MISSION OF THE TWELVE. REESE LIBRARY (UNIVERSITY] 149 repeat it; fear ye him. He that preserves his life shall lose it; but he that loses his life for my sake, shall find it. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet neither of them falls to the ground without your Father; nor is one of them forgotten before God. Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows; for the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Think not that my coming, shall bring peace on the earth; Nay rather division and the sword. My coming will produce fire on earth, and what though it be already and weep forever." Also in Ecclesiasticus, 7. 16: "Number not thyself among the multitude of sinners, for the vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms. In this sense also does Mark use the same phraseology, chap. 9. 45-48. 99 Kimchi on Psalm 27. 13, says Gehenna was a despised place, in which there was kept a perpetual fire, to burn the filth and dead bodies, which were thrown into it, and therefore it was called, parabolically, the punishment or Gehenna of the wicked.” All the learned admit that the Pharisees held a two fold sense of scripture, a literal and hidden, to the latter they gave the preference. Now the hidden sense of Gehenna was Hellfire. Thus Arias Montanus, de Arcano Sermone, affirms that "the name Gehenna, was transferred from a valley, infamous on account of its detestable sacrifices and pollutions, and perpetually used to denote Hell, or the lowest department of the damned; and hence always called Gehenna, or the Gehenna of fire." Agreeably to this view of the term, P. Eliezer asserts all the uncircumcised descend into Gehenna. Whitby, Acts 15. 1. See Nothing more need be said in confirmation of my first proposition. We only ask if such were the opinions of the Jews and our Lord's hearers can any man read Matt. 10. 28, and Luke 12. 4, 5, and imagine any other alternative, than that either Christ sanctions the doctrine of Gehenna or violates the end of his divine mission ? What other way could our Lord have conveyed his meaning and the knowledge of things future and unseen, but by comparing the things that are seen with things invisible. It is no reduction to the force of this reasoning, to say that the apostles did not use the term Gehenna in addressing the Gentiles. Why should they use a Hebrew term when the Greek Tartarus signifies the same thing? Indeed Gehenna, Hades, and Tartarus when spoken in relation to the wicked mean uniformly Hell, in the modern sense. 2. The second proposition, that all who are consigned to Gehenna, perish eternally soul and body, is capable of the most indubitable evidence from reason, philosophy and scripture. 1. Men are not naturally immortal, as many have fondly imagined. kindled; for I have a baptism to be endured and how am I distressed till it be accomplished. Henceforth, if there be five in one family, three shall be divided against two, and two against three. The Son shall be divided from the father and the daughter from the mother, and the daughter in law from her mother in law ; and a man's enemies will be they of his own family. He who loves father or mother more than me, is unworthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Physiologists have, of late years, completely exploded the old doctrine of the soul's immortality, see my Essay on Man. The scriptures completely disavow the notion, and assure us, that in Adam all die: and that God alone has immortality. 2. The benefits of Christ's mediation are confined to believers. "I am the life, he that believes on me shall never die-He that believes not in the Son, shall not see life. He that has not the Son has not life. When the apostle says, in Christ shall all men be made alive, he immediately limits the word, all, by saying: They that are Christ's at his coming. 3. The wicked are threatened with_everlasting destruction. 2 Thess. 1. 9. Heb. 6. 8, and 10. 39. In the text Jesus plainly distinguishes the death of the body and the second death of soul and body, in a Hell of fire. The Psalmist says, the wicked shall be turned into Hell-They shall perish like beasts, and never see light, od naizach, to eternity. Ps. 9. 27, and 49. 20. Compare Job 4. 20; Is. 34. 10, and 63. 6. The demons dreaded this destruction, which they knew awaited them. Matt. 8. 29; and 25. 41. 4. The word resurrection, implying a return from the dead to immortal felicity, was never predicated of any but the virtuous and pious, by any rational and enlightened heathens, Jews, or Christians. Josephus says, Wars, B. 2, C. 8, the Pharisees held that the souls of the wicked were not permitted to return into another body. Virgil describing Hell, according to the doctrine of Pythagoras and Plato, sets forth the situation of some to be so obdurately wretched, as no power of men or God's could relieve. These were consigned to Tartarus. Hence even Plato, who held a general restoration, did not admit its universality. See the notes of Davidson and the edition of the Delphini Virgil on Æneid. 6. 553, and Whitby's discourse, at the end of the second epistle to the Thessalonians. The famous Jewish writers, Maimonides and Abarbanel, held that the most wicked would be annihilated. Jesus approbates this doctrine of a limited resurrection, Luke 20. 35. Isaiah, chap. 26. 14, 19, distinguishes the dead that shall not live, from the righteous that shall obtain a resurrection. That doctrine therefore, which assumes that all will be changed in a glorious resurrection, is founded on a mis me, is unworthy of me; and he who will not take up his cross and follow me, is unworthy of me. He who receives you, receives me, and he that receives me, receives him that sent me. He that rejects you, rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects him that sent me. He who receives a prophet, because he is a prophet, shall obtain a prophet's reward: and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man, will obtain a righteous man's reward; and whosoever will give one of these lowly disciples, a cup of cold water to drink, because he is my disciple, verily I assure you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. 3 And when Jesus had finished his instruction to the twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and preach in the cities. And they, likewise, departing went through the villages, preaching the glad tidings, expel. ling the demons, performing many cures, and healing many that were sick, anointing them with oil. construction of a doubtful reading of a single passage; 1 Cor. 15. 51, of which there are three different readings. The Cambridge MS. Vulgate, and most of the Latin Fathers read: "We shall all rise but we shall not all be changed." This is agreeable to the general analogy of scripture and ancient opinion; and implies that all will appear before the judgment, but the wicked and unbeliever, not being changed, shall be cast into the Gehenna of fire, and perish everlastingly with the Devil and his angels, whose cause and portion they have chosen. 5. As the holy scriptures so uniformly distinguish men into two classes, one of which shall see God, and have everlasting life; the other shall not see life, but perish like the beast, I must believe, that all who are not divinely changed and united to Jesus, must perish. And therefore there remains no alternative, but to embrace the doctrine of the utter destruction of one class, and the eternal salvation of the other, or reject revelation altogether. SECTION THIRTY-FOURTH. BLASPHEMY OF THE PHArisees. Then was brought to him a demoniac, blind and dumb, and he healed him, so that the man who had been blind and dumb, could speak and see. And all the multitude was amazed, and said: Is not this the Son of David? But when the Pharisees heard, they said: This man is confederate with Beelzebub, and expels demons by the prince of demons.* But Jesus knowing their thoughts, called them, and addressed them in parables, because they said, he has an unclean spirit. Every kingdom divided against itself must come to desolation, and no city or family, divided against itself, can subsist. If Satan rising against himself, expel Satan, how shall his kingdom stand. You say 1 cast out demons by Beelzebub; but if I expel demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons expel them? Therefore by their judgment, ye shall be condemned. But if I expel demons by the Spirit of God, then, doubtless, the reign of God is come nigh to you. How else can a man enter the house of a strong man armed and spoil his goods, but by overcoming him, taking his armour, in which he trusted, and binding him: then he may seize his goods. He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathers not with me, scatters abroad. Wherefore, I assure you, every kind of sin and blasphemy *Beelzebub and Satan are here identified, as the leader or chief of demons. Some would have us believe there is no such being as Satan, prince of devils; but the evidence of the testimony for his personality and injurious agency in the world, is of the same nature, as that for the being and government of God. The existence of neither God nor Satan is proved, but taken for granted in the holy scriptures; and he who would reject the doctrine of Satan and Hell from the New Testament, can with equal easy and parity of reason, show that the scriptures neither teach the existence of God nor the felicity of heaven. The government and providence of God, the enmity and temptation of Satan, the immortal joys of the holy, and indiscribable torment and destruction of the wicked in Hell, are doctrines that have equal foundation in the christian religion, and will be acknowledged, in despite of all the efforts of infidels, while the world stands and the Bible retains the confidence of mankind. Our Lord refutes the charge of co-operation with Satan, by the absurdity of the supposition, that a being of so great enmity and subtilty should act in opposition to his own kingdom and interest. The sin against the Holy Spirit, was the wicked ascription of our Lord's miracles to the agency of Satan. This was the blasphemy which shall never be forgiven, but must be punished with eternal destruction. Do not deists and jews, and infidels commit this sin shall be more easily forgiven the sons of men, than the blasphemy of the holy spirit. Whosoever defames the Son of man, may be forgiven; but whosoever defames the holy spirit, shall never be forgiven, either in this dispensation, nor in that coming; but is held a bond slave of abiding sin: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or the tree bad, and its fruit also bad for a tree is known by its fruits. A brood of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things; for the mouth speaks from the abundance of the heart. But I assure you, of every injurious word that men shall utter, they shall give an account, in a day of judgment: for by your words, ye shall be acquitted, and by them ye shall be condemned. daily? Grotius and Lightfoot say, the Jews believed in the happiness of all Abraham's seed, and therefore thought, that if some sins were not forgiven in this life, they might be expiated after death. Hence our Lord informs them, there will be no forgiveness for the blasphemy of the spirit in this life nor after death. SECTION THIRTY-FIFTH. ARRIVAL OF CHRIST'S BRETHREN. Whilst he said these things, a woman in midst of the crowd, raising her voice, cried to him: Blessed the womb which bear thee, and the breasts which suckled thee. Rather say, replied he, Happy they who hear the word of God and obey it. And as he thus spake, behold his mother and brethren arrived, but could not come near him; for the multitude sat about him; and standing without, they sent to call him, being desirous of speaking with him. Then one said to him: Behold thy mother, thy brethren, and thy sisters, are standing without, desiring to see thee. But he answered: Who are my mother and my brethren? And looking around on his disciples and them who sat about him, he said: Behold my mother and |