Love unceasingly pleads and prays for the cessation, as soon as possible, of all the unutterable wretchedness in the wide domains of GOD. Enough is it for the good to know so much: and humbly must they wait "in hope"1 for that consummation, the greatest, and the last, of all the creaturely consummations. For, by that consummation, "the whole creation," which, so visibly and pitifully, "groaneth and "travaileth in pain together until now," shall, finally, "be "delivered from the bondage of corruption." "Then the end:"4 and "GOD" shall be "all in all."5 In fine, § 12. But though no one can tell, in a positive way, or dogmatically, how the misery is to come to its end; one may surmise how the misery will end. The misery will end: But very likely not by the ceasing to be of the evil, or (to give the proper term) the wickedness, abstractly taken-the cause of all the misery. For, no way of ending evil is patent, or even comprehensible, so long as the wicked themselves remain. The tree must first be made good before the fruit. It seems, indeed, a moral proposition as certain as any in metaphysical science, or mathematical, that the wicked will not cease from troubling even in hell: (whatever they may be compelled to be, or not to do, in the grave.) But, at all events, the wickedness, and its effect, the misery, might be made to cease to be, by an Almighty fiat, commanding the wickedness, with its subject, to cease to be,a That Power which called all men into being can cause men to be no more:a could cause all the things of Time itself to be no longer, and that in the very fullest of senses. The ques tion is solely about the exercise of the ability. The annihilation of the wicked in hell is quite possible to the Creator.at Some of the Attributes demand it: None say, Nay; the wickedness, and the misery,-multiplied into each other, and increasing in more than any geometrical ratio,—must last for ever. The final annihilation, therefore, is possible: And possible, it is certain. § 13. Thus, the final annihilation of the wicked, is a doctrine from which there is no escaping. It is a doctrine of reason, and it is, therefore, in perfect accord with the reasonings of the Argument, a priori. § 14. Not the philosophically-sounding annihilation, however, but the morally-characteristic "destruction," is the Scriptural expression, to denote the awful utter close of the career of wicked men. I do not seek to found any statement, in a demonstrative work, upon the testimony of a Bible-writer, or upon any authority whatsoever: but as I am here but surmising, and not laying down the law apodictically,b writers in the Bible are entitled to be heard, as well as, and as much as, any author could be; even taking that low ground wherefrom the authors of the books in The Book are viewed as purely human authorities. "Destruction," I repeat, is the ordinary Scriptural expression, though, occasionally, we meet with the idea in even stronger words or phrases; such as, "everlasting destruction "from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his "power." Everlasting destruction, indeed, just because "from "the presence of the Lord," the " express image" of the person (UTOOTάσEWS)2 of Him "who only" "hath Life in Himself," the sole source of life to all the creatures. || a Lemma II. 1 2 Thess. i. 9. b See above, § 12. 2 Heb. i. 3. 3 1 Timothy vi. 16. 4 John v. 26. NOTES TO DIVISION III. NOTE TO PROPOSITION I. NOTE TO SCHOLIUM AFTER SUB-PROPOSITION. It is not from inadvertence that I am here silent on the subject of specific etymological authorities. See the third note in the "Advertisement to the Fourth [or Russel] Edition" of "The Necessary Existence of God." NOTES TO PROPOSITION II. NOTE TO PROLEGOMENON II. The two meanings of our one English word, True; alleged as it is to be of Anglo-Saxon, and even Gothic descent;† are preserved, because distinguished, in the Latin adjectives, Verus and Verax. A Scottish Dissenting Divine, who is characterized by a much more than ordinary measure of good sense, has many excellent things to say, in his account of the Attributes. In one of his prelections on the "Doctrines of Theology," he has a Lecture "On God: His Truth and Faithfulness." The Divine in question commences his prelection in the following manner: "I proceed now to consider the truth and faithfulness of God. When we call him the true God, we distinguish him from those to whom this designation has been improperly given, and affirm, that he has not only the name, but the nature and perfections of God. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, but our God is in the heavens.' When we call him the God of truth, our design is not to assert his Divinity, but to illustrate his character; and we declare that an undeviating regard to truth marks all his communications to mankind," &c. Thus the Rev. Dr John Dick, Professor of Theology to the United Secession Church, in Lecture XXVI. It may be mentioned, once for all, that, in quoting from this † See "Examination" of Antitheos: Part V. Sect. 22, 23, 24. |