 years—all these things are to my mind great knots which I am unable to untie, and depths which I am unable to fathom. But I wait for light, and I have no doubt everything will be made plain. I rest in the thought that I am a poor ignorant mortal, and that God is a Being of infinite wisdom, and is doing everything right. "Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25) It is a wise statement by Butler: "Every thing that appears to be unjust and cruel in the providence of God, will be understood and clarified, if we would keep in mind that every merciful allowance will be made, and no more will be required of anyone, than what might have been expected of him from the circumstances in which he was placed, and not what might have been expected from him had he been placed in other circumstances." ("Analogy," part 2, chap. 6, p. 425, Wilson's edition) It is a great saying of Elihu, in the Book of Job, "The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in His justice and great righteousness, He does not oppress." (Job 37:23) It may be perfectly true that many Roman Catholic theologians, and even some Protestants, have made extravagant and offensive statements about the bodily sufferings of the lost in another world. It may be true that those who believe in eternal punishment have occasionally misunderstood or mistranslated texts, and have pressed figurative language too far. But it is hardly fair to make Christianity responsible for the mistakes of its advocates. It is an old saying that "Christian errors are unbeliever's arguments." Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Milton, Thomas Boston, and Jonathan Edwards were not inspired and infallible, and I decline to be answerable for all they may have written about the physical torments of the lost. But after every allowance, admission, and deduction, there remains, in my humble opinion, a mass of Scriptural evidence in support of the doctrine of eternal punishment, which can never be explained away, and which no revision or new translation of the English Bible will ever overthrow. It is undeniable that there are degrees of misery as well as degrees of glory in the future state, and that the eternal sufferings of some that are lost and will be far worse than that of others. But that the punishment of the wicked will ever have an end, or that length of time alone will change a heart, or that the Holy Spirit continues to work for the salvation of the dead, or that there is any purging, purifying process beyond the grave, by which the wicked, in the fires of hell, will eventually be saved and transferred to heaven, these are positions which I maintain are utterly impossible to prove by Scripture. Rather, there are texts of Scripture which teach an utterly different doctrine. "It is surprising," says Horbery, "that if hell is such a state of purification, that it should always be represented in Scripture as a place of punishment." (Vol. 2, p. 223) "Nothing" says Girdlestone, "but clear statements of Scripture could justify us in believing, or preaching to ungodly men, the doctrine of repentance after death; and not one clear statement on this subject is to be found." ("Dies Irae," p. 269) Once we begin to invent doctrines, which we cannot prove by the Bible, or refuse the evidence of texts in Scripture because they lead us to conclusions we do not like, then we may as well throw away our Bibles. The favorite argument of some, that no religious doctrine can be true which is rejected by the "common opinion" and popular feeling of mankind—that any texts which contradict this common popular feeling must be wrongly interpreted—and that, therefore, eternal punishment cannot be true, because the inward feeling of the multitude revolts against it—this argument appears to me most dangerous and unsound. It is dangerous, because it strikes a direct blow at the authority of Scripture as the only rule of faith. What good is the Bible, if the "common opinion" of mortal man carries more weight than the declarations of God's Word? It is unsound, because it ignores the great fundamental principle of Christianity—that man is a fallen creature, with a corrupt heart and understanding, and that in spiritual things his judgment is worthless. There is a veil over our hearts, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him." (1 Corinthians 2:14) To say, in the face of such a text, that any doctrine, which the majority of men dislike, such as eternal punishment, must therefore be untrue, is simply absurd! The "common opinion" is more likely to be wrong than right! After all, there is great doubt as to what the "common feeling" or opinion of the majority of mankind is when it comes to the duration of future punishment. Of course we have no means of ascertaining it: and it would signify little either way. In such a matter the only point is, what does the Scripture say? But I have a strong suspicion, if the world could be polled, that we would find that the majority of mankind believed in eternal punishment! There is little dispute about the opinion of the Greeks and Romans on eternal punishment. If anything is clearly taught in the stories of their mythology it is the endless nature of the sufferings of the wicked. Butler says, "Gentile writers, both moralist and poetic, speak of the future punishment of the wicked, both as to duration and degree, in a like manner of expression and description as the Scripture does." ("Analogy," part 1, chap. 2, p. 218) The strange and weird legends of Tantalus, Sisyphus, Ixion, Prometheus, and the Danaides, all have one common feature about them—in each case the punishment is eternal! This is a fact worth noticing. Therefore, the opponents of eternal punishment should not talk too confidently about the "common opinion of mankind." As to the doctrine of the Annihilation of the Wicked, to which many adhere, it appears to me so utterly irreconcilable with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "those who have done evil [rise] to be condemned," and "the worm does not die, and the fire that is not quenched," and also Paul's words about "the resurrection of the wicked" (John 5:29; Mark 9:43-48; Acts 24:15). Until those words can be removed from the pages of inspired Scripture it seems to me a mere waste of time to argue about it. The favorite argument of the advocates of this doctrine, that "death, dying, perishing, destruction," and the like, are phrases which can only mean "cessation of existence," is so ridiculously weak that it is scarcely worth noticing. Every Bible reader knows that God said to Adam, concerning the forbidden fruit, "When you eat of it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:17) But every Christian knows that Adam did not "cease to exist," when he broke the commandment. He died spiritually, but he did not cease to exist! Peter also says of the flood: "By these waters the world of that time was deluged and destroyed." (2 Peter 3:6) Yet, though temporarily drowned, it certainly did not cease to be; and when the water was dried up Noah lived on the earth again. It only remains for me now to add one last word, by way of information. Those who care to investigate the meaning of the words "eternal" and "everlasting," as used in Scripture, will find the subject fully and exhaustively considered in Girdlestone's "Old Testament
Synonyms," chap. 30, p. 495; and in the same writer's "Dies Irae," chap. 10 and 11, p. 128.
"O Saviour, what a precedent is this of Thy free and powerful grace! Where Thou wilt give, what unworthiness can bar us from Thy mercy? When Thou wilt give, what time can prejudice our vocation? Who can despair of Thy goodness, when he, that in the morning was posting to hell, is in the evening with Thee in paradise? "—BISHOP HALL. ÷[2] "He that puts off his repentance and seeking for pardon to the very last, in reliance upon this example, does but tempt God, and turn that to his own poison, which God intended for better ends."The mercies of God are never recorded in Scripture for man's presumption, and the failings of men never for imitation."— LIGHTFOOT. Sermon. 1684."Most ungrateful and foolish is the conduct of those who take encouragement from the penitent thief to put off repentance to a dying moment;—most ungrateful in perverting the grace of their Redeemer into an occasion of renewing their provocations against Him;—and most foolish to imagine that what our Lord did in so singular circumstances, is to be drawn into an ordinary precedent.'—DODDRIDGE. ÷[3] "I know not that since the creation of the world there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith."—CALVIN'S COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPELS."A great faith that can see the sun under so thick a cloud; that can discover a Christ, a Saviour, under such a poor, scorned, despised, crucified Jesus, and call Him Lord."A great faith that could see Christ's kingdom through His cross, and grave, and death, and when there was so little sign of a kingdom, and pray to be remembered in that kingdom."LIGHTFOOTSermon. 1684."The penitent thief was the first confessor of Christ's heavenly kingdom,—the first martyr who bore testimony to the holiness of His sufferings,—and the first apologist for His oppressed innocence."—QUESNEL ON THE GOSPELS."Probably there are few saints in glory who ever honoured Christ more illustriously than this dying sinner."—DODDRIDGE."Is this the voice of a thief or a disciple? Give me leave, O Saviour, to borrow Thine own words, 'Verily I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel.' He saw Thee hanging miserably by him, and yet styles Thee Lord. He saw Thee dying, and yet talks of Thy kingdom. He felt himself dying, yet talks of a future remembrance. O faith, stronger than death, which can look beyond the cross at a crown;—beyond dissolution at a remembrance of life and glory! Which of Thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to Thee in these Thy last pangs? "—BISHOP HALL. ÷[4] "We ought not to enter into curious and subtle arguments about the place of paradise. Let us rest satisfied with knowing that those who are engrafted by faith into the body of Christ are partakers of life, and there enjoy after death a blessed and joyful rest, until the perfect glory of the heavenly life is fully manifested by the coming of Christ."—CALVIN'S COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPELS. ÷[5] "We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world."— CHURCH OF ENGLAND BURIAL SERVICE."I have some of the best news to impart. One beloved by you has accomplished her warfare; has received an answer to her prayers, and everlasting joy rests upon her head. My dear wife, the source of my best earthly comfort for twenty years, departed on Tuesday."—VENN'S TO LETTER STILLINGFLEET, announcing the death of his wife.