DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED.
MATT. x, 28. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The word translated kill, apokteino, from apo intensive, and kteino, to kill, implies cruelty and violence, equal to murder; apolesai, to destroy, in the sense of putting out of existence; body is sometimes used in the sense of being, and psuche, is often translated life. Gehenna means the valley of Hinnom. So the text will bear this translation—"Fear not those who are only able to murder the body, but are not able to destroy the life, or being; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both life and being in the valley of Hinnom." See James iv, 12. "There is one law-giver who is able to save and to destroy." The parallel place in Luke xii, 4, reads, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into Gehenna; yea, I say unto you, fear him." The almost universal belief of the different sects throughout Christendom, is, that there is now existing somewhere, a lake burning with fire and brimstone; or a hell into which the souls of all the wicked, separated from their bodies, are plunged at death, and that they are tormented in this place, before the general judgment. That prior to the general judgment, these souls are again "re-united" to their bodies, which bodies, some affirm, are then made as immortal as the ghosts, and thus appear before the tribunal of judgment to receive their final doom; whence they are remanded back again to their old place of torment, to writhe in the most intense misery, without any intermission, for ever and ever. Thus representing that many of these criminals are punished thousands of years before they are judged! Of course, some of the sects will vary a little respecting the details, but this embraces the general features of what is usually taught by "the orthodox!!!" Well might Mr. Dobney exclaim, "Tremendous orthodoxy this, my brethren!" These relics of paganism, papacy, and purgatory, are still taught, in this nineteenth century, as the veritable teachings of the book of God; and supposed to be necessary to induce men to refrain from vice, to love God, and to enter into sectarian churches. It is to be feared that there are not a few, who—though convinced that these things are fables—for the love of popularity, and perhaps by the more sordid love of gain, do not lift up their voices in execration against such infamous blasphemy against a God of love, and justice!! In exposing these human traditions, we shall take up the subject as follows: First. Describe the different kinds of hell believed in by men. Second. Show the nature of the hell of the Bible. Third. Prove from the Bible what will be the final destiny of the wicked. Most nations believe that hell, as defined by themselves, is already in existence, and there are five hells that have obtained a prominence: (1) The Pagan hell; (2) The Mahomedan hell; (3) The Roman Catholic hell; (4) The Protestant hell; and (5) The proper hell of the Bible. We proceed to describe— The Pagan hell is usually described as a wide, dark cave under ground. The entrance to it is down a steep and rocky descent. Then a gloomy grove. After that a lake called Avernus, from which such poisonous vapors arise, that if a bird fly over it, it is poisoned and dies. Beyond the grove and lake, at the entrance of hell, several monsters are placed, who bring men to death and destruction. These are said to increase the inhabitants of hell. Their names are, Care, Sorrow, Disease, Old Age, Frights, Famines, Wants, Labor, Sleep, Death, Sting of Conscience, Force, Fraud, Strife, and Fear. At the side of the lake an old man named Charon, or the Ferry Man, stands in his boat to carry the souls across the lake. On the shore the souls appear in flocks, and those whose bodies were buried, go over the lake when their bodies die; the others wander about the shore a hundred years, and then are carried over. Charon is considered the god of that dreary place. All the souls pay a small piece of money to Charon for being ferried across the lake. The heathen say, there are four rivers that run through hell. The first is the river Acheron. Acheron, a son of Zera, born in a cave, because he could not endure the light, ran down into hell, and was changed into a river of bitter water. The second river is called Styx; rather a lake than a river. Styx was the fabled daughter of Oceanus, and was changed into the Stygian lake by which the gods swore, and kept their oaths. The third river is called Cocytus, and runs out of the Stygian lake, and groans and laments to imitate the howlings of the damned, and increase their exclamations. The fourth river is called Phlegethon, so called because it swells with waves of fire, and all its streams are flames. All these rivers the souls must pass over and then they arrive at the Palace of Pluto, the god of hell. The gate of Pluto is guarded by Cerebus, a dog with three heads, whose hair is living snakes. He is considered the porter of hell. Saturn gave his son Pluto this infernal dominion, because he invented burying, and funeral mourning. He likewise reigns over death. He sits upon his throne in the dark, holding a key instead of a sceptre. He is crowned with ebony. Pluto, which signifies wealth, is king. The Greeks call him Hades; or gloom, darkness, or melancholy. He was sometimes called Agelatos, because he drives people to the infernal regions; Agelastos, because he refrains from laughter. Summanus, or chief of the infernal deities. (It would appear that the Greeks meant either death or the grave by their word 'hades.') Pluto, it is said, has a queen named Proserpine, who enjoys the infernal regions with him. There are three old women called fates, ordering the past, the present and the future. They fix everything so that nothing can be altered to eternity. To them is entrusted the management of the fatal thread of life. Clotho gives us life; Lachesis determines what shall befall us here; and Atropos concludes our lives. In hell are likewise three furies, who punish the wicked, and torment the consciences of secret offenders. There is likewise an inferior god, called Nox, represented as a83skeleton with black wings. Another god is called Samonus, or sleep; he is thought useful to men. There are three judges in this hell, which judge the souls which come there. There are some giants and some kings there. All are doomed to endless existence in misery. Phlegyas, a king, burned the temple of Apollo; he was condemned to remain in hell forever, with a great stone hung over his head, which he expects every moment to fall upon him, and crush him to pieces. (So he sits eternally fearing that which will never come to pass.) Ixion for his crime, was struck down to hell with thunder, and tied fast to a wheel which will eternally turn him round. A robber is condemned to roll a great stone to the top of a hill, which invariably slips down before he reaches the top. In this hell there was a place called the Elysium. This, though in the dominion of Pluto, was a region of delights. To this region resorted the souls of the good, after being purged from the light offences committed in this world. (Here is the origin of purgatory, and of the spirit land, and perhaps of the paradise, as at present supposed to exist.) Elysium has verdant fields, shady groves, fine breezes, and all fine things. There is likewise a river called Lethe, causing forgetfulness to all who drink of its waters of all their former troubles. This is but a short description of the Pagan hell. See Tooke's Pantheon, p. 219. We may here trace the origin of the superstitious practice of placing a piece of money in the hands of the dead, to pay Peter instead of Charon. Here, too, we may trace the origin of the ideas of an already existing hell as a place for living souls, of purgatory, of paradise, and of other errors. The location of this hell is not clearly defined. Homer assumes the place of the dead to be a land at the extremity of the ocean, attainable by navigation; Virgil, a region, attainable only by descending into the bowels of the earth. Compare Odyssey, 11, and Æneid, 6: from whence the fable has crept into the professed church. The Alcoran describes a last judgment, where all will be judged according to their works. The trial being over and the assembly dissolved; those who are awarded to Paradise, take the right hand way; while those that are destined to hell fire, take the left hand. But both must pass the bridge Alsirat, which is laid over the middle of hell, which bridge is finer than a hair, and sharper than a sword. The wicked miss their footing and fall headlong into hell. This hell has seven gates. The first for Mussulmen; the second for Christians; the third for Jews; the fourth for the Sabians; the fifth for the Magicians; the sixth for Pagans; and the seventh and worst of all, for the hypocrites of all religions. The inhabitants of this hell will suffer a variety of torments of eternal duration, with the exception of those who have embraced the true religion; such will be delivered from hell after having expiated their crimes by suffering.—Adams' View of Religions, p. 322. 3. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC HELL.
The Papist describes hell as a place burning with fire, in which the wicked, dying out of "the church," will be eternally tormented. They hold likewise to a place of purgation, called purgatory. This was taken from the Pagans, and is the same thing under another name. Mosheim says, vol. 2, p. 38:— "The famous Pagan doctrine concerning the purification of departed souls, by means of a certain kind of fire, was more amply explained and confirmed now than it had formerly been. And in the tenth century, the people dreaded the fire of purgatory, more than they did the fire of hell; for they supposed that by being enriched with the prayers of the clergy when they were dying, they should certainly escape hell. But they were taught that if they went to purgatory, it was a matter of doubt whether they ever should be delivered from that dreadful place." Yea, it is an historical fact that the priests led the people astray, and that for the sake of filthy lucre. Therefore, "Try the spirits whether they be of God: because many false prophets, (or propounders of false doctrines,) have gone out into the world." And while you despise not prophesyings, prove all things, and hold fast only that which is good. We now propose to describe the hell which those called Christians believe in, as a place of the most intense misery, without mitigation, and without end. We have seen that the Pagans, the Mahomedans, and the Catholics, hold to a hell that has a place to purify at least a portion of those that are cast into it. But we know of but one sect of Protestants who believe in this part of Paganism. That one is a sect of the Universalists; and for this they are indebted to the heathen. But while Protestantism borrows the Roman Catholic hell, a little modified from the Pagan, they reject its better feature, the chance for a few to escape its fabled horrors. As Mr. Benson is the acknowledged standard orthodox writer of Methodism, his description will suffice for the Protestant hell. Hear Him: "God is present in hell in his infinite justice, and almighty wrath, as an unfathomable sea of liquid fire, where the wicked must drink in everlasting torture. The presence of God in his vengeance, scatters darkness and woe through the dreary regions of misery. As heaven would be no heaven if God did not there manifest his love: so hell would be no hell if God did not there display his wrath. It is the presence of God which gives everything virtue and efficacy; without which there can be no life, no sensibility, no power. God is therefore himself present in hell to see the punishment of those rebels against his government, that it may be adequate to the infinitude of their guilt. His fiery indignation kindles, and his incensed fury feeds the flames of their torments; while his powerful presence and operation maintains their being, and renders all their powers more acutely sensible; thus setting the keenest edge upon their pain, and making it cut most intolerably deep. He will exert all his divine attributes to make them as wretched as the capacity of their being will admit." After this, the Doctor goes on to describe the duration of this work of God, and calls to his aid all the stars, and sand, and drops of water, and makes each one tell a million of ages, and when all these ages have rolled away, he goes over the same number again, and again, and so on forever. If this description were not the result of the grossest ignorance, we should be obliged to characterize it as the worst of blasphemy. Perhaps all the "orthodox" Protestants will not endorse the Doctor's definition of the torments of hell; but they will all agree with him in two particulars; that these torments are of a most excruciating character, and that their duration is eternal. In this horrible account of the work of God in tormenting the work of his own hands, we find no passage of scripture quoted to prove any of its points. We will venture the assertion that there is not a text to be found that leans that way. Nay, more; that it flatly contradicts God's own statement. Job xxxvii, 23. "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out; he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice he will not afflict. Wherefore let mortals reverence him, whom none of the wise in heart can discern." But this wise Doctor professes to have found out that God is delighting himself continually in horrible and revolting injustice towards those "immortal souls," which some contend are a part of God himself. We could produce many other texts that this account contradicts, but content ourselves at present by quoting Ps. cxlv, 9. "The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all his works." Lam. iii, 33. "For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth." Eze. xxxiii, 11. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." If God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, in the extinction of their being, how can he have pleasure in exercising his powers to produce protracted and intense suffering, conscious suffering, without mercy and without end? Nah. i, 9. "What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up a second time." Isa. x, 25. "For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." We trace the Protestant hell, first, to the Pagan notion of the immortality of the soul; secondly, to the Roman Catholic hell; and thirdly, to a misconception of some passages of Scripture which would not have been perverted, but for the belief of the other two.—Bible vs. Tradition.