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697
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
vóilscroj TkirmaS^
• I
I
EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT
A LETTER
a
O
C)
TO
THOMAS
SCOTT.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS
II THE TERRACE,
SCOTT,
FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
1873.
Price Sixpence.
�On religion, in particular, the time appears to me to have come, when
it is the duty of all who, being qualified in point of knowledge, have on
mature consideration satisfied themselves that the current opinions are
not only false, but hurtful, to make their dissent known : at least, if
they are among those whose station or reputation gives their opinion a
chance of being attended to. Such an avowal would put an end, at
once and for ever, to the vulgar prejudice, that what is called, very
improperly, unbelief, is connected with any bad qualities either of mindt
or heart. The world would be astonished if it knew how great a pro
portion of its brightest ornaments—of those most distinguished even
in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue—are complete sceptics in
religion; many of them refraining from avowal, less from personal
considerations, than from a conscientious, though now, in my opinion
a most mistaken apprehension, lest by speaking out what would tend
to weaken existing beliefs, and by consequence (as they suppose) exist
ing restraints, they should do harm instead of good.
Autobiography by John Stuart Mill.
�EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT.
■>
DEAR FRIEND,—
ULD that the topic were more genial or
humane, to say nothing of divine, for,
assuredly, the odour of such a sulphurous thesis is
the reverse of that of “sanctity.” Yet I will decline
no subject on which you think that what I may have
to say can possibly serve the cause we both have at
heart,—for I am persuaded that the cause pleaded by
yourself and your distinguished coadjutors is mainly
the same as that to which my poor thoughts and
aspirations have been long directed. Many of us, I
have no doubt, see several of the questions at issue
from various points of view and through different
media, with glasses not adjusted to the same focus;
but we are all of the Human-Catholic Church, seeking
to realise a religion reasonable no less than aspira
tional, satisfying, that is, the sentimental or emotional
requirements of the spirit, no less than the logical
and intellectual demands of the understanding.
Ignoring neither, our endeavour is to conciliate and
unite the two, in common allegiance and devotion to
rhe one Power from which they both spring. Our
Faith is faith in “ Principles,” and that I believe is
true Christian Faith, as contradistinguished from
shallow assent and consent to opinions and conjec
tures of a quasi-historical or traditional sort, often
assuming the name of a sacred grace to which it is in
no degree entitled. “Faith ” is an inward confiding
temper of the soul Godward, and has nothing reli-
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giously in common with acceptance or rejection of
lo, here ! or lo, there! assertions of circumstantial
import, which have to be judged solely by laws of
evidence or antecedent probability—whether too cre
dulously received or too incredulously denied, affect
ing only the intelligence, and by no means the spiritual
depth or breadth of our being. Surely those who put
their trust, through calm and storm, in the abiding
principles of Faith, Hope, and Love are true mem
bers of the one indivisible and universal Church of
which Christ is the Spiritual High Priest. He came
to proclaim peace and goodwill among men—a gospel
only to be realised by unity of principle, but never
attainable by any attempt at an impossible and un
desirable uniformity of opinion. If community of
Churchmanship is to depend upon multitudes of free
and true men agreeing to numerous propositions,
physical and metaphysical, alike incapable of proof,
but each of which has adherents whose pertinacity is
usually in the inverse ratio of their knowledge, then
may we postpone such Christian fellowship to the
Greek Kalends or the Apocalyptic Millennium.
Thus much of preface as to a probable divergence
of views which, when truthfully and charitably enter
tained, I take to be more conducive to edification and
mutual esteem than any conformity of a stereotyped
sort. Why should not all be content to travel in the
same direction by different paths and at different
speeds ? Dean Swift used to say it mattered little
whether we journeyed Heavenward in a carriage-andfour or a donkey-cart, provided we did but get there ;
and the Emperor Constantine told a favourite bishop
of peculiarly pedantic orthodoxy, that he must climb
to Heaven on his own proper ladder, for nobody else
would mount it with him.
But now to our theme,—time was when I could
have written on the dismal dogma with more interest
and earnestness than it at present inspires me with.
�Everlasting Punishment.
$
Not that I hold it, in its gross and literal accepta
tion, a whit less subversive of all religious and reason
able principles than I did years ago, when taking its
matter more au serieux and occasionally feeling its
dyspeptic incubus weighing upon my own faith and
trust in the goodness and mercy of God, the “Mercy
that is over all His Works,” and the “ Mercy that
endureth for ever ! ” Is it a real “ Article of Belief”
that we have to deal with ? Does it exist in men’s
minds and make them miserable and make them mad,
as it assuredly must, supremely miserable and despe
rately mad, if it exist at all as an earnest conviction
in their spirit or understanding ? My full persua
sion is that no man of sound mind in sound body is
nowadays ever seriously disquieted by the grisly phan
tom begotten of theologic hatred and conceived of
theologic fear, the fear that indeed “ has torment,”
the fear which Paith casts out as gibbering frantic
blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, by imputing hate
to the Supreme Spirit whose Being is Love, and endless
vengeance to the God whose nature and property is
ever to forgive. It is here, if anywhere, when turning
backto this mediaeval abortion of the odiumtlieologicum,
that one is reminded of Plutarch and Bacon in their
identical relative estimates of “ Superstition ” and
“ Atheism.” Who does not remember the manly and
honest simplicity with which the noble old Boeotian
tells us he would rather people said there was no
Plutarch, than that Plutarch was fickle, passionate,
and vindictive ! How many folios of so-called Chris
tian theology would kick the beam when weighed in
divine scales against that little treatise of a dozen
pages (vrepi Aeio-iSatpor/as) by a benighted heathen !
And then our Chancellor !—“ Better to have no opin
ion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy
of Him; for the one is unbelief, the other is con
tumely ! ” Surely those two essays might be read
in Churches as lessons approved by apostles who
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denounce the beggarly elements of fanaticism, and
proclaim faith without charity as nothing worth !—•
approved by evangelists and prophets who preach
acceptable religion as “doingjustice,loving mercy,and
walking humbly with our God.” Well may our great
British regenerator of human thought talk of super
stition being to religion as a monkey is to a Man, for
never could any travesty by genus “Simia” exceed
the parody that superstition has put upon religion,
when trumpeting endless vindictive punishment for
punishment’s sake in the name of the Deity who has
proclaimed Himself as chastening whom He loveth,
and loving whom He chasteneth !
You will remind me, perhaps, that this is emphatic
language, and that I began by disclaiming any deep
feeling on the subject; and I am quite sensible of the
apparent inconsistency. The fact is, that one is prone
to oscillate on such a topic between extreme indig
nation and very thorough contempt. A healthy mind
will, no doubt, easily and at once shake itself free
from morbid and lurid imaginations, that would
deform and deface God’s beautiful universe by per
petuating misery and deifying evil as coequal and
coterminate with good. And while under the bracing
influence of such health and healthy surroundings,
one is apt to be ashamed of fighting as one that
beateth the air, with no adversary but the unwhole
some illusion of feverish weakness or designing
wickedness. The “hell-fire” of superstition is to
Religion and Reason but an ignis fatuus, flickering
among the dead bones and mouldering1 remains of
ages darker than our own ; and wise neighbours call
no. engines, and fill no buckets to put it out. From
this point of view we can look at such “ fire ” calmly
and talk about it composedly. But when again one
remembers that mental health and strength are bv
no means the inheritance of us all, and that for hypo"chondria, dyspepsia, and hysteria, the spectral finger
�Everlasting Punishment.
n
that points to hell in another world, usually points
down the road to madness in this—why, then, indig
nation once more is likely to get the upper hand of
indifference. But even a less hideous and more
frequent consummation than absolute insanity in
trudes itself inevitably on attention, and is, to a
religious and reverential estimate, totally incom
patible with philosophic apathy. The doctrine, even
when not earnestly believed in, but only languidly
tolerated, as tending towards checking and alarming
gross and ignorant vice by false but portentously
horrible representations of distant penalties incurred
—this doctrine, I maintain, is still fraught with irre
ligious and immoral mischief — as, indeed, in a
universe under the ultimate sovereignty of Supreme
Truth, uZZ false teaching must be irreligiously and
immorally mischievous. Let us go into the heated
and feverish atmosphere that surrounds “ popular
preachers,” proclaiming, in the name of an Almighty,
Allwise, and Allgood Godhead, the final and per
petual plunging into the fiery lake of the devil and
his angels, with all the myriads of human sinners,
heretics, infidels, and others, that cannot present an
orthodox passport at heaven’s gate. Let us look round
upon the excited and excitable crowd that feels a
sensational thrill, almost allied to horrid pleasure, in
the stupendous, infernal drama depicted for their edifi
cation, and then let us inquire for a moment into the
nature of such edification. It assuredly is seldom of
that highest sort which prompted Moses and Paul to
reject their individual salvation unless that of their
brethren could be simultaneously secured : “ Blot me
also out of thy book !” and “ I could wish myself also
accursed for my Brethren’s sake !” It is hardly a
breach of charity to conclude that this is not quite
the feeling that actuates the anxious benches of
11 Tabernacles ” and “ Ebenezers,” as they listen to
fulminations of “ hell-fire” reserved for all but the
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elect few, to join whose exceptional ii glory” they are
naturally inclined to make a rush, under an impulse
and watchword not absolutely identical with that of
“ loving their neighbour as themselves.” Yet, with
out rising to the level of a Moses or a Paul, how often
do we find simple sailors and soldiers, who, in the
service of an earthly master, will scorn to hurry first
into the boats that can save but a fraction of their
company! How cheerfully will the noble fellows
hold back till at least the women and children are
made room for! But, it may be said, their threaten
ing danger is only of natural death; while the
religionists are in frantic terror of supernatural tor
ments, &c., &c. Strange, at any rate, that a religious
doctrine, preached in the name of Christ, should tend
towards so low a pitch of selfishness as to be satisfied
to be supremely happy with the knowledge of the
supreme contemporary misery of theirfellow-creatures!
How does such doctrine look, when tried by the
divine test of “ knowing them by their fruits ? ” Or
is this an exceptional case, in which the heavenly
vine produces such very earthly thorns ?
Turning from the human ethics consequent on the
dogma that lends such point and zest to the oratory
of popular pulpits, let us see how it stands with the
system of celestial government in accordance -with,
such theory. Those gentlemen who proclaim it would
no doubt be much surprised to hear that their gospel
of ultimate and infinite suffering is altogether incom
patible with their worship of one God, Almighty an cl
Allgood,—and that they are bound in logic and con
sistency to announce themselves henceforth as recog
nising two eternal principles, one of Good and the
other of Evil, like Persians of old, or later disciples
of the Heresiarch Manes. They are very possibly of
opinion that, having done such poetical justice upon
all fallen sinners, whether angelic or human, as cast
ing them into the perpetual lake of burning brimstone,
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9
nothing further can be required towards the vindica
tion of sole and supreme Good throughout the universe.
But surely this position cannot stand scrutiny. How
can supreme good reign triumphant in a universe
degraded and dishonoured by the infinite evil of end
less unrepenting and unamending angelic and human
misery ? Were the agonies announced as of a limited
or purgatorial kind, the case would of course be differ
ent, but it certainly does excite fair astonishment
that the advocates of eternal vindictive, non-curative,
and non-purifying punishments should not see that
they are thereby maintaining a coequal sovereignty
of evil with good, always, everywhere, and for ever.
The seeming ignorance of, or indifference to, this
inevitable sequitur, no doubt arises from such persons
using the metaphysical words “infinite,” “eternal,”
&c.,’in quite a limited and physical acceptation. But
it is time, in the present stage of mental cultivation
and era of exact science, that they should recast their
nomenclature. They must learn to see and acknow
ledge that no evil can be greater than that of the
endless sinful existence of spiritual beings, created in
the image of God—multitudinous beings of such high
origin, for ever unrepenting and unamending, of neces
sity cursing both the Creator that created them and
tlie Creation that their endless sinful suffering darkens,
deforms, and disgraces, to no purpose but that of
inflicting pain and perpetuating cruelty !
I ought now, perhaps, in reference to my signature
as a commissioned officer of our Established Church,
to say a word or two as to the Biblical and Litur
gical bearings of the dogma that I venture to condemn
as not only anti-Christian but absolutely inhuman,
and implying “contumely” to the God of Goodness.
I have no difficulty or scruple whatever in asserting
that, to the best of my judgment, the Bible not only
ignores, but would absolutely anathematise, such doc
trine as that which endeavours to brand Creation
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with indelible failure and deformity, while dethron
ing the one God and Lord of all, in favour of a
dualistic scheme of Ormuzd and Ahriman, projecting
through the universe the distorted semblance of a
“house divided against itself.” It ought not to be
required that we should descend to the examination
of mere Hebrew and Greek vocables to establish a
truth, the miscarriage of which would be fatal to all
claims of divine inspiration in the providential books
that have been so venerated for decades of centuries
by Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian. Enough,
surely, that we can appeal to the “ Spirit ” of these
Scriptures that always quickens, without haggling
over . the “ letter ” that occasionally “kills.” Not
that in this case, as I apprehend, there can be any
difficulty in securing the witness of the “ letter ” as
well as that of the “ Spirit” to the honour and glory
of God. Yet who needs it who is already familiar
with the Scriptural attributes ascribed to Deity, as
ever culminating in goodness, and in mercy enduring
for ever, and enfolding all his works in the “ everlast
ing arms ” that are spread beneath them ? Why
should we be tasked to gild refined gold and paint
the lily white, by trying to strengthen, through itera
tion and variety of texts, such pandects of supreme
truth and holiness as are expressed in passages of
Old and New Testament, which every real lover of their
lore will bind as signs upon his hands and frontlets
between his eyes ?
Let us appeal at once to the fountain-head of our
Biblical allegiance, to the Teacher who has taught us
to approach our God as our Father which is in heaven,
ever ready to forgive us our trespasses as even we to
forgive them that trespass against us! Think we,
perchance, that any human malignity could ever reach
the pitch of relentless and endless unforgiveness to
its offspring, in whose behalf even a Roman dra
matist would write Propeccato magnopaululum supplicii
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11
satis est Patri. “ If ye, then,” says the Christ, “ being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Heavenly Father give to
them that ask Him.” Dare men, while worshipping
such a God through such a Mediator, still venture to
assert that He for bread gives us a stone, for fish a
serpent, for an egg a scorpion ! But away with
figures of serpents and scorpions — mere maudlin
metaphors to veil the ineffable monstrum liorrendum
informe, ingens cui lumen ademptum—“ monstrous,
hideous, blind, horrible, and huge,” which would
impute “ hell fire ” as the divine rejoinder to our poor
human prayers to the “Lord of all power and might,
declaring His Almighty rule most chiefly in mercy
and in pity.” Has the “contumely” of superstition,
our Baconian “Monkeyism of Manhood,” ever gone
further or descended lower in travesty and caricature
of a Godhead created in its own image ?
Really Samson’s riddle was easy reading compared
with the theologic enigma that, instead of weakness
out of strength, brings hatred out of love, and relent
less vengeance out of infinite mercy and compassion!
Many fantastic tricks have we sons of Adam played
before High Heaven to make the angels weep; but
here is surely a trick of Angry-Apism that would
petrify angelic tears in blank amazement, to say
nothing of classic philosophy, whether of the school
that laughs or the school that weeps at the aberrations
of our eccentric nature. We read of James and John
asking their Lord’s sanction for a mere momentary
flash of earthly fire to consume his enemies, and
how sternly does that Lord rebuke the spirit that
suggested the wish, as emphatically no spirit of his !
Yet there are those among us, neither few nor
always of the dullest, who would confidently, - in
the name of the same Master, invoke flames of
preternatural fire, to agonise perpetually, without
consuming, the disputants who vex the pragmatic
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zeal that found such, small countenance from him
in whose cause it bestirred itself. When one remem
bers, moreover, that Christ most unmistakably
endorses the really divine law of commensurate and
inevitable penalties of an instructive and chastening
sort, as awaiting all transgressions of the moral or
physical code of light and life, one feels that it is but
taking pains to little purpose to argue against fore
gone conclusions.
Would any advocate of “ infinite ” penalties await
ing the very “ finite ” difference, moral or spiritual,
between Messrs A and B, do us the favour to give
their note and commentary on the text of “ many
stripes ” due to the one, and “ few stripes ” due to
the other ? I would not willingly adopt a light tone in
reference to so dismal a theory, but it is a law of our
nature, that the “ sublime ” of unreason should stand
in close contiguity to its corresponding extreme.
Pardon me, then, for looking round on the counte
nances of the first dozen fellow travellers from Charing
Cross to St Paul’s, to conjecture, on available data,
their future destiny as eternal heavenly angels or
cooeval infernal dsemons ! 0 for the Egyptian sphynx
or Athenian owl, to cast the horoscope of Mr Br—gs !
Who does not at once recoil from conclusions too
grossly preposterous to abide for a moment, when
confronted with the barest sufficiency of sense and
soberness that distinguishes us from idiots ! The
dogma, as already said, is a psychological phenome
non that sets aside all religion and all reason; and
one cannot easily bring religious or reasonable
argument to bear upon that which can only exist by
strict denial of every elementary postulate of one or
the other. If it really had any root in the hearts or
heads of people outside an asylum, we should be in
imminent danger of a collapse in any human society
of which they were members. It would remove all
our moral landmarks and confound all our moral
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weights and measures, to a degree utterly incom
patible with any healthy and honest intercourse with
our kind; for what faith or hope could we have in
fair dealing on earth, while stupendous false scales
were hung up to our view in Heaven, in the name of
that Lord to whom Religion and Reason have hitherto
made them an abomination !
When the divine Head of Christendom dramatises
the great “ Judgment according to Works,” surely He
distinguishes the ethics of the gospel plainly enough
from the false reckoning that would allot an infinite
interval to the infi/nitessimal unknown X that repre
sents the surplus of A’s doings over those of his
brother B. Put the “ finite ” into one dish of the
balance and the “ infinite ” into the other, and we
have an inconceivably small fraction of a grain
weighed against a sum-total of tons, compared with
which a rule of arithmetic digits reaching from
London to Edinburgh would be as nothing ! One
has to talk in this way with the forlorn hope of fixing
the attention of the volubility that trifles so com
placently with words that stand for ideas unrealisable
by the human brain. Is it not, after all, this utter
unintelligibility of the questions mooted that can
alone account for the phenomenon of intense irri
tability proverbial as odium theologicum, appro
priating exclusively to itself the tprm “ polemics ” as
satirically characterising the temper of disputing
devotees, whose common principle and badge of
recognition was to be their “ Love of one another.”
Why do devotees of exact sciences indulge in no
such venomous polemics ? How hard it seems to our
human pretention to acknowledge that we cannot see
through the thick veil that it has pleased Providence
to let fall between things earthly and things unearthly.
How little we like to appropriate the lesson, “ What
is that to thee, follow thou me.” “ Do justice,” that
is, “ and love mercy,” leaving reverentially to God
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the things that are God’s, and as yet God’s only.
What should we say to monkeys bent on mathematics,
with infinite nuts pending on the issue, and tearing
one another to pieces over definitions and axioms of
Euclid. Rage unspeakable and irrepressible between
two sects, to one of which a triangle is assuredly
three right angles, and to the other as positively four !
(Itisum teneatis ! ” Fabula ta/men de nobis nct/rrcbtur—
the case is pretty much our own.
_ Enough, however, for the moment as to broad
views connected with the changeless principles of
religion and reason. Let us now turn for an instant
to that sort of argument that seeks, in the written
“ letter” of our sacred books, for ways and means of
invalidating its divine “spirit.” Do we not read
repeatedly of “ hell ” and “ everlasting fire ” in the
Old Testament and the New ? and dare we doubt or
reject such words on such pages ? To the latter
question the reply of Christ and his apostles is to
try all such words, representing what ideas they may,
and to hold fast to those alone of them that are good—
trying, that is, the inky words on paper by the living
words traced by the “ finger of God upon the tablets
of our heart ” or conscience. No mistake about the
revelations written there, and those that are wilting
to know them shall know of the doctrines whether
they be of God (Ear ns Qe\rj ■ynvuerai). True faith
in such revelations, “ saving us by the answer of a
good conscience,” would bravely and loyally renounce
both Old Testament and New, though they had fallen,
ready printed and bound, from heaven to earth,
rather than for a moment sin against the Holy Ghost
by imputing to it on their authority that which we
know by its inspiration to be of the nature of evil.
But here, happily, our faith is exposed to no such
trial, for neither does the Old Testament nor the New
say a word, to the best of iny knowledge, which,
fairly interpreted, can reduce us to choose between
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“ Bibliolatry ” on the one hand, and that “ liberty ”
of conscience on the other which always exists where
the spirit of the Lord is. The least learned English
reader can easily convince himself that the “ hell ” of
the Old Testament is simply the word
meaning a
“ hollow place,” and habitually used as equivalent to
11 grave ” or “ tomb.” Why our translators sometimes
render it as “ grave ” and sometimes as “ hell ” is by
no means clear. We should be surprised, for
example, to read of the patriarch’s “grey hairs being
brought down with sorrow unto hell,” or of Jacob
“ going down into hell unto his son mourning yet it
is precisely the same word which, in the Psalms, is
given as, “ Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell,”
where it evidently means “ grave,” no less than in
the other passages. When Jonah is represented as
“crying out of the belly of hell,” meaning the belly
of the fish, every one knows that he refers to his
living “tomb.” But there is an unjustifiable laxity in
substituting the one word for the other where
popular misapprehension is so likely to follow. So
much for the “hell” of the Old Testament, thus
reduced from its mythological and monstrous accepta
tion to one with which we are all familiarly
acquainted.
Next let us see how far the metaphysical idea of
endless duration of time, or Eternity, is represented
by the in i in of the Hebrew F It may be rightfully
maintained that in the early epochs of Jewish litera
ture, the idea of such transcendent duration had not
yet dawned upon human intelligence, and, therefore
that the words m and nift could never have repre
sented a thought not yet extant in its bewildering
vagueness. For many centuries the calculations of
mankind were pretty much limited to the sum total of
the digits at the extremities of hands and feet, and we
all know that the prophets take refuge in sacred and
indefinite numbers, seven, forty, seventy, &c., where
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precision might be embarrassing or needless. Certain
it is that no confidence can be placed in our modern
renderings of high numbers in the Pentateuch, and
equally sure that we have no right to attach our notion
of “ everlasting,” &c., to words which we find applied
to the hills of Judea and the possession of the pro
mised land, to the lives of kings, and so on. When
Juda so beautifully pleads with Israel for leave to take
Benjamin with him, and winds up with “ If I bring
him not back, let me bear the blame for ever,” who
is embarrassed with the cmvrbn that we translate as
“ for ever,” quietly accepting it, as every one does,
for “ all the days of my life.” Turning to the pages
of the New Testament on the same quest, what word
do we find for this theological representation of end
less fire, agonising irreclaimable sinners for duration
of time mathematically endless ? Simply the Syriac
term “Gehenna,” a corruption of “Valley of Hinnom,” where, outside the walls of Jerusalem, the offal
of the city and bones of malefactors were consumed ;
that is, “ Gehenna ” is a metaphorical expression for
the disgrace, desolation, and destruction awaiting
excommunicated sin and sinners, cast into outer lurid
darkness, where weeping and gnashing of teeth are in
full harmony with their surroundings.
When we read of Christ, that he pronounces cause
less anger worthy of judgment (magisterial), and
foul-mouthed abuse (para) liable to a higher court,
but “thou fool” (juwpe), that is, deliberate contempt
and scorn of arrogance, versus humility, liable to
“ heli-fire,”—can any disciple of Justice tempered by
Mercy suppose this “ Gehenna of Fire ” to mean what
popular superstition is taught to attach to the term,
instead of forming the natural climax, as it probably
does, to intramural penalties, culminating in being
cast out to the dreary and unclean valley of burning
bones F If Christ rebuked with such withering sar
casm the zeal of James and John, desiring fire to
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'
consume the adversaries of his preaching, what
cohesion or congruity can we find in a lesson that
would inculcate eierwaZ fire for the folly of inflated
self-conceit depreciating its neighbours ?
It is true, however, that this “ Hinnom-Valley ” is
not the only equivalent for our expression “ Hell
fire ” in the New Testament. There is another term,
the classical “ Hades,” meaning the invisible abode of
departed spirits, but no more resembling our theologic
Hell than a Greek statue is like a scare-crow. When
the “gates of Hell” (ivvXai a&ov) are said to be power
less against the Church, this has no reference what
ever to the “ Gehenna ” outside Jerusalem, but is the
expressive Syriac-Greek metaphor for powers of dark
ignorance, as opposed to the light, and life, and love
of truth, which constitute the real “ orthodoxy ” of
the Human Catholic Church. In the parable of
Dives and Lazarus there is certainly mention of fire
tormenting the rich man in Hades, but it must be a
very prosaic spirit indeed that attaches the notion of
material fire to the language of Allegory depicting
remorse burning into memory the reproachful regret
of gifts and opportunities wasted or abused.
All this may sound as minute and elementary cri
ticism to those acquainted with the ancient languages
of our two Testaments, but it cannot be quite super
fluous as long as the doctrine we are considering even
nominally defaces and defames the Gracious Gospel
of Faith, Hope, and Love; of which the last is alone
eternal, as being in itself the soul of the Godhead.
Let us look again for the Greek word which we make
to bear the weight of such portentous meaning (or
rather no meaning), and we find a comparatively
harmless aittvios and els tov aiiiva, signifying only
duration of a limited sort, equivalent to “ ages ” or
“ centuries ” with us. When the fig-tree is to bear
no more fruit “ for ever,” what has that to do with
endless time, when the life of the tree itself is but for
B
�18
Everlasting Punishment.
a few years ? No doubt these words are used for
indefinite or infinite duration, when the intention is
to convey the highest possible idea of such duration,
as of the word, or wisdom, or goodness of God ; but
they are equally used for temporary existence, and that
carries with it all the weight of argument we require.
When Jonah says, “The earth with her laws was
about him for ever,” he uses the Hebrew obv, just as
the New Testament uses e<s rov ativra for the duration
of the “ house of Jacob
as the prophets speak of
“ everlasting mountains,” &c. The only important
point is to save the credit of Scriptures otherwise
responsible for a doctrine fatal to their claims to
“ infallibility.” Enough that their language will bear
a good meaning, to make it incumbent on us not to
assign to it a bad one.
If the requirements of language had insisted on an
acceptation of “ everlasting,” &c., incompatible with
any limitation, we might have sought refuge perhaps
in the ingenious bit of sophistry which maintains
that all punishment is of necessity eternal; inasmuch
as it is an everlasting deduction from the sum total of
enjoyment. A magistrate, for example, fines us five
shillings, and we are for ever poorer by said five shil
lings, than we should have been without such penalty ;
so also with imprisonment and bodily suffering, so
much for ever substracted from our normal stock of
liberty and absence from pain. But we are not
driven to such casuistry, though of a sort justifiable
enough in self-defence against the unjustifiable
despotism of dominant stupidity.
It might also be a question to moot, were it wanted,
whether we can entertain any logical idea of an
“eternity” limited at one end; whether, that is,
any thing can be conceived as endless which has a
beginning. My own impression is that it cannot,
though I may be inadvertently running into “ heresy ”
by saying so.
�Everlasting Punishment.
i9
Between ourselves, as you are not going to turn
Grand Inquisitor, I could confess to something like
an Article of Belief, in the eternity of every thing that
IS, allowing for “ circulation,” with permutations,
combinations, and the like. Was there ever a time
when “matter” did not exist, or “time” either?
“ When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter,
’twas no matter what he said,” &c., &c. Excuse my
trifling, to relieve for a moment the very heavy dis
quisition you have lured me into.
If I am right in saying that the literal Hell dogma
is not in the Bible, it would of course follow from
our Vlth Article, that it is in no degree incumbent
upon any one signing the XXXIX, maugre even
the “ Athanasian ” Creed, which our Parliament in
its wisdom still thinks fit to ratify and maintain.
Apropos to which Anglican symbol, I cannot say that
I, in my individual insignificance, have ever found it
the pre-eminent stumbling block that it seems to
many. In the first place, if I read it at all, it is in
obedience to Parliamentary Law in our Parliamentary
Church—and I consider myself free not to read it,
provided I am ready to submit to the Parliamentary
penalty for neglecting the rubric. Secondly, if I
individually demur to its logical meaning, I can avail
myself of the fact io which my attention was once
called by an excellent and distinguished Spiritual
Peer, viz., that the symbol is appointed to be either
‘ said or sung.'' Now, as “singing” was never yet
intended to be subjected to laws of strict reasoning,
it would be like seeking difficulties to apply rules of
dry logic to triumphant outbursts of “ orthodox ”
rhythm, hymning victorious pagans of JSomoousion vic
tory over discomfited partisans of JSomoiousion schism
in the hot areha of Byzantian polemics ! The argument
as to the meaning of words applies, moreover, as well
to the “ Creed,” whether prose or poetry, as to the
Bible, and the “ everlasting fire ” seems threatened
�20
Everlasting Punishment.
rather to “ doing evil ” than to involuntarily believing
correctly or incorrectly, which is at any rate some
comfort to common sense. There can be no harm,
however, in an obscure Presbyter echoing the wish of
a bygone Primate touching “ Quicunque yult,” to the
effect that “ we were well rid of it.”
The remark may not be worth much, but it is a
remark many of us have, perhaps, made in reference
to “ Athanasian Creeds ” and similar phenomena,
that the “ people,” so called, find little or no diffi
culty, and make little or no objection, to them. In
village congregations the “ Quicunque vult,” with its
magnificent rhythm, much more effective than
“ Reason,” is heard with great edification, and with
very little of the scrupulosity about “ damnatory
clauses ” that is apt to disturb more delicate and
refined constitutions. The fact seems to be that
dense and pachydermatous natures only experience
agreeable sensations under a currycomb that would
flay the skin of more susceptible subjects. The most
popular pulpits are known to be those which fulmi
nate the fiercest and loudest,—well illustrating Lord
Bacon’s apothegm, that the “ People is the master of
superstition, in which wise men follow fools, with
arguments fitted to facts in reversed order.” Arch
bishops and Bishops, and Presbyters, would be ready
to be rid of a personified Devil and his doings on
much easier terms than rustics would approve, and I
well remember the story as told by the wisest and
truest of living prophets and humourists, how the
little lassie came weeping back from a discourse where
“ the gentleman said there was na’ deil.”
If there is one Scriptural book more peculiarly pic
turesque in imagery of fiery-lake scenery than another
it is the Apocalypse, and that, as every one knows who
knows country cottages, is beyond comparison the
favourite village reading. Simple and uncritical, an
agricultural population will revel in the gorgeous
�Everlasting Punishment.
21
imagery and stupendous machinery of visions of
Patmos, impervious to doubts and difficulties which
could make such a divine as South exclaim, more
pointedly than decorously, that they “ either found a
man cracked or left him so.” The strongest imagin
ary appeals have little effect upon natures rendered
rugged and unimpressionable by constant contact with
hard and rough realities, but exemplify your figura
tive “ everlasting punishment” by showing such per
sons an old-fashioned “ cat-o’-nine-tail ” infliction,
and then ask them what they would think of a doctrine
teaching that such suffering was to be inflicted for
ever by heavenly power upon human sinners : not for
their amendment, but only for their punishment; not
for the sake of saving discipline, but only for per
petuating sin and unrepenting maledictions.
Those who, knowing better, would countenance
such horrid phantasmagoria, under the impression of
frightening people from crime, are as wrong practically
as they are morally and religiously. Practically such
threats have no effect at all beyond lending vigour to
the popular blasphemy that borrows their infernal
vocabulary. If, indeed, such terrors could avail prac
tically, we ought consistently to bring back the rack
and the wheel to supplement the prison and the gibbet.
We should be justified, for the general good, in pour
ing melted lead and boiling oil, as in good old times
they did upon the body and limbs of a Ravaillac or a
Damiens, approaching by human ingenuity, for an
hour or so, to the agonies reserved by Theologic
“ Divinity” for the majority of mankind “ for ever”
and a day!
But in this, as in every attempt to change divine
laws and improve them by human device, we inevita
bly go wrong. It will never answer to do evil that
good may come, and the course of truth can never be
forwarded by untruth. The Laws of Life are God’s
laws, and provide inevitable corresponding penalties
�22
Everlasting Punishment.
for all infraction of such laws, however they he dis
tinguished as physical or moral. The “Pama claudo
pede ” doctrine, teaching that the penalty is as insep
arable from the offence of commission or omission
as the shadow from its substance, is the only true
and effective penal code ; and till national education
teaches that, it is no religious education, least of all
a Christian, i.e., of Judgment according to works or
fruits. Every jurisconsult knows that the fear of
punishment is in the ratio of its certainty and propin
quity, and by no means in that of its enormity and
uncertainty. No man in his senses thinks himself
bad enough for the “ Hell-fire ” with which he occa
sionally may hear himself menaced in a very indefinite
way as to time, place, and circumstance. The worst
criminal, moreover, shrinks religiously from the per
sonification of Deity painted as infinite strength
wreaking insatiable vengeance upon infinite weakness.
It would be an apotheosis or consecration of iniquity,
like that of Lucifer’s “ Evil be thou my Good ! ”
Teach, only teach, in God’s name, that as surely as
fire, if we defy it, will burn us, and water drown us,
so surely will the defiance of any other law bring
inevitable and terrible penalty in its train, and that is
education for time and for eternity. Teach that poison
is poison, whether it poisons the body or the soul,
with the only difference that the moral poison of
untruth or injustice poisons our human, the other only
our animal constitution. Away with the unworthy
dream of God’s inflicting mere vindictive punishments,
as tormenting without instructing or improving.
Teach that His laws for body and soul are only in so
far inexorable as they are unchangeable, and that no
folly can equal that which flatters itself with hope of
escape from the inevitable. What should we say of
one who pitched himself from a precipice with the
hope of escaping or defying the “ law of gravitation ?”
JSx uno omnia discamus. What bird is that that buries
its head in the sand to escape observation ?
�Everlasting 'Punishment.
23
I had no notion of writing so much upon a subject
for which a dozen words might seem exhausting, and
must hasten to a full stop. I began by saying that
the “ Monstrum Horrendum,” we have been talking
about, was begotten of Theologic hatred out of
Theologic terror, but happily, by divine Providence
was, as it could only be, an “ abortion ” from the first.
I have not been attempting so much to argue against
belief in the hideous phantom, as against the more or
less prevalent disposition to “make believe” as
believing it. I do not suppose that any sane indi
vidual believes it, or can believe it, and remain sane;
but here, as elsewhere, the canker-worm of “ Sham ”
is eating, by Parliamentary sanction, into our National
entrails, and till Nationally, both in Church and State,
we speak truth, and think truth, we are but a weak
People, though we case our ships in iron a yard thick,
and hurl ton-weight shot across our Channel. If we
believe in God we must trust in truth and shame
the Devil, or ignore him, as either may tend to greater
edification.
We have no time to inquire as to the precise where
and when of the first apparition of the grim imagina
tion conjured up by human malice and fear to con
found all faith and hope,. as well as all sense and
soberness. Its latitude and longitude we, of course,
know to be Byzantine, and the date of its full
development in the wilderness of Scholastic-Theology
to have been that of the Nicene Synod about year
325 of our sera. Of that Council, so pregnant of
results theologic rather than evangelic, but little in
the way of circumstantial detail has been handed
down. We read that what most impressed the nearly
contemporary heathen historian Ammianus, was the
wonderful ferocity of party spirit that marked the
controversies of Hornoousions and Eomoiowsions—
Athanasians, that is, and Arians—tearing one another
to pieces for dialectic and philologic niceties that had
�24
Everlasting Punishment.
centuries before harmlessly puzzled the sublime brain
of a Plato in the cool groves of the Athenian
Academy,now, alas! destined to rouse inextinguishable
wrath and hatred in the hot arena of Byzantine
faction. Such faction, we must remember, was now
no longer mere speculative theorising on the Platonic,
Johannic, or Alexandrian Aoyos, but involving prac
tical _ results, carrying with them no less than the
distribution and possession of all the new and vast
Ecclesiastical patronage of the Roman Empire. We
may in some measure then, at least, comprehend the
breadth and. depth of the passions invoked among
crowds of ignorant burly monks, on either side,
assembled to back their leaders in debate on questions
which they understood, as peasants may be supposed
to have . understood Plato, but on the decision of
which hinged, as they might readily be persuaded,
their chances of preferment in this world and the
next. When such a head as that of Athanasius
reeled, by his own confession, over thoughts and
theorems the longer studied the less mastered, we
may imagine the effect they would work on the dull
brains of hundreds of coarse and ignorant partisans
summoned to the vote in numbers that the Historian
describes as fatal to the post-horses of the Imperial ser
vice. The Council of Nice is said to have been attended
by some 2,000 orthodox and heterodox zealots, whose
zeal was apparently not less furious and not less
sanguinary than that which afterwards, on more
worldly pretexts, deluged the new Roman capital with
frantic slaughter. Old Rome had seen the blood of
gladiators and wild beasts shed in torrents for the
pleasure of a brutal populace, but the walls of the
Coliseum had never witnessed our human nature so
demoniacally maddened as in the City of Constantine,
in behalf of a Cause whose badge and test is that we
“Love one another.”Nullce tarn infestoe hominibus bestice
guam sunt sibi ferales plengue Christianorum, is the
�Everlasting Punishment.
2$ '
commentary of a contemporary annalist. Gregory
Nazianzus, Arcljoishop of Constantinople, withdrew
from its fury to the Cappadocian desert, declaring
that the “ Kingdom of Heaven ” had been turned into
Hell and Chaos.
Such hell and chaos was the cradle of the “ Credo ”
that would still enthrone hell and chaos on the site
of the Church of Christ, against which it stands
recorded that the gates of hell shall not prevail.
Surely the cradle was worthy of the nursling. Is it
fair to charge the anathemas of the anonymous
Athanasian Creed to the credit of the Nicene which
contains no anathemas in its present form ?
Once deduct the “ clauses ” from the Athanasian
symbol, and even the most ardent votaries of popular
“fire and brimstone ” might be puzzled to find Bibli
cal or canonical footing for their favourite doctrine.
When Wesley held on strictly to “Witchcraft,”
because Witchcraft is Biblical, he was at least logi
cally true to his “ Bibliolatry,” though it unavoidably
led to a good man and able scholar linking himself to
an obsolete absurdity. Yet was the moral and reli
gious mischief of his superstition infinitesimal com
pared with that which results from ascribing perpetual
and infinite evil to the one omnipotent source of
supreme good. What disturbances in the divine
scheme of the universe consequent on the stupid
torturing of helpless and harmless old women, could
compare with that emanating from endless and useless
vindictive torment inflicted on the majority of our
race at the fiat of a power whom we are taught to
praise for mercy over all His works, or at worst, with
“ wrath enduring but as the twinkling of an eye ?”
The partisans of this “contumely ” cannot plead the
Biblical sanction that Wesley fairly urged for his
puerility. Oriental imagery picturing the worm never
dead, and the fire never quenched, neither would nor
could suggest the theologic “ Hell ” to any sane under-
�26
Everlasting Punishment.
standing, while studying words of Christian life and
truth, culminating in the charity tlmt thinketh no
evil.
Not in our Hebrew or Greek scriptures, whose
spirit is always ultimately that of doing justice and
loving mercy, but in hot fermentations of hate and
fear, seething in that Nicene Basilica, is to be found
the birth of the most portentous phantasm that ever
darkened mythology, whether of Jew or Gentile,
Greek or Barbarian. Yet if, as seems certain, this
dogma of divine vengeance (infinite power torment
ing infinite weakness) be by no means Biblical, how
comes it in any sort to be “ Anglican,” or why should
such a question in these later days be forced intru
sively on sensible and sober consideration ? This
deponent ventures the inquiry but not the answer,
unless by respectful glance, “ quousque tandem,"
towards Lords and Commons at Westminster. Suum
cuique; iw'iA them it rests that such “ things be so
ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the
best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness,
truth and justice. . . .” We can all complete the
quotation.
Depend upon it, as 11 witchcraft ” has so lately
found its way to limbo, it cannot be long before the
grimmer superstition follows in its wake, leaving no
trace but that of contrite amazement at the “ con
tumely ” that Christendom so long connived at. I
venture to maintain that the Bible has never sanc
tioned it, but it were only a halting allegiance to
truth to shirk the avowal that, had the Bible sanc
tioned it, in every book from Genesis to Apocalypse,
it would not be less the duty of every religious and
reasonable man to reject it with all his strength of
spirit and understanding as “ contumely ” to the
honour and glory of God. We must choose in such
case between tablets of pen and ink and those of our
own heart traced indelibly by the divine hand. It is
�Everlasting Punishment.
27
the refusal to do this that still constitutes our diffi
culty and our “.idolatry.” It is this idolising a book,
as a palladium fallen down from Jupiter, that still
shows us trammelled in the bonds of Feticliism. It
matters not how good the book, itsworship is not the use
but the degrading abuse of its goodness, and never
was stronger example of corruptio optimi pessima.
It is this “ Bibliolatry ” that is the bane and paralysis
of Protestantism, riveting on our necks a dead yoke
of “stereotype” more slavish and grievous than that
living yoke of a Roman hierarchy which the great
mental move of the 16th century lifted for a while
from our wrung withers. We must get rid of this
incubus, or our Protestantism will protest to little
purpose against the logic-disciplined legions of Rome
on the one hand, or the anarchic rabble of Babel
on the other. If “ Protestantism ” be less than a
protest against all authoritative unreason, it is but a
lame thing travelling neither on two legs nor
four. If we would hold our own we must read our
Providential book on its own terms, trying its con
clusions, whether of “letter ” or “spirit,” before the
tribunal of our own conscience and intelligence—a
defective tribunal, no doubt, but the only one we can
appeal to, and by God’s grace sufficient for the
nonce. We must typify Biblical wisdom by that of
the serpent sloughing skin after skin and scale after
scale to reappear again and again in renewed or
regenerate splendour. As it has sloughed . away
“witchcraft,” “Mosaic cosmogony,” and the like, so
assuredly will it slough away a local “ hell, a per
sonal “ devil,” and sundry other dead scales that dim.
and deform its vital and integral beauty. Our slavish
allegiance to the “ letter ” of a literature, however
sacred and providential, is as powerful a weapon in
the armoury of Antichrist as that of the “ scholasti
cism ” that dates its reign from the Council of
Nice, and to which, among other boons, we are
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Everlasting Punishment.
indebted for the minatory hell-fire still extant by
sanction of Church and State. , There is, no
doubt, a respectable halo of antiquity about such
Byzantine polemics that lends them a prestige
not intrinsically their own; but if we must lean
upon “ Councils ” of ancient date, why not go back
300 years further to another Council, where an
Ambassador of a Gospel other than Athanasian
reasoned also before Royalty, not indeed on meta
physical OUSION or OISION,but upon lowlier topics
of “ righteousness and temperance,” and judgment to
come (Acts xxiv. 25). This argument is addressed to
Felix. That at which King Agrippa was present is
subsequent (ch. 26), and before Festus, almost per
suading King Agrippa to be a Christian ! Would it
be very rash to conjecture the Athanasian clamour
of wrath and unreason, almost persuading the shrewd
Imperial Constantine, again to be a Pagan !
But let me conclude a much longer lucubration than
intended or needed, by “summing up ” to the effect
that the popular dogma of “Everlasting Hell-fire”
is a chaotic imagination totally subversive of all reli
gious and moral principle. So far is the doctrine
from being endorsed by Biblical authority, that it is
absolutely and diametrically opposed to the Pandects
of divine justice and mercy gradually unfolded in its
pages, till finding their climax in our Evangelic
“ Sonship ” to a Father which is in heaven. What
is not “Biblical” cannot (by Article VI.) be part or
parcel of Church-of-England doctrine, as legalised by
Parliament. Neither, independently of such Article,
is there anything in its liturgical or canonical teach
ing that, fairly interpreted, would countenance such
perversion of the gracious message of goodwill to man
as published by Christ. The ascription to “ paternal
deity ” of gratuitous and endless punishment inflicted
on His offspring is, moreover, while removing all our
landmarks of morality, most dangerously calculated to
�Everlasting Punishment.
29
distract our attention from the true, benevolent, and
instructive code that inevitably visits with inexorable
but reclaiming chastisement every violation of divine
law, whether material or mental. And so, my dear
Scott, having fulfilled an old promise, perhaps more
fully than you expected or desired, by vindicating a
plain truth with a lengthy development of “ truisms,”
Believe me,
With Faith in the Love that casts out Fear,
Yours truly,
Foreign Chaplain.
POSTSCRIPT.
Since the above was written, the following admi
rable “ Appeal to the Orthodox ” has appeared in
The Manchester Friend of Oct. 15, 1873. The writer
is so much in harmony with my friend the “ Foreign
Chaplain,” that I cannot resist the temptation of
giving to his article all the publicity in my power.
Thomas Scott..
“ APPEAL TO THE ORTHODOX.”
If there be a place of torment to which sinners are
consigned at the day of judgment, the existence of
such a place is by infinite degrees the most important
fact in the Universe. Compared with so vivid a
reality, the material world is an unsubstantial dream,
and Heaven itself a colourless abstraction. The one
surpassing object, which is alone worthy of our
anxious care, is the means of escape from so horrible
a destiny. And as God is a just and righteous
Being, who would not entrap His creatures blindfold
�30
Everlasting Punishment.
into so piteous a doom, He would not leave one of
those creatures in a state of doubt as to its reality.
If there fee a Hell, therefore, and if there be, as we
reverently trust, a righteous Ruler of the universe,
the existence of that hell must be a patent and
conspicuous fact, attested by a species and a mass of
evidence which no sane intellect could think of ques
tioning. And if no such evidence be producible, we
are bound by common sense, as well as fealty to our
Creator, to reject the fable of its existence as an
outrage on His righteous character.
Now, we do not complain that there are difficulties
connected with the doctrine of an everlasting hell, nor
yet that its evidences fall short of what we deem
desirable; our contention is that there is no sub
stantial warrant of any kind for its existence. During
the thousands of years throughout which, according
to the popular notion, men have been falling by
myriads into this place of torment, and that under
the ever-watchful eye of our Heavenly Parent, there
is not an authentic instance of any person who has
come back to forewarn his friends of the fate which
he is now realising, and which is supposed to await
every unconverted sinner. If there were any truth
in this ghastly superstition, and if it were the will of
God that we should believe in it, He has only to
throw open the prison-doors for one brief interval,
and millions of our forefathers, like Dives in the
parable, would rush back to earth to give us warning
of our danger. Or, if it were matter of vital moment
that we should believe in it, He has only to expand
our spiritual vision, and the mysteries of the unseen
world would be as plain to us as the material universe
now is to our bodily perceptions. There can be no
lack of means to Omnipotence ; if this doctrine were
not a figment of man’s invention, He would reveal it
to us in ways which would leave no room to suspect
its verity.
�Everlasting Punishment.
31
But if we have no Divine warrant for the truth of
this dogma, we have metaphysical sophistry which is
tendered us in lieu of it. In the first place it is
asserted that sin against an Infinite God must partake
of the infinite nature of the Being whose law it
violates ; that it is an infinite sin, in short, and must
receive an infinite punishment. That this is nothing
but a play upon words is evident from two considera
tions. If a sin committed against an Infinite Being
be infinite, a sin committed ly a finite being is finite;
and, therefore, sin is at the same time infinite and
finite, venial and unpardonable. And, again, if an
offence against an Infinite Being deserve an infinite
punishment, obedience to an Infinite Being will
deserve an infinite reward; and, therefore, every
sinner who complies with any of the Divine enact
ments is at once entitled both to everlasting torment
and to everlasting blessedness. All such reasoning
is the merest verbal sophistication; such terms as
“ infinite ” have no practical significance when applied
to human actions. They only amount to the very
obvious truism that the consequences of our deeds,
whether good or evil, are incalculable : in an abstract
sense they may be said to endure for ever; but
for the most part their effect is incalculably small,
and counts for nothing in the mighty play of con
flicting forces.
There is another argument which is intended to
supply the place of evidence upon this subject. We
are told that our conscience teaches us that sin merits
everlasting chastisement, and that our conscience is
the voice of God in this matter. This argument is
doubly delusive ; its assumed data are untrue, and its
conclusion does not follow from the premises. Our
conscience is the voice of God in this sense only : it
is the highest authority that He has given us for our
individual guidance : in no case can it be assumed as
the absolute expression of His will. And, as a
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Everlasting Punishment.
matter of fact, the teaching of our conscience varies
with each individual, and varies very much in accord
ance with the training which we have received. It
is not true that the conscience of mankind has pro
nounced in favour of eternal punishment. There
may be a few men of disordered minds, like the un
happy Cowper, who really believe that they deserve
an infinite measure of Divine wrath, and there are
millions of Christians who verbally assent to the
doctrine on the authority of others ; but this belief is
not shared by the most enlightened section of man
kind. Where the voice of conscience is not over
powered by some external authority, its teaching is
very different. When we knowingly sacrifice our
bodies through intemperance, it may suggest to us
that we deserve to lose our health, if not our life, in
consequence ; when we wilfully wrong our neighbour,
it will probably warn us that we deserve not only to
forfeit the goodwill of our fellow-men, but likewise
to suffer all such punishment as the loss of that good
will may carry in its train ; and so long as we refuse
to bow our heads in submission to our chastisement,
we shall probably experience a sense of alienation
from the Author of that chastisement; but of penalties
protracted through the cycles of eternity it gives us
no intimation. So little does the average conscience
speak about the heinousness of sin, that the majority
of mankind would seem to hold that there is scarcely
any offence for which some trifling penance will not
make atonement; and many excellent Christians are
of opinion that an instantaneous act of faith in the
sacrifice of Christ will blot out a life-time of iniquity.
‘‘ Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved,”
is the accepted formula.
In truth, however, this sort of reasoning would
satisfy no one who was not already convinced upon
other grounds. It is the supposed authority of Jesus
which has persuaded Christendom of the reality of an
�Everlasting Punishment.
33
everlasting Hell. Now, while I have no wish to
detract from the sublime character of Jesus, in some
respects unique in human history, I am constrained
to observe that on such a subject his authority has no
validity for us. There is no proof that he possessed
omniscience. Assuming the truth of the record,
there is, on the contrary, ample evidence that his
knowledge was limited in extent. If we may so far
credit the Evangelists, he was a believer in all the
current legends of his time. The stories of the
Noachian Deluge, and the miraculous destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, and even the grotesque legend
of Jonah and the whale, were received without mis
giving as to their historic truth. He was impressed
with an intense conviction of the approaching ruin
of the world. “ This generation shall not pass till
all these things be fulfilled.” His belief in diabolical
possession was simple and unquestioning. . One of
the Evangelists expressly intimates that he increased
in wisdom; ” that is to say, his knowledge was sub
ject to the universal law of growth in accordance
with experience; and another represents him as
acknowledging his ignorance of the exact period at
which the world should be destroyed. In none of
the Gospels will the attentive reader discover the
least indication that upon any subject, scientific,
literary, or historical, he possessed greater knowledge
than his contemporaries. Indeed it is plain to any
critical insight that he was much less well informed
than the Apostle Paul, for example. There is no use
in shrinking from this admission; it is the truth, and
we cannot alter it. God is not honoured by the sup
pression of such facts.
But even in theological matters his language
shows that he had no definite knowledge beyond that
shared by his fellow-countrymen. “I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from Heaven is a vague declaration,
to which almost any meaning might be assigned.
�34
Everlasting Punishment,
“More than twelve legions of angels” is another
loose expression, which will not admit of rigid defini
tion. “ Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched,” is figurative language, and cannot be
construed literally. “ These shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life
eternal,” evinces no perception of the important truth
that the great majority of mankind are neither
“ righteous ” nor “ wicked,” but more or less imper
fect strugglers after righteousness. Nearly all his
reported utterances upon this subject are hasty
generalisations which are incompatible with exact
knowledge, and have no validity for conscientious
thinkers in this nineteenth century.
Nor is it at all demonstrable that he was the
author of any of these utterances. Many of them, in
all probability, have been rightly ascribed to him; but
this is the most that can be affirmed respecting them.
It is tolerably certain that he left no written exposi
tion of his doctrine, and that none of our canonical
Gospels was committed to manuscript for years after
his crucifixion ; not until a mass of legendary matter
had time to grow up around his real biography.
None of these brief and inadequate sketches can be
traced directly to his disciples ; indeed there is not
one which is authenticated by any writer who had
personal knowledge of its author. In the second
century, and by such men as Papias and Ireneeus, they
were ascribed to our four reputed Evangelists; but
this is all that can be positively affirmed. I need
hardly remark that if hell were the greatest of
realities, affecting the everlasting welfare of a large
proportion of mankind, a just and righteous Father
would not leave us to extract our knowledge of it
from the opinions of Papias and Irenaeus, nor yet from
the legendary narratives of our four Evangelists.
When they are construed with a due regard for
the limitations of human knowledge, these reported
�Everlasting Punishment.
35
sayings of Jesus are invaluable proclamations of the
truth that sin is an enormous evil, and has momentous
consequences; a truth which all experience verifies;
but how far those consequences may extend into the
unseen world, God has not revealed, nor are we at
liberty to dogmatise. From our general experience
of His government, however, we may righteously
believe that in whatever sense our punishment pursues
us beyond the grave, that punishment will be remedial
in its object, and will result in our final restoration to
purity and peace.
Rationalist.
��INDEX
TO
THOMAS SCOTT’S PUBLICATIONS.
ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED.
The following Pamphlets and Papers may be had on addressing
a letter enclosing the price in postage stamps to Mr Thomas
Scott, 11 The Terrace, Farquhar Road, Upper Norwood,
Rondon, S.EPrice.
Post-free.
s.
ABBOT, FRANCIS E., Editor of ‘Index,’ Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A.
d.
of Christianity. With Letters from Miss Frances
P. Cobbe and Professor F. W. Newman, giving their Reasons for not
calling themselves Christians
0 3
Truths for the Times
-03
The Impeachment
ANONYMOUS.
A.I. Conversations. Recorded by a Woman, for Women. Parts I., II.,
and III. 6d. each Part
- 1 6
A Few Self-Contradictions of the Bible
- 1 0
Modern Orthodoxy and Modern Liberalism
- 0 6
Modern Protestantism. By the Author of “The Philosophy of
Necessity”
-06
On Public Worship
- 0 3
Questions to which the Orthodox are Earnestly Requested to Give
Answers ------01
Sacred History as
a
Branch of
Elementary Education.
Part I.—Its Influence on the Intellect. Part II.—Its Influence on the
Development of the Conscience. 6d. each Part
- 1 0
The Church and its Reform. A Reprint - 1 0
The Church : the Pillar and Ground of the Truth
- 0 6
The Opinions of Professor David F. Strauss
- 0 6
Tiie Twelve Apostles
-06
Via Catholica; or, Passages from the Autobiography of a Country
Parson. Part I. -13
Woman’s Letter
-03
BARRISTER, A.
Notes on Bishop Magee’s Pleadings
BASTARD, THOMAS H0RL00K.
Scepticism
and
Social Justice
-
for
Christ
-
-
-
- 0 6
-
-
-0,3
�ii
Index to Ihomas Scoti s Publications.
Price.
Post-free.
BENEFICED CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
The Chronological Weakness of Prophetic Interpretation -11
The Evangelist and the Divine -10
The Gospel of the Kingdom
- 0 6
BENTHAM, JEREMY.
The Church
of
England Catechism Examined. A Reprint
- 1 0
BERNSTEIN, A.
Origin of the Legends
Critically Examined -
Abraham,
of
-
-
-
Isaac, and Jacob
-
-
-
-10
BROOK, W. 0. CARR.
Reason versus Authority -
- 0 3
BROWN, GAMALIEL.
An Appeal to the Preachers
Sunday Lyrics
The New Doxology
-
of all the
-
Creeds -
-
-
-
- 0 3
-03
- 0 3
CARROLL, Rev. W. G., Rector of St Bride’s, Dublin.
The Collapse
of the
by the Orthodox -
Faith; or, the Deity of Christ as now taught
-
-
-
-
-06
CLARK, W. G., M.A., Vice-Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
A Review of a Pamphlet, entitled, “ The Present Dangers of the Church
of England ”.
-06
CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
An Examination of Canon Liddon’s Bampton Lectures
Letter and Spirit Rational Piety and Prayers for Fine Weather
The Analogy of Nature and Religion—Good and Evil The Question of Method, as affecting Religious Thought
-
- 0 6
-06
- 0 3
- 0 6
- 0 3
COBBE, Miss F. P.
Letter
on
Christian Name. (See Abbot)
CONWAY, MONCURE D.
The Spiritual Serfdom of
The Voysey Case -
the
Laity. With Portrait
-
-
-
-
- 0 6
-06
COUNTRY PARSON, A.
The Thirty-Nine Articles and the Creeds,—Their Sense and their
Non-Sense. Parts L, II., and III. 6d. each Part
-
-
- 1 6
COUNTRY VICAR, A.
Criticism the Restoration of Christianity, being a Review of a
-
Paper by Dr Lang
The Bible for Man,
not
-
-
Man for the Bible
-
-
CRANBROOK, The late Rev. JAMES.
On the Formation of Religious Opinions On the Hindrances to Progress' in Theology
The Tendencies of Modern Religious Thought
F. H. I.
Spiritual Pantheism
FOREIGN CHAPLAIN.
The Efficacy of Prayer.
-
-
-
A Letter to Thomas Scott
-
-
-06
- 0 6
-
- 0 3
- 0 3
- 0 3
-
-06
-
- 0 3
�Index to Thomas Scott's Publications.
iii
Price.Post-free,
s. d.
FORMER ELDER IN A SCOTCH CHURCH.
On Religion
-
-
-
-
-06
GELDART, Rev. E. M.
The Living God
- 0 3
GRAHAM, A. D., and F. H.
-------- 0 3
On Faith
HANSON, Sir R. D., Chief-Justice of South Australia.
Science and Theology
------ 0 4
HARE, The Right Rev. FRANCIS, D. D., formerly Lord Bishop of
Chichester.
The Difficulties and Discouragements which Attend the Study of
the Scriptures
-
-
-
-
-
_
_ 0 6
HINDS, SAMUEL, D.D., late Bishop of Norwich.
Annotations on the Lord’s Prayer. (See Scott’s Practical Remarks)
Another Reply to the Question, “What have we got to Rely
on, IF WE CANNOT Rely on the Bible ? ” (See Professor Newman’s
Reply)
A Reply to
the Question, “ Apart from Supernatural Revela
tion, what is the Prospect of Man’s Living after Death ’ ”
A Reply to the Question,. “ Shall I Seek Ordination in the
Church of England? ”
Free Discussion of Religious Topics. Part I., is. Part II Is 6d
The Nature and Origin of Evil. A Letter to a Friend
- ’
0 6
0 6
0 6
2 6
0 6
HOPPS, Rev. J. PAGE.
Thirty-Nine Questions
on
the
Thirty-Nine Articles
Portrait ------
With
0 3
JEVONS, WILLIAM.
The Book of Common Prayer Examined in the Light of the
Present Age. Parts I. and II. 6d. each Part
- 1 0
The Claims of Christianity to the Character of a Divine
Revelation Considered
. 0 6
The Prayer Book adapted to the Age _ 0 3
KALISCH, M., Ph.D.
of the Past and the Future. Reprinted from Part I. of
his Commentary on Leviticus. With Portrait
_
. 1 0
Theology
KIRKMAN, The Rev. THOMAS P., Rector of Croft, Warrington.
Church Cursing and Atheism
_
®
1
On Church Pedigrees. Parts I. and II. With Portrait. 6d. each Part 1
On the Infidelity of Orthodoxy. In Three Parts. 6d. each Part - 1
LAKE, J. W.
The Mythos
of the
Ark
0
0
6
0 6
LA TOUCHE, J. D., Vicar of Stokesay, Salop.
The Judgment of the Committee of Council in
Mr Voysey
_
.
_
the
LAYMAN, A, and M.A. of Trinity College, Dublin.
Case
of
_ 0
3
Law and the Creeds
------ 0 6
Thoughts on Religion and the Bible
0 6
M.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.
Pleas
for
Free Inquiry. Parts I. and II. 6d. each Part
1 0
�IV
Index to Homas Scott1 s Publieations.
Price.
Post-free.
MACFIE, MATT.
d’
Religion Viewed as Devout Obedience to the Laws of the
Universe
.
-06
MAITLAND, EDWARD.
Jewish Literature and Modern Education ; or, the Use and Abuse
of the Bible in the Schoolroom.
How to Complete the Reformation. With Portrait
The Utilisation
of the
Church Establishment
-
- 1 6
- 0 6
- 0 6
-
- 0 6
M.P., Letter by.
The Dean
of
Canterbury
on
Science and Revelation
NEALE, EDWARD VANSITTART.
Does Morality depend on Longevity ?
- 0 6
Genesis Critically Analysed, and continuously arranged; with Intro
ductory Remarks -
-
-
-
-
-
The Mythical Element in Christianity The New Bible Commentary and the Ten Commandments
-10
- 1 0
- 0 3
NEWMAN, Professor F. W.
Against Hero-Making in Religion
-06
James and Paul
-06
Letter on Name Christian. (See Abbot) On the Causes of Atheism. With Portrait
- 0 6
On the Relations of Theism to Pantheism; and On the Galla
Religion
-06
Reply to a Letter from an Evangelical Lay Preacher
- 0 3
The Bigot and the Sceptic
- 0 6
The Controversy about Prayer - 0 3
The Divergence of Calvinism from Pauline Doctrines
- 0 3
The Religious Weakness of Protestantism
- 0 7
The True Temptation of Jesus. With Portrait
- 0 6
Thoughts on the Existence of Evil
- 0 3
OLD GRADUATE.
Remarks on Paley’s Evidences
- 0
6
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 0 6
-
-
- 0 6
-
-
- 0 6
OXLEE, the Rev. JOHN.
A Confutation
of the
Diabolarchy
PADRE OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.
The Unity of the Faith among all Nations
PARENT AND TEACHER, A.
Is Death
the end of all things for
PHYSICIAN, A.
Man ?
A Dialogue
by way of Catechism,—Religious, Moral, and
Philosophical. Parts I. and II. 6d. each Part The Pentateuch, in Contrast with the Science and Moral Sense of
our Age. Part I.—Genesis -
-
PRESBYTER ANGLICANUS.
-
-
1 0
- 1 6
Eternal Punishment. An Examination of the Doctrines held by the
Clergy of the Church of England
-
-
-
-
The Doctrine of Immortality in its Bearing on Education
ROBERTSON, JOHN, Ooupar-Angus.
Intellectual Liberty
The Finding of the Book -
ROW, A. JYRAM.
Christianity and Education
in
-
-
India.
St George’s Hall, London, Nov. 12, 1871
-
-
-
- 0 6
0 6
-06
- 2 0
A Lecture delivered at
- 0 6
�V
Price.
Post-free,
s. d.
Index to Thomas Scott's Publications.
SGOTT, THOMAS.
0 9
AS IS UP A. JAiJSYY
__
Commentators and Hierophants ; or, The Honesty of Christian
1 0
Commentators. In Two Parts. 6d. each Part
0 6
Miracles and Prophecies 0 6
Original Sin
*
0 6
Practical Remarks on “ The Lord s Prayer
The Dean of Ripon on the Physical Resurrection of Jesus, in
its Bearing on the Truth of Christianity
"51
The English Life of Jesus. A New Edition
- 4 i
The Tactics and Defeat of the Christian Evidence Society -00
STATHAM, F. REGINALD.
Rational Theology. A Lecture
-
-
-
-
- 0 3
STRANGE, T. LUMISDEN, late Judge of the High Court of Madras.
A Critical Catechism. Criticised by a Doctor
Defended by T. L. Strange
Clerical Integrity
. Communion with God
The Bennett Judgment
The Bible; Is it “The Word of God?”
The Speaker’s Commentary Reviewed
-
of
-
-
Divinity, and
’
-
-
SYMONDS, J. ADDINGTON.
The Renaissance
q
0 3
Modern Europe
of
a
" A «
- 0 3
"12
- 0 0
-26
TAYLOR, P. A., M.P.
Realities
-
VOYSEY, The Rev. CHARLES.
A Lecture
A Lecture
on Rationalism
on the Bible
An Episode in the History
On Moral Evil
W. E. B.
An Examination
of
of
Religious Liberty.
0 6
0 6
With Portrait 0 6
Some Recent Writings about Immortality - 0 6
WHEELWRIGHT, the Rev. GEORGE.
Three Letters on the Voysey Judgment
Evidence Society’s Lectures -
WILD, GEO. J., LL.D.
Sacerdotalism
-
-
-
and the
-
•
Christian
-
- 0 6
-
-06
WORTHINGTON, The Rev. W. R.
On the Efficacy of Opinion in Matters of Religion
- 0 6
Two Essays : On the Interpretation of the Language of The Old
Testament, and Believing without Understanding - 0 6
ZERFFI, G. G., Ph.D.,
Natural Phenomena and their Influence on Different Religious Systems 0 3
�Since printing the preceding List the following Pamphlets
have been published.
Price.
Post-free.
& d.
BENEFIOED CLERGYMAN, WIFE OF A.
the Deity of Jesus of Nazareth. Parts I. and II. Price Six
pence each Part ----1
On
MACKAY, CHARLES, LL.D.
The Souls
of the
0
-
Children
NEWMAN, Professor F. W.
„TTHistorical Depravation of Christianity
0 3
PHYSICIAN, A.
The Pentateuch, in Contrast with the Science and Moral Sense of our
Age. Part II.—Exodus
STRANGE, r^' TUMISDEN, late Judge of the High Court of Madras.
The Christian Evidence Society
An Address to all Earnest Christians The Exercise of Prayer -
0 3
0 3
SUFFIELD, the Rev. ROBERT RODOLPH.
The Resurrection -----Is Jesus God?
-----Five Letters on a Roman Catholic Conversion -
W. E. B.
The Province
of
CANTAB, A.
0 3
2 0 3
0 3
Prayer -
0 6
Jesus versus Christianity
0 6
DUPUIS, from the French of.
Christianity a Form of the
BRAY, CHARLES.
Illusion and Delusion
-
Our First Century
Via Catholica. Part II.
great
Solar Myth
.
ANON.
MACLEOD, JOHN.
1 0
-
.
0 9
0
0 6
1 3
-
Religion : its Place in Human Culture -
0 6
The Story
0 3
STONE, WILLIAM.
of ti-ie
Garden of Eden
KIRKMAN, Rev. T. P.
Orthodoxy
from the
Hebrew Point
of
View
FROM “ THE INDEX,” published at Boston, U.S.A.
Talk Kindly,
MUIR, J., D.C.L.
but
Avoid Argument
Three Notices of “The Speaker’s Commentary,” Translated from
the Dutch of Dr A. Kuenen
MACFIE, MATT.
0 6
0 3
0 6
The Religious Faculty : Its Relation to the other Faculties, and its
Perils
------
FOREIGN CHAPLAIN.
Everlasting Punishment. A Letter to Thos. Scott -
C. W. REYNELL, PRINTER, LITTLE PliLTENEY-STREET, HAYMARKET, LONDON, W.
0 6
0
��SCOTT’S ‘ ENGLISH LIFE OF JESUS.’
In One Volume, 8vo, bound in cloth, post free, 4s. id.,
SECOND EDITION
OF
THE ENGLISH LIFE OF JESUS.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR,
THOMAS
SCOTT,
11 THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD, UPPER NORWOOD,
LONDON, S.E.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Everlasting punishment : a letter to Thomas Scott
Creator
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Wilson, John [b.1811]
Description
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 35, [6] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Published anonymously. Author identified by earlier cataloguer as Thomas Wilson, b.1811, and in publisher's list as Foreign Chaplain. Signed at end of text (p.35): Rationalist. Index to (list of) Thomas Scott's publications at end (6 p.). Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Thomas Scott
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1873
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N697
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Christianity
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Everlasting punishment : a letter to Thomas Scott), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
Language
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English
Future Punishment
Hell
NSS